Queen's University

What Queen's University does

Queen's University is a public Canadian research university founded in 1841 in Kingston, Ontario, operating as a member of the U15 Group of Canadian Research Universities with more than 235 academic areas across 53 departments and a workforce of 5,001-10,000. It serves prospective and current undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, executive education participants, and a global alumni network exceeding 150,000 across more than 150 branches. The institution operates the Centre for Advanced Computing and CAESAR Lab, positioning it to host Canada's first global top-10 leadership-class supercomputer under the federal Sovereign Compute Infrastructure Program, with up to $705M allocated from a $2B federal commitment.

The university's technology portfolio spans sovereign AI supercomputing infrastructure, photonic Ising machines (256 optical spins representing 65,536 pairwise interactions at room temperature), nickel foam-based chemical conversion methods, UV Laser and X-ray Transmission ore-sorting systems, AI-driven drug discovery, and photonic-quantum hybrid computing through partnerships with Université de Sherbrooke's Institut quantique and Simon Fraser University. Notable research outputs include mDETECT Labs' blood-based cancer monitoring (detecting progression approximately six months earlier than CT scans), a $1.65M NSERC CREATE grant for the CHEMNUS nuclear software training hub across six universities, and a £50M UK-funded Mental Health Goals Programme building the world's largest depression dataset.

Queen's revenue is generated through a hybrid model combining federal and provincial government funding (NSERC, CIHR, NRC, Ontario, Canada Foundation for Innovation), tuition and academic program fees across more than 235 programs, industry research contracts and partnerships (Bell Canada, Rock Tech Lithium, Azafaros, Wrightbus), and alumni philanthropy managed through the Office of Advancement. The university's go-to-market combines direct admission processes for students, direct engagement with government and industry partners for research collaborations, and a global alumni network for fundraising and community engagement. Internationally, Queen's operates Bader College at Herstmonceux Castle in East Sussex, UK.

Name

Queen's University

Legal name

Queen's University

Website

https://queensu.ca

Company type

Private

Founded year

1841

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

5,001–10,000 employees

Short description

Queen's University is a Canadian public research university founded in 1841 in Kingston, Ontario, serving undergraduate and graduate students across 235+ academic programs and operating sovereign AI supercomputing infrastructure, with a $2B federal compute mandate and a 150,000+ global alumni network.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Higher Education

NAICS

Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools (6113)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Flagship Public Research Universities (R1/R2) (EDAHAAAA)

akta.pro secondary industries

Public Research Universities with Comprehensive Graduate & Professional Schools (EDAHAAAF), Public Research Universities with National Laboratories/Big Science Facilities (EDAHAAAJ)

Keywords

• Higher education
• Research university
• Graduate programs
• Academic degrees
• University research

Headquarters

HQ city

Kingston

HQ country

Canada

HQ region

North America

Offices7 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Government Funding and Grants: Queen's University receives significant funding from federal and provincial government programs including research grants, infrastructure investments, and operational support through agencies such as NSERC, CIHR, and Canada Foundation for Innovation.
2. Tuition and Academic Programs: Revenue from undergraduate and graduate tuition, executive education programs, and professional development offerings across more than 235 academic areas.
3. Research Contracts and Partnerships: Industry partnerships, research contracts, and collaborative agreements with government agencies and private sector companies for specialized research and development.
4. Alumni Donations and Philanthropy: Fundraising through the Office of Advancement including donations, endowed funds, reunion gifts, and planned giving programs supported by a global network of over 150,000 alumni.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Queen's University is a public research-intensive university that delivers undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral academic programs across more than 235 areas and 53 departments, plus conducts large-scale sponsored research and industry partnerships. Its primary paid offerings are tuition-based academic degrees, postdoctoral fellowships, professional and executive education, and contract research services delivered through its faculties, schools, and research centres (including the Centre for Advanced Computing, CAESAR Lab, and mDETECT Labs).

