● NSERC CREATE Training Initiative
U of T
McGill
Polytechnique
NSERC
U of T
McGill
Polytechnique
NSERC
U of T
McGill
Polytechnique
NSERC
AID4HS prepares a new generation of researchers to build, integrate, and responsibly deploy agentic AI systems across the health sciences research lifecycle — advancing discovery, reproducibility, and evidence-based decision-making.
University of Toronto · McGill University · Polytechnique Montréal
The application of artificial intelligence in health sciences is moving beyond retrospective analysis. Agentic AI systems can now help synthesize vast bodies of evidence, design adaptive experiments, and generate and refine scientific hypotheses — acting alongside researchers rather than merely after the fact.
Canada holds world-leading strength in both AI and the health sciences, yet training in these domains remains siloed. AID4HS bridges that gap, uniting universities, hospitals, AI institutes, industry, and government in a sustained, interdisciplinary program of national scope.
About the Initiative →"Moving beyond AI as a retroactive analytic tool toward a future where AI is developed responsibly as an active scientific collaborator."
Trainees pursue research grounded in one or more thematic pillars, embedded in an applied clinical, policy, or industry context.
Agentic systems that extract and integrate findings from literature, clinical trials, and health databases into structured, causal representations of knowledge.
Methods such as reinforcement learning and Bayesian optimization that enhance the adaptability, efficiency, and ethical design of experimental and clinical studies.
Agentic and self-supervised systems that propose and refine hypotheses grounded in mechanistic plausibility and empirical evidence.
Every graduate trainee is co-supervised by faculty from different institutions and disciplines, pairing technical AI expertise with clinical and health-sciences guidance.
Placements in hospitals, AI and data-science labs, policy bodies, and industry — including encouraged cross-provincial exchange between Ontario and Québec.
Trustworthy AI, equity, transparency, and methodological rigour are woven throughout the curriculum, not treated as afterthoughts.
Research is embedded in clinical, regulatory, and R&D settings so that methods are shaped by the realities of health-sciences practice.
A consortium of leading universities and cross-sector partners that builds durable connections and expands Canada's capacity in AI for health.
Professional development, networking, and an annual symposium prepare trainees for leadership across academia, healthcare, industry, and policy.
AID4HS supports undergraduate, master's, doctoral, and postdoctoral trainees pursuing agentic AI as a research collaborator in the health sciences.