This proposal, which we mention in our brief, is related to the raising the profile of scientific careers in French and the need to legitimize them. We attach a great deal of importance to promoting our researchers across Canada. We want to encourage them to submit applications for awards and honours, and promote research excellence in Canada.
In many small and medium-sized establishments, and even in large French-language establishments, teams are needed to work with researchers to help them put together dossiers and present them to such institutions as the Royal Society of Canada. Representatives of this society told us that some large English-language universities submit up to 48 dossiers in a single year, while other universities submit none, or one or two. Having a secretariat to help researchers put together their dossiers is a game changer in terms of the ability to submit dossiers to prestigious institutions and therefore showcase and promote research excellence.
We therefore suggest that grants be set up to enable institutions that don't have a secretariat of this kind to create one so that they can compile and submit dossiers and raise the profile of French-language research in Canada. We could work on this issue with Canadian Heritage or other stakeholders.