New policy includes lists of sensitive research areas and foreign institutions considered national security risks. After much uncertainty and multiple delays over the past year, university administrators are welcoming the clarity provided by a new federal policy on research security. “I don’t love this kind of thing, but if we had to have something because […]
University Affairs
Who is reviewing the reviewers?
The CIHR Review Quality Assurance process reveals vast majority of grant reviewers are doing a good job. One-third of peer reviewers for the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) submitted outstanding reviews, while no more than one in 20 did not perform adequately, according to an analysis of the first three years of the funder’s […]
A new era of research security
National security agencies are taking a renewed interest in universities and their research in the face of rising geopolitical concerns. Canada is home to a great deal of world-class research, but the federal government and its security services are raising the alarm that the country’s combination of advanced technology, human talent and democratic society has […]
Catching up on open access
A decade ago, Canada was at the forefront of open access publishing. Now critics say those policies are due for a drastic rewrite. The days of the traditional, subscription-based scholarly journal seem to be numbered. Around the world, research funders are adopting ever-more expansive policies requiring the researchers they fund to make the results of […]
Researchers decry a lack of clarity under national security risk assessments
Concern rises about potential research chill as new rules are extended across federal research-funding agencies. A pilot project by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) to identify and minimize national security risks in federally funded research will soon roll out at all federal research-funding bodies. But researchers whose grants were rejected under the […]
Catching up with Canada’s chief science adviser
As she begins her second term, Mona Nemer weighs in on shaping the pandemic response, the battle against misinformation, and the push for open science. Molecular cardiologist Mona Nemer was first appointed Canada’s chief science adviser in 2017, to provide advice to the federal government on scientific issues and science-based policy. Recently reappointed for two […]
What’s happening with Canada’s superclusters?
After four years, the federal government’s billion-dollar superclusters are finding their feet, but they need more time. Canada has a long history of underperforming on measures of private-sector spending on research and development, and failing to capitalize on the commercial potential of scientific discoveries made in the country. And it has almost as long a […]
Huawei ban adds to concerns of a chill effect in research over national security rules
‘We punch above our weight in Canada because we collaborate,’ says one computer science professor, ‘and this has the potential to erode those collaborations.’ The federal government’s recent decision to ban Chinese electronics companies from Canadian 5G networks has highlighted concerns that tightening national security rules are having a chilling effect on research in Canada. Read […]
The rise of preprints
How COVID-19 has transformed the way we publish and report on scientific research. Peer review, despite its flaws, is one of the most important pillars of the scientific process. So preprint servers, which make scientific papers that have yet to be reviewed or published available online, have been slow to catch on in many fields. […]
Taking stock of the Naylor report, 5 years on
Some say there’s been too little progress toward supporting Canadian research in fundamental science. In 2016, then science minister Kirsty Duncan convened a panel of experts to conduct a comprehensive review of Canada’s academic science and research ecosystem. Led by David Naylor, former president of the University of Toronto, it was the first such exercise […]