Thank you for your excellent question, and thank you for the work you've done throughout your life.
I'd like to start by talking a bit about NSERC, which funds natural sciences and engineering research. I've talked about this $95 million top-up and I'm going to briefly mention it again. This is the highest contribution in 10 years. There will be $30 million to NSERC and $30 million to CIHR, which is the Canadian Institutes for Health Research. To come back to Mr. Dreeshen's question, there is $16 million now for the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. That's actually an increase closing the gap that existed, so it's really positive news. There was also $19 million for the research support fund.
You raised a really important question. I think this is why in budget 2016 I've been tasked with looking at a comprehensive review of federal support for science. We want to make sure we have the right support system for basic science, for an applied system—for that continuum that I've talked about—and this fundamental review is going to allow us to start answering some important questions.
For example, are we doing enough to help our young researchers? We're hearing that some young researchers are getting their first grants at age 41 or 42 or 43. Well, you can all imagine the difficulty of starting a job, trying to build a research program, and possibly having to balance family needs.
We want to ensure that we have the right investments. Are they effective? Are they strategic? Do they meet the needs of Canada, and do they meet the needs of our researchers?
Another example I'll give you is the Networks of Centres of Excellence, a really good program. I talked about the stem cell network at the beginning, and that investment, that $80 million for 225 researchers. Is there something that needs to be available afterwards?
This review is going to allow us to start to ask a question like yours as well as other questions: do we have the right system?