As we begin a new year, look back with us at the top five blogs of 2021. Unsurprisingly, pandemic-related information gained the most attention.

During November’s Honouring Canada’s Lifeline award ceremony, three distinguished Canadian researchers were recognized with Lifetime Achievement Awards. Each a world-leading expert with numerous outstanding achievements during their distinguished careers, Dr. Gilles Delage, Dr. Heather Hume and Dr. Mel Krajden are deserving awardees.

The latest Centre for Innovation annual progress report is now available on blood.ca. It describes the highlights of Canadian Blood Services’ research and education network during the 2020-2021 fiscal year.

The 2021 AABB Virtual Annual Meeting last month was marked by two highlights for Canadian Blood Services: the inauguration of our chief scientist, Dr. Dana Devine, as AABB president, and Dr. Devine’s recognition with a prestigious AABB leadership award.

The 2021-2022 Canadian Blood Services’ Lay Science Writing Competition launched this week! This year’s theme invites trainees to use plain language to tell their “Science behind the scenes” stories.

Several competitive training and funding programs to support graduate fellowships and educational and research projects are open for applications until November 15! Read on to learn more about these opportunities and hear about past recipients.

The University of British Columbia’s Centre for Blood Research-School of Biomedical Engineering (CBR-SBME) Research Day celebrates the progress and accomplishments of summer students. It takes place every August, at the conclusion of the CBR-SBME Summer Studentship Program, which is supported in part by Canadian Blood Services. In this post, two Summer Student Program alumni describe the 2021 virtual event.

Canadian Blood Services recently published its annual Surveillance Report, a summary of monitoring efforts related to transmissible infection testing in donors; possible transfusion-transmitted infections in recipients; and new, emerging pathogens. Surveillance also includes monitoring of donor safety.

For the second year, the International Society of Blood Transfusion (ISBT) offered their annual congress online. In June 2021, the virtual “ISBT In Focus” explored the latest in transfusion medicine and science, immunohematology and cellular therapies. In today’s blog, two Canadian Blood Services’ delegates describe their experiences at the congress.

Through the Centre for Innovation’s competitive funding programs, Canadian Blood Services conducts and supports researchers and research projects in key areas. Recipients for one of our most dynamic programs, the BloodTechNet Award, were recently announced, and several other funding opportunities are now open for applications.