Dr. Tammy Clifford
Acting President
Canadian Institutes of Health Research
160 Elgin Street
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1A 0W9
Tammy.Clifford@cihr-irsc.gc.ca
Alejandro Adem
President
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council
125 Zaida Eddy Private, 2nd floor
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1R 0E3
Alejandro.Adem@NSERC-CRSNG.GC.CA
Ted Hewitt
President
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council
125 Zaida Eddy Private, 2nd Floor
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1R 0E3
Ted.Hewitt@SSHRC-CRSH.GC.CA
Dear Drs. Clifford, Adem, and Hewitt:
In Budget 2024, the Government of Canada announced a number of actions to modernize the federal research support system, with the aim of bringing strategic vision and coordination to the system while preserving its features that have led to Canada’s strong record of research excellence. Along with critical investments to support research and research talent, the Government announced the creation of a new capstone research funding organization within which the granting councils will continue to exist, with their focus on supporting excellence in investigator-driven research and actively contributing to the collective and strategic direction of the new organization.
The creation of this new organization represents a major step forward to modernize federal research support—one that will increase the impact of federal funding through better coordination and stronger connections among diverse actors, with a view to driving collaboration and harnessing Canadian research to better meet and address emerging challenges.
The Government has committed to share further details on the creation of the new organization in the 2024 Fall Economic Statement. As such, your collaboration and support on this file in the coming months, as the presidents of the federal research granting councils, will be critical.
Canadian researchers are active and committed. It is essential that the full breadth of the research community be engaged as part of the efforts to achieve the Government’s vision for modernization and the creation of the new organization. Cultivating productive relationships with the research community and taking their perspectives into account as we move forward will be important to ensuring the strength of the new organization.
Within this context, we are asking you to jointly undertake engagement with the research community, to be completed by July 2024. To the extent that it is feasible, we would encourage your consultations to be done collectively, with the goal of bringing together diverse, cross-disciplinary perspectives from researchers at all stages of their careers. As part of this effort, we ask that you also invite the Canada Foundation for Innovation to join the community in discussing the ways infrastructure can best enable research.
This engagement will inform the Government’s work in the coming months and provide researchers with an opportunity to add input into key objectives such as support for internationally collaborative, interdisciplinary, and mission-driven research. It will also be important to respond to the community’s questions and understand their needs and concerns. We ask that you work with Dr. Mona Nemer, Canada’s Chief Science Advisor, in developing your engagement plan, recognizing her valuable perspective on Canada’s research ecosystem. Further, we ask that Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada and Health Canada officials be invited to observe all engagement activities. Further details outlining our expectations are appended to this letter.
Following this engagement, we ask that you work together to collectively report back to us on your findings by July 2024.
Should you have any questions, our respective officials would be pleased to respond and work closely with you as you prepare for this important engagement.
Please accept our best wishes.
Sincerely,
The Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, P.C., M.P.
Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry
The Honourable Mark Holland, P.C., M.P.
Minister of Health
c.c. Dr. Roseann O’Reilly Runte, President and Chief Executive Officer
Canada Foundation for Innovation
roseann.runte@innovation.ca
Attachment
Appendix - Modernizing the Federal Research Support System for Future Success: Engagement Parameters
Canada’s three federal research granting councils are highly successful at delivering on their core mandate of fostering world-class research excellence in their respective domains. However, as concluded by the Advisory Panel on the Federal Research Support System, there is a growing need to effectively support the collaborative, international and interdisciplinary approaches increasingly necessary to address complex societal challenges and respond to emerging opportunities. An organization that has a clear mandate to deliver in those areas across the research system would significantly enhance Canada’s research support system and better position it for the future.
To ensure the continued success of Canada’s research enterprise, Budget 2024 announced the intent to create a new capstone research funding organization that will include the three granting councils. It is expected that the new organization will provide greater value and results for Canada’s science ecosystem by:
- Helping to improve coordination and support for research that involves multiple disciplines, enabling Canada to better respond to emerging domestic and global challenges and opportunities, such as climate change, transformative technologies such as artificial intelligence, and preparing for an aging population.
- Enhancing critical connections between research and the end users of knowledge, including industry and civil society.
- Ensuring that Canada speaks with a stronger, integrated voice on the international stage, enhancing Canada’s ability to be a valued partner in international research.
- Preserving aspects of the system that have led to Canada’s strong record in disciplinary research, including maintaining strong connections to the federal Health portfolio.
- Bolstering efforts on issues of importance to the research community, including reinforcing equity, diversity and inclusion across the ecosystem.
- Streamlining and harmonizing policies, programming and systems where appropriate to reduce administrative burden for researchers and institutions.
Purpose of Engagement
The engagement aims to gather valuable input from the full breadth of Canada’s research community to:
- Inform the details and design of the new capstone research funding organization (within the parameters set out by the Budget 2024 announcement and the expected outcomes of modernization) to be announced in the 2024 Fall Economic Statement.
- Inform the longer-term implementation plan of the new organization to advance key objectives articulated in Budget 2024, including internationally collaborative, interdisciplinary, and mission-driven research.
