Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you to our witnesses.
I also want to acknowledge the folks in the room, the post-docs and the researchers who are here in the committee room. I'm thankful for their commitment to research and knowledge production, especially in this age of information and the increasing amount of misinformation and disinformation in the world. To have peer-reviewed studies and research in the spirit of knowledge production is truly important.
I want to start off with a question for Mr. Vats.
Last month we had Chad Gaffield here. He's the CEO of the U15 group of Canadian research universities. He testified to this committee that, “The new capstone organization must continue to maintain the political independence of funding decisions. This core commitment to academic freedom and the free pursuit of knowledge are foundational principles of Canada's research system and are central components of its success.”
In your opinion, how can the structure of a capstone organization balance the support for investigator-driven research and mission-driven research?