Delight was the near-universal reaction of the Canadian scientific community to the federal budget Finance Minister John Manley presented to Parliament February 18. It allocated $1.7 billion (US$1.12 billion) for spending on scientific research support and graduate fellowships.
"I'm ecstatic. I'm beyond happy. This is a real shot in the arm," said biochemist Peter Lewis, Vice Dean of Research in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto.
The budget provides a raise of $125 million (US$82.6 million) a year to Canada's three major granting agencies, representing a 10% annual increase. "The concept of multiyear budgeting is very important," said David Andrews, incoming president of the Canadian Federation of Biological Societies and chair of the Cell Physiology Panel at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Canada's rough equivalent to the US National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Andrews explained this will eliminate the need for Canadian scientists to shoehorn...
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