Toronto, January 26, 2026 – Canada’s youth is brimming with idealism and research talent. The Canadian Research Insights Council (CRIC) and Certified Analytics & Insights Professionals of Canada (CAIP Canada) are excited to reveal the 2025/2026 Canadian winners of Research Got Talent (RGT).
This yearly contest invites new professionals to use insights derived from market research to support local charities and NGOs in solving important social problems. Participants partner with charities that align with their values to submit creative research proposals aimed at making a meaningful difference for those organizations.
Sam Pisani, Managing Partner at the Logit Group and Chair of the CRIC Students and Young Professionals Engagement Committee, remarked, “This year’s submissions demonstrated exceptional quality, with minimal variation in scores. Every entry reflects a high standard.” The outstanding calibre of the submissions made selecting a winner particularly difficult.
After tallying up the scores, for the first time in RGT’s Canadian history, two entries tied for first place, distinguished equally by their quality and impact. In recognition of their excellence, both are being honoured as winners.
The winning projects — Serving More than a Meal: Evaluating the Community-Centred Approach to Food Insecurity and Hungry to Learn: Giving Our Next Generation a Fair Chance— both focus on improving access to healthy food in Canada.
Watch the videos of the winning submissions, each summarized by the respective talented researchers themselves:
| Serving More than a Meal: Evaluating the Community-Centred Approach to Food Insecurity | Hungry to Learn: Giving Our Next Generation a Fair Chance |
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| Perris Adamski | Beau Block | Kevin Morin-Laflamme | Cédric Nadeau |
The young researchers from Narrative Research and Léger received fieldwork expertise from Logit Group and sample from Unlock Surveys. Both teams also benefited from their respective organizations’ resources, mentorship, and encouragement, enabling impactful research for charities with limited funding.
Kevin Morin-Laflamme, 27 and Cédric Nadeau, 28 worked with Le Club des petits déjeuners (Québec) / Breakfast Club of Canada for their RGT submission.
“As uncles to young nieces and nephews,” says Morin-Laflamme, “we feel for this issue personally and can easily imagine the consequences of a child beginning the day hungry, unable to focus, falling behind, or feeling shame for circumstances beyond their control.”
Added Nadeau, “We each completed master’s theses centered on food and… at Leger, we study consumer behaviour and analyse daily how rising food prices shape Canadian choices. These combined perspectives give us the personal motivation and the methodological expertise to address this challenge with rigor and care.”
On the other team, Perris Adamski, 27 and Beau Block, 25 have both worked in different capacities for Feed Nova Scotia and Souls Harbour Rescue Mission. Their RGT submission with The North Grove, a Community Food Centre, helps to address food insecurity and aims to enable underserved community members to receive the comprehensive care they deserve.
“The need for such programs has grown significantly in recent years, as food insecurity in Canada has worsened significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic, with million of Canadians affected and rates continuing to rise due to inflation and economic instability,” says Adamski.
Added Block, “This research will provide the data necessary for organizations to seek support and advocate for moving beyond the traditional food bank model by emphasizing community connection, education, and access to healthy food; a type of community-driven strategy through deeper understanding and evidence.”
Both winning teams will be recognized at the CRIC Gala awards in Toronto. The CRIC Gala awards will take place on the evening of June 16, 2026 at the Carlu during the CRIC 2026 National Conference, Depth in the Age of Instant.
Kevin Morin-Laflamme and Cédric Nadeau, in partnership with Le Club des petits déjeuners (Breakfast Club of Canada), will present their project, Hungry to Learn: Giving Our Next Generation a Fair Chance, on Canada’s behalf at the Research Got Talent global competition. This year’s RGT entries were outstanding, with the two winning submissions so closely matched that the judges needed a second round of deliberation to break the tie and select the project to represent Canada on the world stage. The event, organized by the ESOMAR Foundation, allows only one research project per country to participate.
CRIC and CAIP Canada would like to extend our sincere gratitude to all companies that support their early career team members, with particular recognition for the Logit Group and Unlock Surveys. Their valuable contributions and collaboration enable the Canada’s Research Got Talent initiative, which advances research to benefit charitable organizations. Their commitment to social responsibility, provision of resources, and expertise have played a crucial role in equipping emerging researchers and facilitating work with positive impact on communities throughout Canada.
About CAIP Canada
The Certified Analytics and Insights Professionals of Canada is the professional body for Canada’s Certified Analytics and Insights Professionals (CAIPs). Its mission is to power the success of businesses and organizations by ensuring that CAIPs have the competencies needed to unlock the power of data while maintaining the highest ethical standards that protect the public trust. CAIP Canada is supported and endorsed by the Canadian Research Insights Councils and the CAIP is globally endorsed by ESOMAR. For more information, visit www.caip-paim.ca or contact Grace Woo at [email protected]
About CRIC
The Canadian Research Insights Council (CRIC) is Canada’s voice of the research, analytics, and insights profession both domestically and globally. CRIC represents the highest standards, ethics, and best practices; provides effective promotion and advocacy of the industry; serves as a source of information and thought leadership; and is a forum for collective industry action. CRIC’s members include Canada’s leading research agencies as well as client organizations, academic institutions, and other industry partners. For more information, visit www.canadianresearchinsightscouncil.ca or contact Grace Woo at [email protected] or John Tabone at [email protected].
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