PLUGGING A BRAIN DRAIN
In the carrot and stick that is government funding, the federal Liberals have been talking nice about science and research, while proposed reforms have irked researchers and funding has dried up, leading to layoffs or closures in dozens of labs across the country.
At least some of those unemployed scientists won’t be finding jobs in Canada.
As the Citizen’s Elizabeth Payne reported, Leonard Maler, who does research on electric fish, has lost out on gobs of funding — a first in 40 years — from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, the federal funding agency. And so, some of that research will carry on in Germany. His lab is shrinking in size, many of the researchers taking off for other jurisdictions.
It’s a classic example of brain drain, that old Canadian bugbear. Maybe we aren’t quite at the existential national terror inspired in the 1990s by brain drain, but it’s a problem. For a resourcebased economy — a fickle enough economic foundation — there’s value to research for its own sake, and as a driver of other areas of the economy. And besides, who wouldn’t want Canada to be a renowned destination for health research?
Funding is but one aspect of a litany of complaints about CIHR — changes to the peerreview process were shellacked by researchers, who say reviewers don’t understand the science of what they’re assessing, for example, before CIHR backed down.
Also troubling is that researchers are less likely to come to Canada in the first place if they’re subject to a capricious funding regime. Obviously, there is a finite amount of money for science, as there is for all areas dependent on the public purse. But the Liberals, including Health Minister Jane Philpott, should pay careful attention to the effects that funding has on basic research in Canada. In advance of a meeting with CIHR officials in July — following an open revolt by Canada’s health researchers over peer review changes — young scientists were surveyed; the result was that nearly half of them were considering looking abroad for work.
During the tenure of former prime minister Stephen Harper, the Conservatives bragged about a “brain gain,” an improvement over the Liberal years in power. If Canada is hunting for international researchers and bringing them in — a good thing, mind you — then it’s important these researchers be supported, whether that’s by the government, by universities or donations. At any rate, a review of how science is supported is due by the end of the year.
Too late for many. But given the ongoing importance of science and the innovation it fuels, the Liberals, and all other involved parties, should work hard to chart a clear path forward.