Welcome to Canada’s national spinal cord injury registry. This registry, which tracks specific outcome measures for people with traumatic forms of spinal cord injury (SCI), serves an invaluable research and reporting tool. It also provides a vital mechanism for connecting researchers, clinicians, health care professionals and people with SCI by providing current, relevant and accurate information about SCI. Registries are systems for storing and relating information that can be used by researchers and clinicians to better understand SCI and the effectiveness of specific treatments, practices or programs for improving functional outcomes and quality of life after SCI. Ultimately, however, registries are about people. The most vital and fundamental components of the Registry are its contributors, the people with spinal cord injury. Indeed, the level of continued participation of its contributors will determine the value and success of the Registry. In recognition of this, the users of the Registry feel a strong obligation to ensure the participation of the Registry’s contributors will be rewarded. In the short term, people with SCI will benefit through access to up-to-date, reliable information about spinal cord injury and clinical and rehabilitation options. In the long term, the reward is clear, the Registry will accelerate the discovery, validation and translation of relevant treatments and practices that will increase independence and improve quality of life for people living with SCI. The Registry is currently collecting data on individuals who suffer a traumatic spinal cord injury and are admitted to a participating Registry site in Canada.  Individual privacy and security of information is rigorously ensured. The future goal of the Registry is to involve all Canadians with SCI and engage all health care and research centres across the country, and eventually around the world. This is truly an exciting time for SCI research. Ninety percent of what we know about spinal cord injury has been learned within the past ten years. The Registry will play a critical role in continuing to accelerate the pace of discovery of real solutions for SCI.