Massacre in Canada

 
The results of the latest grant competition in Canada are leaking out and the news is bad. Canadian health science research is being gutted.

The main funds for health science research come from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). This is the agency that funds basic science in biochemistry, molecular biology, immunology, human genetics etc. CIHR grants are the backbone of research in my department (Biochemistry) and many others.

The word from CIHR is that only 15% of the September applicants will be funded. Many of my colleagues have already received notice that they are below the cutoff. Their grants will be terminated.

These colleagues are not incompetent scientists. Many of them publish 3-5 papers a year in high quality journals. In most cases they have had continuous funding since they were first hired 10-20 years ago. Their groups consist of research assistants (lab technicians), several post-docs, and several graduate students. The lab techs and the post-docs will be terminated and the graduate students may not be able to finish their degrees.

This is a disaster. You cannot sustain high quality research if your chances of getting a grant are only 15%. What's happening is that excellent scientists are being kicked out of the system due to lack of funds at CIHR. This has got to change. The Conservative Government of Stephen Harper is ruining careers.

Already there's talk of a moratorium on hiring new faculty members. Why should we bring in new scientists if their chances of success are so small? (The funding rate for new grants is even lower than 15%.)

Stay tuned.