- Identify any significant risks to mitigate or avoid related to the implementation approach.
A Proposed Vision for the Capstone Organization
Consistent with—and building on—the Budget 2024 announcement and the expected outcomes identified above, the government proposes the following details of the new organization.
Mandate
It is expected that the mandate of the new organization would align with and advance the current mandates of the granting councils, such as promoting and supporting research and research excellence, developing research talent, and mobilizing knowledge, toward achieving social, health, environmental, and economic benefits for Canadians.
Recognizing the importance of disciplinary and fundamental research as the foundation of a strong and thriving research ecosystem, such research would continue to be core to the mandate of the new organization.
As announced in Budget 2024, the new organization would also be mandated to advance:
- Research involving multiple disciplines: As a single organization with a mandate not defined by research disciplines, the new organization would have the flexibility to design and deliver programs that support research that transcends disciplinary boundaries across the granting councils, whether multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, or transdisciplinary. The granting councils would retain their ability to foster such research within their respective domains. Recognizing their key role in advancing interdisciplinary and integrative health research, it is expected that CIHR’s health research Institutes would continue to exist within CIHR.
- Mission-driven research:Footnote 1 The leadership of the new organization would have the authority and the accountability to leverage the capacity of the research enterprise to respond to missions, as well as to strengthen linkages between research and downstream innovation, supporting more strategic and impactful contributions to the economy and society.
- International research: The new organization would serve as a key centre for international research funding partnerships, opening up new opportunities for international collaboration, enhancing knowledge mobilization, providing greater insight into global issues, and supporting a more strategic and coherent delivery and impact of Canadian research globally.
Proposed Structure
Within this frame—and with a view to creating a more strategic, coordinated and agile research support system—it is proposed that:
- The new organization would be led by a single CEO with a diverse board of directors that would be responsible for driving coordination across the organization and ensuring it is a strategic player within the broader science ecosystem.
- The board would encompass a broad range of expertise, including performing and administering research within and across diverse disciplines, knowledge mobilization and translation, research partnerships (including private and not-for-profit sector perspectives), and strategic planning.
- The CEO would be responsible for the day-to-day operations of the new organization and implementation of the strategic vision of the board.
- The granting councils would continue to exist within the new organization as discrete entities that support excellence in investigator-driven and strategic research within their respective fields, while maintaining strong connections with their research communities and ensuring that programming continues to meet their communities’ needs. Peer review would continue to be at the core of assessing excellence.
- The granting councils would each continue to benefit from disciplinary perspectives and advice to inform their activities, including through disciplinary advisory bodies, with the potential for some members to be cross-appointed to the board to ensure a linkage between disciplinary communities and decision making.
- An executive committee, composed of the CEO and heads of the councils and other key executives, would be created to drive strategic coordination across the whole organization.
- The new organization would include a dedicated unit—separate from the three discipline-based councils—to support research involving multiple disciplines, as well as international and mission-driven research. This would include delivery of most tri-council programming, consolidating and building on the expertise and experience developed by the councils in delivering cross-cutting programs, including peer review. It would also be mandated to create stronger policy and program linkages to industry and civil society to translate and apply research.
- Some administrative and corporate functions would be consolidated to better align capacity and processes within the single organization and to ensure that researchers and trainees experience reduced complexity and administrative burden when applying for and receiving federal funding.
This approach is intended to allow the granting councils to continue to do what they do best – supporting research in health, STEM, the social sciences, and the humanities – while supporting a more integrated and coherent ecosystem that maximizes the benefits of world-class research to Canadians.
Discussion Questions
Based on the proposal above, and the parameters set out in the Budget 2024 announcement, feedback is sought on the following questions:
- How can the new organization best address issues around:
- coordination among the granting councils, Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), and other key players to more effectively meet needs of the research community?
- the interface between researchers and research support?
- support for the modern research enterprise, including international research, interdisciplinary research, and industry-academia partnerships?
- What should be the early priorities for the new organization?
- How can the new organization best support mission-driven research, including in coordination with the CFI and other key players?
- How can effective linkages be built between the new organization, disciplinary communities and the broader research community?
- What are the key considerations around the integration of CIHR in the new organization and the preservation of connections to the Health portfolio?
- What are the key principles that should guide additional decision-making around design and implementation of the new organization?
Next Steps
It is expected that the granting council presidents will work with the Chief Science Advisor to develop the plans for research community engagement. While recognizing time constraints, the approach to engagement will be representative of the full diversity of Canada’s research community, including representatives from universities, colleges, research hospitals and health research institutes, and from early career researchers to established investigators.
A joint report on the engagement findings will be provided to the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry and Minister of Health synthesizing what was heard from across the research community. The report is to be submitted by July 2024 to ensure that input from the engagement can meaningfully influence decision-making related to the new organization. ISED and Health Canada officials would support the presidents in developing the report. The final report may be made public at the discretion of both Ministers.
Final decisions regarding implementation of the capstone organization will be informed by this engagement, and confirmed by the Government in the 2024 Fall Economic Statement.