Product overview

Queen's University is a leading Canadian research university offering undergraduate and graduate academic programs across multiple faculties. The institution does not operate commercial technology products. Its offerings consist of educational programs, research capabilities, and campus facilities.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Faculty of Arts and Science: Faculty of Arts and Science
• Faculty of Education
• School of Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs
• Faculty of Health Sciences
• Faculty of Law
• Smith Business
• Smith Engineering
• Bader College

Products and services

• Undergraduate Academic Programs Tuition-based undergraduate degree programs across more than 235 academic areas and 53 departments, delivered in Kingston, Ontario for prospective domestic and international students.
• Graduate Academic Programs and Postdoctoral Fellowships Master's, doctoral, and postdoctoral programs offered through the School of Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs for prospective graduate students and postdoctoral researchers.
• Research and Partnership Services Sponsored research, collaborative R&D, and access to specialized infrastructure (including supercomputing at the Centre for Advanced Computing and CAESAR Lab) delivered to government, industry, and academic partners.
• Bader College International Study-Abroad Program Study-abroad academic programming delivered at Bader College (Herstmonceux Castle, East Sussex, UK) for Queen's students seeking an international learning experience.

Quantifiable outcome

• 50% potential CAPEX reduction for lithium ore processing using UV Laser and XRT sorting technologies
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature5 records

Partnerships

16 partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Université de SherbrookecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 22 June 2026Queen's University and Université de Sherbrooke signed a Memorandum of Understanding to partner on advancing Canada's sovereign high-performance computing capabilities by integrating world-class AI supercomputing infrastructure with quantum technology. The collaboration leverages Université de Sherbrooke's leadership through its Institut quantique and Queen's expertise in operating global top-10 supercomputers including the Centre for Advanced Computing and CAESAR Lab. The partnership aims to strengthen Canada's digital sovereignty, accelerate discovery, and support innovation for researchers, industry, and the public sector through a national hybrid computing ecosystem.
• Rock Tech LithiumcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 19 May 2026Queen's University partnered with Rock Tech Lithium and STARK Resources on an Ontario Critical Minerals Innovation Fund-supported ore-sorting test program for the Georgia Lake Lithium Project in Northern Ontario. The collaboration demonstrated UV Laser-based and X-ray Transmission sensor-based sorting technologies that removed 25-45% of waste material and improved ore quality by 1.4x to 1.8x, potentially reducing future crushing and concentrator capital costs by up to 50%. These results provide a foundation to restart key development activities and support a future Definitive Feasibility Study.
• STARK ResourcescoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 19 May 2026STARK Resources partnered with Queen's University and Rock Tech Lithium on ore-sorting technology development for the Georgia Lake Lithium Project, demonstrating sensor-based sorting technologies that improved ore quality and processing efficiency.
• WrightbusminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 9 April 2026Queen's University is part of a consortium including Ballymena-based Wrightbus that won UK government funding of up to £250,000 to develop self-driving buses as part of a feasibility study scheme. The study will take a phased, evidence-driven approach to test what works and build a commercial business case for autonomous public transport.
• Simon Fraser UniversitycoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 30 March 2026Simon Fraser University and Queen's University signed a Memorandum of Understanding to jointly design and build a national supercomputing platform. The infrastructure will be made available to government and industry across Canada and aims to support Canada's AI Sovereign Compute strategy and foster talent in high-performance computing and AI. The partnership would deliver Canada's first top-10 leadership class supercomputing system at Queen's in Kingston and a top-25 system hosted by SFU in British Columbia.
• Trent UniversityminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 11 February 2026Queen's University collaborated with Trent University on the Primary Care Nursing Upskilling Program, developed in collaboration to strengthen interprofessional care teams and improve patient access to primary care services across Ontario. The $1.1 million Ontario Ministry of Health-funded program will train up to 350 nurses over three years.
• Université de MontréalcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 11 February 2026Queen's University law dean Colleen Flood co-leads a four-year global AI initiative examining how medical device regulation can support safe and effective AI use in healthcare, with funding of $355,724 from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. The project involves researchers from Université de Montréal, University of Toronto, University of Ottawa, and The Hospital for Sick Children.
• The Hospital for Sick ChildrencoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 11 February 2026Research partner in the global AI initiative examining medical device regulation, analyzing regulatory frameworks across US, UK, EU, Australia, Brazil, and Nigeria to develop model laws and regulatory tools for responsible health AI innovation.
• McGill UniversitycoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 10 February 2026Queen's University physics team collaborated with McGill University to build a photonic Ising machine using standard fiber-optic components that performs optimization computations at billions of operations per second while operating at room temperature. The device achieved 256 optical spins representing 65,536 pairwise interactions using just five main components. Researchers are pursuing industry collaborations to explore applications in supply chain logistics, telecommunications network routing, and molecular structure prediction.
• King's College LondoncoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 5 February 2026Queen's University researcher Professor Cherie Armour is partnering with King's College London, University of Edinburgh, Cardiff University, and University of Cambridge to develop the world's largest dataset for severe depression spanning all four nations of the UK. The £50 million government-funded project will recruit 12,000 additional participants with recurrent major depressive disorder, integrating genome sequencing, epigenetic profiling, biomarker analysis, AI speech data, wearable device data, psychological questionnaires, and medical records.
• University of EdinburghcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 5 February 2026Partner institution in the £50 million Mental Health Goals Programme to develop the world's largest depression dataset, integrating genome sequencing, AI speech data, wearable device data, and medical records for 12,000 additional participants.
• Cardiff UniversitycoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 5 February 2026Partner institution in the £50 million Mental Health Goals Programme to develop the world's largest depression dataset, integrating genome sequencing, AI speech data, wearable device data, and medical records for 12,000 additional participants.
• University of CambridgecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 5 February 2026Partner institution in the £50 million Mental Health Goals Programme to develop the world's largest depression dataset, integrating genome sequencing, AI speech data, wearable device data, and medical records for 12,000 additional participants.
• Ian Karlin (Former NVIDIA Principal Engineer)coreOthers · 18 December 2025Queen's University recruited Ian Karlin, former principal engineer at NVIDIA, as the Mitchell Chair in Supercomputing starting October 2025. Karlin brings expertise from leading high-performance computing projects including work on El Capitan at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, focusing on energy-efficient computing and heterogeneous systems at Queen's.
• Bell CanadacoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 15 December 2025Queen's University and Bell Canada signed an MoU to collaboratively develop a supercomputing facility in Kingston, Ontario designed to provide Canada with sovereign AI infrastructure. Queen's will lead research, chip procurement, and system operations while Bell will handle facility design, financing, construction, and maintenance. The project responds to the federal government's Sovereign Compute Infrastructure Program with over $900M in funding committed through Budget 2024 and 2025, aiming to keep Canadian AI development and sensitive data within national borders.
• National Research Council (NRC) CanadacoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 14 October 2025Researchers from Canada's National Research Council and Queen's University developed bio-inspired technology that allows trucks to sense and adapt to aerodynamic conditions, similar to how fish and geese use pressure sensing. The project, originating from maritime autonomous surface ship research, demonstrates that commercial off-the-shelf sensors can capture aerodynamic states on moving vehicles, potentially reducing fuel consumption by up to 25%. The team is working toward integrating physics-informed, data-driven methods for real-world adaptive transport systems.

