The Foundation for Canadian Studies in the United Kingdom is a UK Registered Charity (number: 267927).

The Foundation for Canadian Studies in the United Kingdom was established in 1975 to support teaching, research and publishing about Canada in the United Kingdom, and to promote academic links and student exchanges between Canadian and British universities. We support these activities through grants, travel awards and the funding of academic posts and scholarships at British universities. In turn, we are supported by companies and individuals who donate or raise money to finance our activities.

The Foundation, although operating entirely separately, co-operates with the Canadian High Commission, London, and thereby collaborates with the Government of Canada. Annual grants, often for similar programs which the Foundation supports, from both Foreign Affairs Canada (FAC), and the International Council for Canadian Studies (ICCS), a non-governmental organisation in Ottawa, are received and dispensed by the Canadian High Commission. The Foundation funds its own programs, entirely seperately, although these have similarities, so that the resources and expertise of government, NGOs and the private sector combine to enhance Canadian Studies in Britain and partnerships between British and Canadian universities. 

Britain and Canada have many common interests and, to an extent, a shared history, and although Canadian-British relations have not had the high profile of British-US relations, the "quiet alliance" between our two countries has been strong and enduring. Education is one important way in which the UK and Canada are brought closer together, and the Foundation can contribute to this by developing academic partnerships, joint research projects and activities that underline and enrich the bilateral relationship.

If all the Canadian Studies courses in Britain were combined, they would be equivalent to a university in their own right. The Foundation supports the work of Canadian Studies Centres, Programs and Consortia in Edinburgh, Leeds, Birmingham, Nottingham, Cambridge, London (Institute of Commonwealth Studies ICS; Institute for the Study of the Americas ISA; and the London Conference for Canadian Studies LCCS), Canterbury Christ Church, Wales (Canadian Studies in Wales Group) and Northern Ireland (Queen's Belfast and Ulster University). We also work closely with the British Association for Canadian Studies in supporting the work of Canadianists in Britain, and we have also been instrumental in developing partnerships between Canadian and UK institutions in many discplines.