Canada Plans to Boost Basic Science Spending

The federal budget, expected before the end of March, may substantially raise funding for research.

Written byCatherine Offord

| 2 min read

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WIKIMEDIA, SAFFRON BLAZEUpdate (February 28): The 2018 budget, published on Tuesday (February 27), allocates $925 million CAD to the three main research-funding councils to support basic science over the next five years, plus $275 million CAD for “higher-risk research” over the same period.

Canada’s federal budget is expected to contain a significant funding boost for basic scientific research, according to The Canadian Press (CP, via The National Post). The news follows recommendations made by former University of Toronto president David Naylor in a recent review of gaps in Canada’s science spending, and Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s emphasis on science as a “key element” in the upcoming budget.

“We are a government that’s committed to science and research, and we have a finance minister who’s listening,” Kirsty Duncan, Canada’s Minister of Science, tells the CP. She could not share details of the budget, which is expected before the end of March, but notes that Naylor’s review has been “really important.”

The review, published last April, had recommended substantial increases ...

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Meet the Author

Catherine Offord
After undergraduate research with spiders at the University of Oxford and graduate research with ants at Princeton University, Catherine left arthropods and academia to become a science journalist. She has worked in various guises at The Scientist since 2016. As Senior Editor, she wrote articles for the online and print publications, and edited the magazine’s Notebook, Careers, and Bio Business sections. She reports on subjects ranging from cellular and molecular biology to research misconduct and science policy. Find more of her work at her website.
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