Scale indicators21 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• McGill University: Canada's other leading public research-intensive university and a U15 member with comparable graduate/professional school mix, large research output, and partnerships across AI, health sciences, and physics (Queen's collaborated with McGill on the photonic Ising machine).
• University of Toronto: Canada's largest research university and U15 member with the most comprehensive set of professional schools and the deepest funding base; competes directly with Queen's for top-tier faculty, students, and federal research dollars.
• University of British Columbia: Western Canadian U15 research university with comparable scale, broad research portfolio, and growing supercomputing ambitions; competes for international students and federal sovereign compute funding.
• McMaster University: Ontario-based U15 research university with strong health sciences, engineering, and business schools; competes for the same domestic talent pool, government grants, and industry partnerships in southern Ontario.
• Western University: Ontario U15 research university with overlapping professional schools (Ivey Business, Law, Medicine, Engineering) and similar tuition-driven revenue model; closely comparable on size, geography, and target student segments.
• University of Waterloo: Ontario research university with comparable scale and stronger tech/computer science orientation; competes for engineering and computer science students and for industry R&D partnerships.
• University of Alberta: Western Canadian U15 research university with similar breadth of faculties and major research funding; relevant peer for benchmarking federal grant capture and research intensity.
• Simon Fraser University: British Columbia research university partnering with Queen's on the national supercomputing platform; comparable scale and similar applied-research orientation, particularly for computing and engineering.
• Dalhousie University: Atlantic Canadian U15 research university with overlapping professional schools and similar tuition/government revenue mix; useful peer for regional benchmarking.
• University of Ottawa: Bilingual U15 research university in Ontario with comparable size, broad professional school offering, and similar federal/provincial funding profile.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/queensu
• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCzujuRhgYe8leaAUKMlAJWg
• Facebookfacebook.com/queensuniversity
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/school/queen's-university
• Instagraminstagram.com/queensualumni

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds8 records

Investors5 records

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M&A

Investments18 records

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Queen's University