Pierre Poilievre’s Conservative Party is trying to topple Liberal government in 28 April election. Pierre Poilievre, leader of Canada’s Conservative Party, has pledged to “end the imposition of woke ideology in the allocation of federal funds for university research” should his party win the Canadian federal election on 28 April. The vow—which echoes rhetoric used […]
policy
US National Institutes of Health has become a political target—how did we get here?
One of the most admired research agencies in the world, the US National Institutes of Health, now has a huge target on its back. How did an organisation supported by both Democrat and Republican politicians become so vulnerable? The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) has long been the gold standard for biomedical research around […]
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. […]
Canada should sharply curtail research collaborations with China, lawmakers say
Report recommends an immediate ban on joint projects in a host of sensitive fields. Canada should immediately end all government-funded research collaborations with China in a host of sensitive technology areas, a parliamentary committee has recommended in a new report. The ban is needed, the panel said, to counter the Chinese government’s “increasingly assertive” efforts […]
Researchers rejoice: the Canadian Common CV’s days are numbered
New narrative CV to be rolled out to all tri-agencies’ grant competitions. Researchers applying for grants from Canada’s three main federal funding agencies will soon have cause for celebration: the unpopular Canadian Common CV is being phased out in favour of a new narrative CV. Read more in University Affairs.
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.
Universities welcome clarity on national security rules
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 […]
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 […]
Marine Protected Areas, Explained
There’s nuance in how we protect our oceans; here are the details. It’s World Ocean Day, a day when the ocean takes the podium and the world professes concern, but also love, for the planet’s life force. It’s a day of celebrations, and also cautionary tales. Marine protected areas (MPAs) are one of the tools […]
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 […]