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.
policy
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 […]
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 […]
UK government announces new science department and minister
Former universities minister Michelle Donelan is appointed head of newly-created Department for Science, Innovation and Technology in mini-reshuffle. The United Kingdom has a new government department dedicated to science and technology. On 7 February, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak split the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) into three new departments, creating the Department […]
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, […]
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 […]