Federal budget supports Canada’s capacity to harness new knowledge and research
March 29, 2012 – Ottawa, Canada – The Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences welcomes the Government’s recognition of the role of research and innovation in the Federal Budget released today, calling investments in research and innovation forward-looking and in the interest of Canada’s long-term prosperity.
Specifically, Economic Action Plan 2012 proposes investments starting in 2012–13 to the federal research granting agencies to enhance their support for industry-academic research partnership initiatives, which includes $7 million per year to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council for its industry-academic partnership initiatives. This measure will help ensure that the new knowledge and research generated by those in the social science and humanities will fuel progress across sectors and society more broadly.
“In the current context, we are encouraged by the continued investment in education, innovation and research,” said Graham Carr, President of CFHSS. “Equipping the next generation of leaders for success and bolstering our learning and research enterprise signals the desire to sustain Canada’s momentum and improve Canadians’ well-being, communities and health.”
Some of the positive measures for Canada’s competitiveness and innovation capacity include:
- $500 million over five years, starting in 2014–15, to the Canada Foundation for Innovation to support advanced research infrastructure
- Providing $275 million over three years to support First Nations education and build and renovate schools on reserve
- $60 million for Genome Canada to launch a new applied research competition in the area of human health, and to sustain the Science and Technology Centres until 2014–15
- $10 million over two years to the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research to link Canadians to global research networks
- $40 million over two years to support CANARIE’s operation of Canada’s ultra-high speed research network
- $110 million per year to the National Research Council to double support to companies through the Industrial Research Assistance Program
- $14 million over two years to double the Industrial Research and Development Internship program.
For more information:
Alison Hebbs
Director, Policy and Communications, CFHSS
613.282.3489
The Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences is the voice for the humanities and social science researchers in Canada. It is a non-profit charitable organization that represents more than 85,000 researchers in 79 scholarly associations, 79 universities and colleges, and 5 affiliates across the country.