Strengthen support for fundamental research to support new discoveries.

What success looks like

Modernized research infrastructure at post-secondary institutions, new research Chairs appointed in areas of strategic priority, and enhanced capacity for granting councils to support fundamental research.

Government's narrative on progress

Since 2016, the government has approved and funded 300 projects through the Post-Secondary Institutions Strategic Investment Fund to modernize research and training facilities on campuses across Canada. These investments will support key discovery research and facilitate the expansion of ongoing research efforts. The government has also set aside $20 million to fund new Canada Excellence Research Chairs in the areas of clean and sustainable technologies (competition ongoing). In 2017, the government announced the Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategy, which will develop centres of expertise in Toronto, Montreal and Edmonton related to AI to train and attract key research talent in this emerging area of fundamental research. The report of the expert review panel that led Canada's Fundamental Science Review, an independent review of federal funding for fundamental research at post-secondary institutions, was published in April 2017. A number of actions were taken in 2017 in response to this report, including for example, placing a limit on Tier 1 Canada Research Chair renewals to enhance opportunities for broad pools of qualified candidates and to strengthen equity, diversity and inclusion in research, and by launching the Canada Research Coordinating Committee (CRCC) to achieve greater harmonization and coordination of the granting councils and the Canada Foundation for Innovation. Budget 2018 proposed a historic investment of $1.7 billion over five years starting in 2018-19 with ongoing funding, to support researchers through Canada's granting councils and research institutes. This includes $925 million for fundamental research through Canada's three granting councils; $231.3 million to increase the Research Support Fund to cover the indirect costs of research; $210 million for the Canada Research Chairs program to attract and retain early-career researchers at post-secondary institutions across the country while increasing diversity; and $275 million to create a new tri-council fund to support international, interdisciplinary, fast-breaking and higher risk research. Budget 2018 further proposed $3.8 million to develop a strategic research plan that identifies new ways of doing research with Indigenous communities; $15 million for the granting councils to develop new plans, strategies and targets to ensure improved equity and diversity outcomes for underrepresented groups, including women; and $6 million to support surveys to collect better data on researchers to further advance equity and diversity in Canada's post-secondary research community. Budget 2018 also proposed over $1.3 billion for investments in the laboratories, equipment and infrastructure researchers rely on every day including: $763 million to the Canada Foundation for Innovation, including $160 million for increased support to Canada's nationally important research facilities through the Major Science Initiatives fund; and $572.5 million to implement a Digital Research Infrastructure Strategy that will deliver more open and equitable access to advanced computing and big data resources to researchers across Canada. The additional $925 million for fundamental research announced in Budget 2018 has allowed the granting councils to enhance their grant programs. For example, with the new funding, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) has been able to increase the average value of awards under their Discovery Grants program by 20%. Throughout summer 2018, the CRCC undertook consultations with Canada’s post-secondary research community, which resulted in valuable input about how to improve federal support for fundamental research in Canada, focusing on three areas: the design of the New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF - this is the re-named tri-council fund announced in Budget 2018); enhancing equity, diversity, and inclusion outcomes; and, improving support for early-career researchers. The NFRF was launched in December 2018, with the inaugural round focusing on proof-of-concept Exploration awards to be made exclusively to early-career researchers. Delivering on the Budget 2018 commitment to better support the next generation of Canadian researchers, Budget 2019 proposed an investment of $114 million over five years, starting in 2019-20, with $26.5 million per year ongoing, to create 500 more annual master's level awards and 167 more three-year doctoral scholarship awards annually through the Canada Graduate Scholarship program (once the doctoral awards are fully ramped up by 2021-22, this funding will support up to 500 doctoral awards per year), and $37.4 million over five years, starting in 2019-20, and $8.6 million per year ongoing, to expand the parental leave coverage from six months to 12 months for students and postdoctoral fellows who receive federal granting agency funding.

Note: this is the government's own description, not an independent assessment.