Category Archives: R&D Policy

Last December, during a lively public debate with Isabelle Blain, NSERC’s Vice-President for Research Grants & Scholarships, my colleague Martin tried to bring a positive note to the conversation by stating that at least NSERC’s new ways are not as bad … Continue reading →

Encouraged by NSERC’s response to explain the reasons behind the drop in the numbers of their graduate scholarships and postdoctoral fellowships, we decided to push our luck and inquire for the reasons behind the substantial decline  in the budgets of almost … Continue reading →

That was Michael Hartmer, director of the German Association of University Professors, commenting to Der Spiegel on the latest “textbook example of how not to manage the relationship between private industry and the academy”. A far cry from what was … Continue reading →

First there was the open letter to the industry minister by 327 mathematical scientists, including 27 Canada Research Chairs and 35 fellows of the Royal Society of Canada. Then came the public letter by 16 members of the Evaluation Group … Continue reading →

NSERC’s President Suzanne Fortier will be making a presentation on June 03 at the Edmonton meeting of the Canadian Mathematical Society. The unexpected visit is undoubtedly related to the public letter by 16 members of the Evaluation Group 1508, which … Continue reading →

16 out of the 28 members of Evaluation Group 1508  (for Mathematics and Statistics) wrote the following letter to NSERC’s President Suzanne Fortier to “draw (her) attention to the distressing results of the 2011 Discovery Grants Program”.  It is a … Continue reading →

Two months after the end of the 2011 competition for Discovery Grants, NSERC is yet to release the full data on its outcome. The reason given is that there is a gov’t-wide hold on releasing data/making announcements. However, colleagues who … Continue reading →

Canada’s mathematical sciences community currently faces many challenges. One that stands out particularly is the imminent elapse of the federal funding (about $5.4-million per year) for the MITACS Network of Centres of Excellence. This NCE currently supports 377 Canadian academic … Continue reading →

We are not used to see the normally confident scientists at the University of Toronto so agitated and angry at NSERC. Some of their mathematicians are screaming from the rooftops that the “NSERC Peer Review System is Broken for Mathematics“. … Continue reading →

Unlike the other parties, the Conservatives have now a 5-year track record on research policy. Their proposed 2011 budget may also be considered as their platform, at least for the short term. Their research policies are de-facto more detailed, hence … Continue reading →

… we strongly recommend the following video, especially to the fundamentalists of the Kitchener-Waterloo area and beyond, where M. C. Hawkins may be moving soon with his band to promote the album “A Brief History of Rhyme”. Who says that … Continue reading →

You expect that a Harvard Professor and a former Astronaut would cherish an opportunity to step up for a more serious, more vigorous, more rigorous, more scientifically driven, and less politically motivated research policy for the Government of Canada. Wrong! … Continue reading →

You know there is a serious problem, when the members of NSERC’s Evaluation Groups (EG) are the first to call foul, and announce that they are shocked, surprised and offended by the results of the latest NSERC’s Discovery Grant competition … Continue reading →

Not so far-fetched, when some are arguing that the $50-million announced in the 2011 federal budget for the Waterloo-based Perimeter Institute is closely related to the 17 votes differential in that riding during the last election. Better documented is the … Continue reading →

Budget 2011 continues a governmental pattern of undervaluing basic research, bypassing the granting councils, targeting funding to specific areas, and giving preferential treatment and mega-bucks to selected scientific projects and institutions without competition or peer review. Some argue that all … Continue reading →