Canadian researchers have mixed feelings about the 2021 budget presented to the Canadian parliament this week.
LSOphoto / iStock
By Brian Owens
Canadian science is wary of the fear that the relatively modest research investments set out in Canada’s new federal budget could make it difficult for the country to recruit and retain scientific talent.
The multi-annual spending plan announced on April 19 contains about $ 2.2 billion in new funding for life sciences, but much of the money is aimed at advancing biomedical applications and vaccine development. Many research groups were hoping for greater investment in basic research at a time when US President Joe Biden, just across the border, was proposing major increases for fundamental science.
The three main research councils of Canada will share CA $ 250 million for a new joint program of biomedical research grants, and the Canadian Institute of Health Research will receive an additional $ 250 million to fund clinical trials. Universities and research hospitals receive $ 500 million for life sciences infrastructure such as equipment and buildings. The government also plans to provide new funding for an existing funding program – known as a national strategy – for artificial intelligence, as well as to create two new national strategies for genomics and quantum science, each worth about $ 400 million. earn. About $ 17 billion will go to efforts to develop low-carbon technologies, support green jobs and achieve conservation goals, such as protecting 25% of Canada’s land and water by 2025.
Advocates for research welcomed the focus on science as a way to fight the pandemic and rebuild the economy in its wake. “Budget 2021 seeks to balance the urgent challenges of the pandemic with a long-term view toward recovery and growth,” said Ottawa, Canada-based scientific advocacy group Evidence for Democracy. But the group also noted that the budget does not include significant increases for fundamental investigative research.
The budget continues with the government’s investments in science starting in the 2018 budget. (Canadian spending plans often span several years.) But the focus remains on targeted, boutique funding, rather than the broad support for research in general that Canadian scientists have long strived for. “Politicians like to choose investment targets because they want to invest in things that can produce results quickly,” said Abraham Fuks, an immunology researcher at McGill University in Montreal. “But the science that helps the most is in the long run,” he added, noting that Canadian scientists have made significant contributions to the basic science behind the current vaccinations for COVID-19 over several decades.
Prior to the announcement of the budget, Fuks and his colleagues called on the government to offer major increases for basic science at the country’s three main research councils to keep pace with the United States to recruit the next generation of scientists and to retain. This budget does not meet the request, although he welcomed the funding for especially bioscience infrastructure and clinical trials. “We do not see the largest investment in basic science that we believe is needed” to sustain research that may not bear fruit for years, he says.