Thank you.
My name is Paul Jones. I'm joined today by my colleague, Dr. Paul Vincett, from the Canadian Association of Physicists.
The Canadian Consortium for Research is a coalition of 18 organizations concerned with the funding of research and post-secondary education. Together we represent approximately 50,000 researchers and 400,000 students across the country. Our members are based in universities, government laboratories, and the private sector. They engage in basic and applied research, study, and practice in the humanities and in the natural health and social sciences.
Our core message today and our core message in the brief is that Canada's social and economic progress and international competitiveness depend on increased support for basic research. Basic research is that research that aims to gain knowledge without immediate specific applications in mind. It is this curiosity-driven work that propels social and economic growth. Essentially, all transformative innovations in the last 100 years have arisen from basic scientific thought.
The CCR is not alone in stressing the importance of basic research. Other briefs to the finance committee touch on this issue, including ones from the Partnership Group for Science and Engineering, the Canadian Association of Research Libraries, the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society, the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies, and the Canadian Federation of Students.
With respect to the particular contents of our brief, we are recommending two ways to boost basic research. The first is that the government increase by 5% the base budgets of the three granting councils and of Genome Canada. This would cost approximately $100 million per year and would return the basic grants provided by these councils to historic levels.
Second, we recommend that the government increase funding for the indirect cost of university research, to represent 40% of the direct costs allocated to the granting councils. This would cost approximately $200 million per year.
These figures and the rationale for them are explained in more depth in the document we have submitted to the committee. Rather than review in detail the contents of that document, I want to talk a bit about an example of basic research.
The example I have concerns the bar-tailed godwit, a crow-sized bird that migrates every year between the Arctic and the southern hemisphere. What scientists were able to do, as an example of basic research, was attach small transmitters to these birds and were able to track their journey by satellite. One particular bird, named E7, took off from Alaska and flew non-stop for eight and a half days. It flew over the Pacific Ocean all the way to New Zealand, a distance of almost 12,000 kilometres.
Why is this example of basic research important? First, it is intrinsically interesting. This is an extraordinary feat of navigation and stamina, and through these scientists we have learned more about the beauty and wonder of our natural world.
Second, migratory birds carry pathogens that can infect humans and domestic animals. Wild ducks and geese carry strains of influenza viruses from northern to southern Asia every year. When these strains mix with those occurring in farm animals, the influenza forms that can affect human populations are generated. Wild bird populations are also the main hosts for the West Nile virus.
Tracking the migratory patterns of birds might at first seem to be kind of an obscure and esoteric scientific pursuit, but it has important practical implications for understanding the spread of disease. It may also lead to totally unanticipated breakthroughs in other areas.
Earlier this week, the importance of basic research was underlined by Canadian Nobel prizewinner, McGill graduate and physicist, Dr. Willard Boyle. After lamenting the lack of understanding of the scientific process by some politicians and some members of the public, he issued this plea, that what is needed is “an appreciation for the free will, free spirit of scientists. Give them a chance to do the things they want to do.”
To give our researchers a greater chance to engage in transformative innovation, the CCR recommends that the government boost basic research by—and I will repeat our recommendations—an increase of 5% in the base budgets of the three granting councils and Genome Canada; and increased funding for the indirect costs of university research to represent 40% of the direct costs allocated to the granting councils.
Thank you very much. I look forward to the discussion and questions.