Among the Institute’s principal activities are Thematic and Focus Programs, which highlight a broad variety of mathematical topics of global importance, both applied and purely theoretical, and which have an impact on scientific areas ranging, for example, from theoretical aspects of cosmology to applications of numerical algorithms to medical imaging. International experts visit the Institute in the course of these programs, actively exchanging ideas on the most current trends in their field, and mentoring young participants. Indeed during the course of a thematic program, the Institute becomes the international centre of expertise in the area under study, and is a valuable resource for Canadian researchers as well as for mentoring and inspiring young Canadian scientists and students. 

Housed in a building especially designed for mathematical communication, the Fields Institute offers a unique atmosphere for learning, discussing and creating mathematics and its numerous applications. The Institute promotes research activity and collaboration by hosting a wide range of workshops, conferences, symposia, and congresses covering a large spectrum of areas in the mathematical sciences each year. 

In addition, the Fields Institute offers faculty from its many partner universities the opportunity to hold Fields supported scientific events at their institutions, stimulating an impressive level of scientific activity across Ontario, Canada, and internationally. Such conferences, workshops and summer schools greatly enhance the visibility of the university and attract leading mathematical scientists in a given field from around the world. The events also help universities to recruit excellent Canadian and international graduate students who, by attending activities in a partner university, make contact with faculty members and learn about the institution and its graduate programs.

Fields organizes a variety of special lecture series. These include public addresses by some of the world’s top mathematical scientists who attract audiences of several hundred participants, prize lectures for the several awards administered by the Institute, the prestigious Distinguished and Coxeter Lecture Series, and the more recent Distigushed Lecture Series in Statistical Sciences.

Fields Academy incorporates all of the training programs of the institute. This includes graduate courses shared between Ontario universities, the Fields Undergraduate Summer Research Program and Cyber Connexion, a cybersecurity training program. 

Fields supports a number of seminars and colloquia in various areas of the mathematical sciences, meeting regularly at the Institute, with frequencies varying from twice a week to monthly.

Each major thematic program hosted by the Institute offers a number of graduate courses that are attended by long term program participants and students from Principal Sponsoring and Affiliated Universities. The courses provide in-depth reviews of the foundations, techniques, and main results of each subject. The courses give students the opportunity to learn with the best in the field and equip participants with the necessary background to follow and contribute to the topic of the programs.

The Institute also provides support for summer schools and conferences aimed at graduate students. Summer schools are intense, one to four week series of lectures presented by internationally recognized experts on a particular topic. The very focused instruction would not be possible within a typical university graduate program, and the unique opportunity for students to meet leading researchers from around the world is only possible with Fields support. These events are further enhanced by the participation of international students, some of whom may well choose to come to an Ontario university as postdoctoral fellows. Moreover, summer schools also often provide student participants training in conference presentation as well as the opportunity to meet colleagues from across Canada.

We also provide hands-on training to undergradaute students thorugh the annual Fields Institute Summer Research Program. 

The Institute is involved in outreach activities at various levels, engaging elementary and high- school students in mathematical sciences activity appropriate for their age, as well as the general public in activities with artistic and cultural components.

Fields hosts groups that leverage our mathematics network to further research. These interdisciplinary research groups highlight the central role mathematics plays across the sciences and social sciences. Fields currently hosts two such groups:

1. Lab for Network Science: Networks play a central role in understanding the brain. From mapping the anatomy of connections between neurons, to understanding how finely tuned patterns of connections create computation, networks are a central mathematical tool.

2. Mathematics for Public Health: A program to develop a national network of infectious disease modellers and public health policy makers that can rapidly respond to public health emergencies.