A centre built around the gap between what is known and what gets done.
CometX is a not-for-profit research and training centre. We exist to advance knowledge sharing, education, and community benefit — by catalysing meaningful engagement, evidence-based innovation, and transformative learning across sectors and communities in Canada and internationally.
To advance knowledge sharing, education, and community benefit by operating a not-for-profit research and training centre dedicated to catalysing meaningful engagement, evidence-based innovation, and transformative learning across sectors and communities in Canada and internationally.
In practice that means three things. We do applied research and publish it openly. We train people to do that work themselves. And we sit between groups who hold different pieces of the same problem — researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and communities — until something moves.
Seven purposes. They are the mandate, not a mission statement.
- Purpose 01
To conduct, support, and disseminate research that advances understanding of best practices in knowledge mobilization, capacity building, and community-driven innovation.
- Purpose 02
To design and deliver training programs, workshops, seminars, and learning experiences that build individual and organizational capacity in research, leadership, and applied knowledge exchange.
- Purpose 03
To facilitate collaboration and partnership among researchers, practitioners, policymakers, non-profit organizations, educational institutions, and communities to advance shared learning and collective impact.
- Purpose 04
To develop, curate, and freely share resources, tools, frameworks, and publications that support evidence-informed decision-making and knowledge transfer.
- Purpose 05
To recognize, celebrate, and amplify innovative research, practices, and initiatives that create measurable social, economic, and community impact.
- Purpose 06
To promote equity, inclusion, and accessibility in research, training, and knowledge sharing by ensuring programs and resources are available to underserved and marginalized communities.
- Purpose 07
To establish and maintain a centre of excellence that serves as a hub for thought leadership, applied research, and cross-sector collaboration.
Commitments we will be judged on.
- Open by default. Frameworks, tools, and non-confidential findings are published free, under Creative Commons licences.
- Accessible by design. Every deliverable meets WCAG 2.2 AA before it ships, including our own slides and reports.
- Community rates and pro bono capacity. A share of our delivery each year goes to organizations that could not otherwise afford it.
- Honest scoping. If a smaller piece of work would answer your question, we will say so and quote that instead.
- Credit where it is due. Community partners are named as contributors on the work they shape.
Not-for-profit structure
CometX operates on a not-for-profit basis. Any surplus is directed back into open resources, subsidised training places, and community-led research.
Board and advisory council
A volunteer board oversees strategy and finances, supported by an advisory council of practitioners, community leaders, and researchers.
Research ethics
Studies involving people follow TCPS 2 principles, with ethics review through partner institutions where a study requires it.
The gap is rarely knowledge. It is transfer.
Most sectors are not short of studies. Community organizations hold evidence about what their members need and no capacity to analyse it. Researchers produce findings that never leave the journal. Public agencies commission evaluations that arrive after the decision has been made. Everyone involved is competent; the handovers are what fail.
CometX was set up to work in those handovers — as a translator between groups, a trainer of the people who will carry the work, and a publisher of tools that outlast any single project. We are structured as a not-for-profit precisely so that the answer to "who owns this?" can be "everyone".
Three revenue streams, and what each one pays for.
- Fee-for-service
Training, consulting, and audit engagements
Organizations that can pay for work do, at rates comparable to the sector. This is the centre's main operating income.
- Grants
Research and open resource development
Project and partnership funding supports the applied research programme and the free tools we publish, which no client pays for directly.
- Reinvestment
Subsidised and pro bono delivery
Surplus from fee-for-service work funds community rates, fully funded training seats, and unpaid support to grassroots organizations.
Because we are not-for-profit, no surplus is distributed. It goes back into the second and third lines above.
Tell us what you are trying to change.
Most engagements begin with a 30-minute scoping call. Bring the problem, the timeline, and whatever evidence you already have — we will tell you honestly whether we are the right partner, and what a realistic scope looks like.
- Fixed-fee scopes with deliverables agreed in writing before work starts.
- Not-for-profit and community rates, plus pro bono capacity each year.
- Bilingual delivery (English and French) and fully accessible materials.
- Every engagement leaves behind tools your team can use without us.