Canada’s industry minister Mélanie Joly has announced over CAD$500m investment to support the recruitment of 64 top global scientists to Canada, 48 of whom are leaving the US.
“While certain countries are cutting research and turning their back on academic freedom, we’re doubling down on science and we’re doubling down on research,” said Joly on August 27 at the University of British Columbia (UBC).
Launching the Eddie Goldenberg Research Chairs of Canada program, Joly said the funding, worth over USD$350, would give each research chair CAD$1m Canadian dollars every year for the next eight years.
The scheme will also provide nearly CAD$40m to Canadian institutions to recruit 63 emerging leaders.
It is part of Canada’s CAD$1.7bn investment announced last year “to attract the world’s best and brightest researchers, and to bring Canada’s best and brightest back home”, said Joly.
Of those coming from the US, many worked at Ivy League colleges and other top US institutions across disciplines including health and medicine, natural sciences, engineering and astrophysics.
Robert Asselin, CEO of U15 Canada, which represents the country’s leading research universities, said the appointments were “a big deal”.
“We’re talking about the best scholars in the world, from MIT, Harvard and Carnegie Mellon, choosing to come here to do their research. It speaks to the attractiveness of our leading research universities.”
UBC will welcome nine of the 64 research chairs announced in the program’s first iteration, with a second intake of chairs to be revealed later this year.
The US administration is taking its own decisions and we’re taking ours
Mélanie Joly, Canadian Industry Minister
Its president and vice chancellor Benoit-Antoine Bacon welcomed the “exceptional” researchers to UBC, “whose work will have important and meaningful impact in research areas vital to the future of British Columbia, Canada and the world”.
Speakers at the launch event hailed the news for its advancement of Canadian science, but also for its economic benefits, with every molecule invented to be Canada’s intellectual property.
When questioned on whether President Donald Trump would view the program as an escalation of the US-Canada trade war, Joly said: “The US administration is taking its own decisions and we’re taking ours.”
“We’re very glad that these fantastic professors are coming,” she added.
The announcement comes as tensions rise in an escalating US-Canada trade war. It follows 18 months of threats to US academic freedom, research funding and international collaborations, causing scientists to turn away from American institutions.
In a poll earlier this year, three-quarters of US scientists said they were considering leaving the country due to disruptions under the Trump administration, with Europe and Canada among the top choices for relocation.
White House spokesperson Liz Huston said President Trump was “committed to keeping America the world leader in scientific innovation” by funding “real science”.
“For years federal grant dollars were funnelled into universities for politicised research with little accountability to taxpayers and few results to show for it.”
“This administration is ending that waste and restoring a simple standard: grants should go to the best science, not politics. That’s how we maintain American global dominance,” said Huston.
