The contents of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s first federal budget, released on 4 November, came as a relief to many researchers in Canada – because a large cut to the country’s three main research-funding councils failed to materialize. The nation has also poured further investment into attracting international scientists from abroad.
With the economic fallout from US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and the planned increases in expenditure on housing, infrastructure and national defence, Canada’s government departments had been asked to plan for 15% cuts in the lead-up to the 2025 budget. The scientific community feared that had those cuts been applied to the funding councils, they would have erased the large, multi-year increase promised in the 2024 budget. Much of this increase had been earmarked for long-overdue salary boosts for PhD students and postdoctoral fellows.
Nature Spotlight: Canada
In the end, the funding councils were spared the worst of the cuts and asked to find only 2% in savings. Three other areas were exempted from the 15% target: national security and public safety; Indigenous reconciliation; and gender equality, including for people from sexual and gender minorities (LGBTQ+).
“Given the context, the fact that the government put science, research and innovation front and centre and said we cannot cut here is extremely encouraging for us,” says Félix Proulx-Giraldeau, interim executive director of the science-advocacy group Evidence for Democracy in Ottawa. “It shows that they understand that science is central to Canada’s competitiveness in this changing global context.”
The 2% cut leaves the planned funding increase from 2024 largely intact. The savings will be found from councils’ operational funding, leaving grants untouched, according to Robert Asselin, chief executive of U15 Canada, an association of 15 of the country’s most research-intensive universities.
Asselin also welcomed five-year plans to invest Can$925 million (US$660 million) in artificial-intelligence infrastructure ($800 million of which had been promised in previous budgets), plus $334 million in quantum technologies — calling the plans “a great sign of the government’s commitment to science and technology”. He also hailed a promised $68-million investment over three years to establish the Bureau of Research, Engineering and Advanced Leadership in Innovation and Science (BOREALIS). This would be focused on developing technologies related to national defence.
Science on shaky ground: Canadian research shifts in the wake of US cuts
But the biggest science-related announcement in the budget was $1.7 billion in new money to attract more than 1,000 high-level international researchers to Canada. That includes $1 billion over 13 years to support new professorships through the Accelerated Research Chairs programme, $133 million over three years for the relocation of PhD students and postdoctoral fellows, and $120 million over 12 years for the recruitment of assistant professors. There will also be $400 million, spread over seven years, to improve research infrastructure to support people who are brought in through the chairs programme.
“Canada is the best place to live, and top talent from around the world want to come here because they see opportunities and possibilities to contribute to cutting-edge research,” said finance minister François-Philippe Champagne in his budget speech. “We will make sure that the best and brightest continue to choose Canada to innovate, invent and grow our industry.”
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