Students struggle to make ends meet despite recent boosts to federal scholarships, study finds. Stipends for biology and physics graduate students at Canadian universities fall well short of a living wage, an analysis reports. “All of the minimum stipends we found were below the poverty line after tuition, except for the physics department at the […]
Nature
Kaitlin Kharas: Fair-pay champion
A PhD student helped to lead a campaign to get Canadian graduate students and postdocs their biggest pay rise in 20 years. On 16 April 2024, Kaitlin Kharas was one of a select few people ushered into an office across the street from the Canadian Parliament and given a sneak peek at the latest budget. […]
Rage against machine learning driven by profit
Industry research funding is vastly eclipsing academia’s spend, but healthy development demands broad input. The current boom in artificial intelligence (AI) would probably not exist were it not for work that began in academia. Many of the techniques that are now being used on an everyday basis, such as machine learning and natural-language processing, are […]
‘Fire clouds’ from super-hot wildfires are on the rise as Earth warms
Intense blazes burning in the United States and Canada are creating their own thunderstorms, which can spark more fires. The monstrous fires that are now charring vast areas of western North America aren’t just colossal and fast-moving, they have also created their own thunderstorms — an example of exotic fire behaviour that scientists say is […]
China’s research clout leads to growth in homegrown science publishing
Self-reliance and a wish to set the agenda might explain concerted push to produce domestic journals. Over the past two decades, China has risen to become the world’s largest producer of scientific knowledge. According to Digital Science’s Dimensions database, last year there were almost 830,000 papers featuring researchers based in China, representing around 15% of […]
Canadian science gets biggest boost to PhD and postdoc pay in 20 years
Government budget includes more money for basic research and notable increases to postgraduate stipends. Researchers in Canada got most of what they were hoping for in the country’s 2024 federal budget, with a big boost in postgraduate pay and more funding for research and scientific infrastructure. Read more in Nature.
How to make academic hiring fair: database lists innovative policies
The Reformscape database is designed to inspire university leaders by collecting examples of responsible career assessment. A new online resource brings together universities’ research-assessment and career-development policies to help the academic community make hiring, promotion and tenure procedures fairer, more robust and more diverse. Read more in Nature.
Why are the Canadian wildfires so bad this year?
Hot, dry weather and human carelessness have led to a huge burnt area — and to choking haze affecting millions of people. Smoke from wildfires raging in eastern Canada has been filling lungs and turning skies orange across the northeastern United States, most dramatically in New York City and the surrounding area, for the past […]
Canadian PhD students and postgrads plan mass walkout over low pay
Academics are demanding a significant boost to government-sponsored fellowships and scholarships, which haven’t changed for decades. Graduate students and postdoctoral researchers at dozens of universities and research institutions across Canada are planning to walk out on 1 May in protest at government-funded salaries that have remained flat since 2003. Read more in Nature.
Brexit deal paves way for UK to rejoin Horizon Europe research programme
UK scientists had been shut out of the multibillion-euro scheme amid drawn-out Brexit negotiations. UK researchers are optimistic that they will soon regain access to the European Union’s flagship Horizon Europe funding programme, after the United Kingdom and the EU reached an agreement on the status of Northern Ireland after Brexit. For the past two […]