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Published online 4 February 2009 | Nature 457, 646 (2009) | doi:10.1038/457646a
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Cash concerns for Canadian scientists
Could programme cuts prompt a brain drain?
Billions of dollars in science infrastructure investments have been overshadowed by cuts to major grant-funding programmes in Canada's federal budget.
In the Can$40-billion (US$32.
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I am currently doing a postdoctoral fellowship abroad after graduating from the University of Toronto last year. I eventually intend to establish my research group in academia back in Canada. However, I will seriously have to consider other locations since getting research funding is becoming increasingly competitive. New investigators only have a slim chance in obtaining research grants when competing with well-established principal investigators. The government of Canada might save money by underfunding CIHR, NSERC, and SSHRC in the short term but will lose the best Canadian scientist in the long run. That would cause disastrous consequences on the well-reputed Canadian scientific community. Therefore, constant funding must be kept in all time to support academia research.