Artificial intelligence and international scientists are some of the big winners in the country’s spending plan this year. The contents of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s first federal budget, released on 4 November, came as a relief to many researchers in Canada – because a large cut to the country’s three main research-funding councils failed to […]
policy
Canada plans a 15% budget cut. Scientists are alarmed
Cuts could erase promised boost, researchers fear. Researchers in Canada are pushing back against a 15% budget cut that Prime Minister Mark Carney plans to impose on most government departments. They argue that reducing spending on scientific research would go against Carney’s own emphasis on investing in the country’s future. Read more in Science.
‘A funeral for our careers’: Trump’s science cuts spill onto Canadian turf
Researchers in Canada prepare for turbulence in the wake of US funding changes — but there’s a silver lining. As US science policy continues to shift under the administration of President Donald Trump, the impacts are rippling beyond the nation’s borders. In Canada, researchers are feeling the heat. Canadian academics are some of the Americas’ […]
Liberals keep power in Canada—thanks to Trump
Prime Minister Mark Carney has vowed to boost research. The Liberal Party, led by economist Mark Carney, won yesterday’s federal election in Canada and will remain in power, though it has apparently failed to secure a majority of seats in Parliament. Read more in Science.
In Canadian election, top Conservative candidate vows to end ’woke ideology’ in science funding
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 […]
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 […]
As Trudeau leaves, Canada’s scientists gird for a leadership change
Conservative Party, out of power since 2015, expected to win elections later this year. Justin Trudeau’s announcement earlier this month that he will step down as Canada’s prime minister opens the way for a change of government that could have major implications for science. Many research advocates have seen Trudeau’s Liberal government, which has been […]
Graduate-student stipends in Canada below the poverty line
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 […]
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 […]