Thank you, Lloyd, for being such a strong champion of research.
When I came into this role, I pulled the data. What I found is that, in one of our granting councils, our researchers weren't getting their first grant until age 43. You simply cannot build a research career when you're getting that first grant at 43. I've made a real focus on early-career researchers because if we don't, where will our country be in 10 to 15 years?
You talked about the Canada research coordinating committee. We've developed a new research fund. It's called the new frontiers in research fund. It is focused on international, interdisciplinary, fast-paced, high-risk, high-reward research. It's $275 million and will double over the next five years, and then we'll be adding $65 million a year to it. It will be the largest pod of funds available to researchers. The first stream, the exploration stream, we made available only to early-career researchers. We've announced the award winners; $38 million went to 157 researchers.
As I went across the country 25 years ago when I was teaching, people asked if I had a research career or a child. I didn't expect to hear that as I went across the country. That's why, as another action for early-career researchers, we are investing in extending parental leave from six months to 12 months. You shouldn't have to choose between having a research career and a baby. You should be able to have both, and we need to make it easier to do that.