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 […]
funding
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 […]
Will UK science’s ‘lost’ £1.6 billion ever come back?
Negotiations on Horizon Europe dragged on — and UK-based researchers came up short. The UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy is quietly returning £1.6 billion (US$1.9 billion) in funding to the Treasury that had been earmarked for research collaborations with the European Union in its 2022–23 budget. But the government swears that the […]
In Canada, scientists are struggling with stagnant funding
Lackluster growth in federal spending squeezes research community Earlier this month, researchers attending Canada’s major annual science policy conference here got some seemingly good news when science minister François-Philippe Champagne announced the government would be awarding CA$1 billion to research projects. But disappointment soon set in. The $1 billion, scientists realized, was existing, not new, […]
Emergency COVID-19 grants need careful follow-up
Building on the research that was done may help prepare for future pandemics. The Canadian Institutes of Health Research and its partners have so far handed out more than 550 grants worth over $250 million for research related to COVID-19. Some will undoubtedly lead to significant breakthroughs that will help us deal with this pandemic […]
Was COVID-19 research funding well spent?
Some academics argue it should have been part of regular funding programs, or more focused. A full month before the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic in March 2020, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research launched a $55 million emergency funding competition to help the scientific community learn all it could about the […]
Canada Research Chairs and Genome Canada celebrate 20-year anniversaries
The vital role these two programs continue to play in Canada’s research landscape highlights the vision of those who pushed to create them two decades ago. Although it was overshadowed by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, two important institutions of the Canadian research landscape marked a significant milestone in 2020 – the Canada Research Chairs program […]
Why are Canada’s scientists getting political?
Erratic funding for basic research, coupled with concerns that science has fallen down the priority list for politicians, has contributed to a shift in researchers’ attitudes to lobbying. Just a few days into her job as Canada’s new science minister, Kirsty Duncan found herself receiving a hero’s welcome when she took to the stage at […]
Researchers scramble to meet deadline for New Frontiers research fund
Final applications are due February 7, just weeks after inaugural competition was launched. While many Canadian academics were enjoying a bit of time off over the holidays, some early-career researchers were scrambling to put together applications for the New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF), the new funding program designed to support risky interdisciplinary research. Read more […]