Today the Federation, as a member of the Coalition for Canadian Research, presented an open letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland calling on the federal government to make a major new investment in Canadian research.
Federal leadership and investment are urgently needed to support Canada’s graduate students and postdoctoral scholars, and to support the important contributions of researchers across all disciplines. The Federation joins research advocacy organizations across Canada in calling for increases to the base budgets of the federal research granting agencies (SSHRC, NSERC, CIHR) and CFI, and to graduate scholarship and post-doctoral fellowship award amounts, which have stagnated for two decades.
Without this essential funding, Canada risks losing vital talent and falling further behind our peer countries. The Government of Canada must act now to strengthen our research system and ensure we have the skills, talent, and knowledge we need to address our society’s most pressing challenges and build a more just and prosperous Canada.
The letter builds on the Federation’s advocacy in support of Canada’s next generation of researchers and strengthened investment in humanities and social sciences research, including our recent Written Submission for the Pre-Budget Consultations in Advance of the 2024 Federal Budget and the November 2021 report, Think Big: How the social sciences and humanities are building a better Canada.
Watch the October 5 conference
We invite you to share the letter with your peers, students, and networks. We look forward to working together as a community to advance today’s urgent call for action.