Good morning.
Thank you very much for inviting us. I am delighted to be here.
shoulder to shoulder, as I like to say, with my colleagues from NSERC and CIHR.
Together our agencies have prepared a brief that emphasizes the value and impact of the research excellence we foster for Canadians. Together we are working closely with universities and partners from all sectors of society, sharing a common vision and working with a concerted plan to help Canada today and build a strong future for the new era of the 21st century.
Today we are pleased to propose ways that both leverage previous federal government investments in research and research training and increase our capacity to seize the new opportunities of the 21st century. We believe such investments are a key part of Canada's economic recovery, specifically at the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.
As we redesign how we fund research, we see great potential to increase Canada's research excellence in three significant ways: through enhanced operational research funding, coupled with strengthened funding for indirect costs; through support for partnerships that connect the campus and the larger community to focus on priorities for Canada; and through additional investment in post-doctoral fellows to attract and retain top talent at a time of limited hiring of new professors as universities face serious financial challenges.
The recent financial crisis made it very clear to Canada that it could not rely on the same assumptions that had allowed it to excel in certain areas and succeed in others in the past. In fact, the 21st century brings with it a whole new set of complications. What influence do the new geopolitical forces have on our economy, our communities and our place in the world? How can we adapt to climate change? How can we remain commercially competitive on the world stage?
Succeeding in a complex global environment and economy and improving productivity cannot be done through technology alone. The most striking conclusion of recent studies on innovation is that increases in productivity now stem largely from improvements to business strategies, social policies, regulatory frameworks, and the strategic use of information and communications technology in an evolving digital economy.
Since the 1980s, the dominant model of innovation has evolved from the assumption of a linear transfer from campus to business of technologies and products to a multidimensional model that includes researchers, entrepreneurs, community organizations, and many others, especially the consumers and users of both goods and services.
Juste pour reprendre un petit peu, the new 21st century model of innovation places people at centre stage and thus emphasizes the key contributions of research and research training in the social sciences and humanities. A recent study based on Statistics Canada data states that SSHRC research influences close to $390 billion of economic activity and accounts for 76% of total employment and 69% of Canada's economic output.
In this new context, students, scholars, and research partners in the social sciences and humanities play an increasingly important role in building Canada's competitive advantage. Our research contributions address the most pressing economic, cultural, and social issues in the headlines today, as well as those that may appear tomorrow. Our focus on advancing knowledge and understanding about people, their ideas, and behaviour helps us understand and give meaning and value to technologies and discoveries in the natural and health sciences. Not surprisingly, students in the social sciences and humanities now represent more than 60% of all university students in Canada.
Take, for example, Open Text, a Canadian IT company recently ranked by Fortune magazine as one of the world's fastest growing companies. Its IT chief strategy officer, Tom Jenkins, estimates that graduates in the social sciences and humanities represent two-thirds of the labour force at Open Text. Why? Because such companies must focus on global engagement in a customer-driven marketplace to be successful. They recruit graduates from the social sciences and humanities for their creativity, global knowledge, and ability to manage and drive change. Such companies rely on our research in design, marketing, and other fields that complement their efforts in technological development.
In other words, Mr. Chairman, the social sciences and humanities are helping to build a strong culture of collaboration and a robust culture of innovation among the funding agencies, across the research community, and across the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors domestically and internationally to bolster economic recovery and promote a prosperous future for Canada in the 21st-century world.
In closing, I would like to thank you, Mr. Chair, as well as the committee members, for your efforts to address the needs of Canadians. I also want to say that you have the support of the federal research-funding agencies as you endeavour to restore economic growth and ensure Canada's prosperous place in the world.