The Canadian Association for Neuroscience held its first in-person Parliament Hill Day on November 3, 2022 in Ottawa. It was an opportunity for our team of neuroadvocates to meet face to face or virtually with members of Parliament, Senators, Parliamentary staff members and important senior civil servants to advocate for a increased support for CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC, graduate scholarships and postdoctoral fellowships, and to make research on Brain and Mental Health a national priority. Continue reading
Category: Advocacy
Read CAN’s submission to the FINA pre-budget consultations
The CAN advocacy team is happy to share our submission to pre-budget consultations in advance of the 2023 budget of the House of Commons permanent committee on Finances (FINA)
View our submission: Increased investment in scientific research for the health and prosperity of Canadians today and tomorrow
The deadline to submit a brief is Saturday, 8 October 2022 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Standard Time – View the news release here
CAN Advocacy survey – 2022
View the results of our advocacy survey here
https://can-acn.org/can-2022-advocacy-survey/
First report of the new House of Commons Standing Committee on Science and Research tabled on June 6
On June 6, the new House of Commons Standing Committee on Science and Research tabled its first ever report, as part of its study on “Successes, Challenges and Opportunities for Science in Canada”. The Canadian Association for Neuroscience (CAN) was one of sixteen organizations that submitted a written submission as part of the consultations. The Committee held meetings over the course of three months, which CAN closely followed, hearing from science and research organizations, post-secondary institutions, companies and government departments.
CAN welcomes all 13 of the recommendations made to government, and is pleased that one of our recommendations (An initial 25% boost to the budgets of the three granting councils followed by a 10% yearly increase) was specifically referenced in the report. Additionally, we are happy to see that the Committee has recognized the tremendous setback to Canada’s research ecosystem caused by the pandemic, and the impact of the rapid mobilization of resources to conduct COVID-19 research, sometimes at the expense of research on other health issues. Continue reading
Advocacy training at CAN2022
We are happy to make the slides for the CAN Advocacy training presented May 13 over lunch in Toronto available
CAN Advocacy training presentation (PDF)
Recording available: Science Policy Session with Senator Stan Kutcher – April 25, 2022
Co-hosted by the Canadian Society for Molecular Biosciences and the Canadian Association for Neuroscience
On Monday, April 25, the Canadian Society for Molecular Biosciences and the Canadian Association for Neuroscience welcomed the Honourable Senator Stan Kutcher for a session on science policy and advice.
Key takeaways:
- Scientists must engage in advocacy, it is an important part of their job
- We need more scientists in Parliament.
- In the absence of more scientists in Parliament, we need scientists and researchers to advocate on behalf of their communities, and highlight the important work they are doing.
- We have to help politicians understand how science is part of everything we do, and how if we don’t invest in basic science, we don’t have the tools and products required to improve people’s health and lives.
- Scientists and researchers need to be their own champions, and try to find other long-term science champions both in the House of Commons and in the Senate.
- We need to highlight how government investments need to be in creating a “science enterprise”, so that young people will want to stay in Canada instead of going elsewhere, or being put off from doing scientific research all together.
- It takes constant, repeated, and clear messaging. Fundamental science is a long-game, and communicating its impacts to politicians is a long-game.
- Canada’s scientists need to trumpet their successes more. While mainstream media doesn’t have as many scientific journalists as it used to, science communicators need to step up to fill the void and to tell the story of science.
CAN-ACN response to budget 2022 – “A Plan to Grow our Economy and Make Life More Affordable”
The Canadian Association for Neuroscience recognizes key investments that were made to support targeted research areas in budget 2022 but calls on the government to provide broader support to the Canadian scientific community through increased funding for fundamental research. We are specifically disappointed with the lack of increased support for non-targeted, hypothesis-driven & investigator-led research funded through Tri-Agency – Canadian Institutes of Health Research – CIHR, Natural Science and Engineering Research Council – NSERC, and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council -SSHRC). Continue reading
March 21 – 25, 2022 is CAN Parliament Hill Week
Canadian neuroadvocates are meeting with members of Parliament, Senators and Parliamentary staff this week for CAN Parliament Hill Week!
We are advocating for increased funding for basic research in Canada, provided through CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC. Our specific asks are:
Recommendation 1: That the government of Canada provide a one-time 25% increase in investment in the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) for research restart and recovery from the setback of the COVID-19 pandemic to research laboratories in Canada.
Recommendation 2: The government should commit to providing robust and predictable funding for basic discovery research to sustain and grow Canada’s scientific community. Funding to the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) should be increased by at least 10% yearly. This recommendation is in accordance with the 2017 Fundamental Science Review and will ensure Canada’s research ecosystem is healthy and resilient to face any future challenge.
Read more in our
Follow us on social media this week #CANHillWeek #NeuroAdvocate
CAN submission to the House of Commons Standing committee on Science and Research
Read CAN’s submission to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Science and Research, for the Study titled: SUCCESSES, CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR SCIENCE IN CANADA
Published on the House of Commons website on March 14, 2022
Read our submission to the pre-budget consultations
Increased investment in scientific research: An investment in the health and prosperity of Canadians today and tomorrow
We have made the following recommendations to the government in the pre-budget consultations in advance of the 2022 Federal budget:
Recommendation 1: That the government of Canada provide a one-time 25% increase in investment in the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) for research restart and recovery from the setback of the COVID-19 pandemic to research laboratories in Canada.
Recommendation 2: The government should commit to providing robust and predictable funding for basic discovery research to sustain and grow Canada’s scientific community. Funding to the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) should be increased by at least 10% yearly. This recommendation is in accordance with the 2017 Fundamental Science Review and will ensure Canada’s research ecosystem is healthy and resilient to face any future challenge.
You can read our full submission here
Consultations take place until February 25, 2022, here: https://www.letstalkbudget2022.ca/let-s-talk-budget-2022