At UdeM today, federal industry minister Mélanie Joly announced details of the $1.7-billion Canada Impact+ Global Research Talent Initiative to recruit researchers and draw graduate students to this country.
Announced last month in the new Carney government's first budget, the initiative was formally launched at UdeM's MIL campus this morning by Joly, federal health minister Marjorie Michel and parliamentary secretary to the prime minister Rachel Bendayan.
Welcomed by UdeM rector Daniel Jutras, they were joined by the heads of the three federal granting councils (CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC) and of the Canada Foundation for Innovation.
“In our rapidly changing socio-economic context, research and the ability to attract top talent take on a particularly crucial importance," said Jutras. "Our governments have clearly understood this.
"Research is the means by which a society equips itself to surpass its own limits," he added. "And Canadian universities are ready to participate in this collective effort to excel, without which there can be no social and economic progress."
Joly outlined the initiative's four components:
- The Canada Impact+ Research Chairs program will receive $1 billion over 12 years to help institutions attract world-renowned researchers.
- A total of $120 million over 12 years is earmarked, through the Canada Impact+ Emerging Leaders program, to enable institutions to attract international researchers who are still early in their careers.
- A further $400 million over six years will be used to create the Canada Impact+ Research Infrastructure Fund, to ensure that recruited chairholders and international early-career researchers have access to the world-class facilities they need to achieve their research goals.
- The Canada Impact+ Research Training Scholarships fund will invest $133.6 million over three years to enable top foreign doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers to settle in Canada.
“This initiative is ambitious, and we want to send a clear signal that Canada is a welcoming country and has world-class infrastructure for international researchers," Joly said.
"To members of Canada’s research community who are currently working elsewhere in the world, I say: now is the time to come home!”
