Scientific research is Canada’s most strategic investment – Now is the time to build a thriving sovereign research and innovation ecosystem in Canada
Canada has announced the first 64 Canada Impact+ Research Chairs, now the Eddie Goldenberg Research Chairs of Canada. This is welcome news. The initiative is bold and timely. Canada should compete for the best minds in the world. They will strengthen research, train the next generation and create new opportunities for our communities.
But this announcement also brings a central gap in Canada’s research strategy into sharp focus. Budget 2025 committed up to $1.7 billion to the broader Canada Global Impact+ Research Talent Initiative. The same budget set ongoing 2% budget cuts for CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC, $83 million annually beginning in 2026-27.
Budget 2024’s reinvestment in the granting councils was important and should be recognized. Yet over the longer term, the purchasing power of core research funding has eroded as the research community and the cost of doing science have grown.
The latest CIHR Project Grant competition funded only 13.1% of applications. Even successful grants faced a 23.5% across-the-board reduction to approved budgets.
Canada is recruiting outstanding international and expatriate researchers. We strongly support this initiative. The irony is that we are making major, long-term commitments to attract exceptional people while the shared research system they will enter, and on which they will ultimately depend, remains under significant strain.
A Chair can bring an outstanding researcher to Canada. Stable and predictable research funding is what allows that researcher, and the outstanding researchers already here, to build, train, discover and remain.
Talent attraction and talent retention are not competing priorities. They are two parts of the same strategy, which is to build a thriving sovereign research and innovation ecosystem in Canada.
To this end, In our 2026 pre-budget submission, the Canadian Association for Neuroscience recommends increasing the base budgets of CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC by at least 10% annually for five years. This is consistent with the recommendation of the Advisory Panel on the Federal Research Support System and would match the ambition of Impact+ with sustained support for the full research ecosystem.
Canada can recruit globally and sustain nationally. We need to do both. Research is not a cost. It is Canada’s most strategic investment.
Read our submission:
https://can-acn.org/read-cans-submission-to-the-2026-pre-budget-consultations
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