Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you to the witnesses for being here today. It's greatly appreciated.
Dr. Zhu, I understand that you can hear us but that we can't hear you, unfortunately. I would appreciate any statements or anything from this conversation that you might be able to add from your point of view.
Ultimately, you know.... It's interesting; we're now looking at a study on federal funding of research excellence. The study we just finished was dealing with the capstone issue and research. We had the tri-council as well as the NRC here on Tuesday. I asked them at that time a very simple question about their goal. Was it based on the individual merit of, one, the scholars applying for the funding, and two, the quality of their proposed research? They agreed with that. That's what they did.
Dr. Kerr, you made that statement today when you talked about discovery grants, etc. Those are there. Dr. Zhu talked about similar aspects. We didn't hear all of it, but I think he would agree with that. He also talked about the buzzwords.
When we look at issues such as DEI and this aspect of it, and these buzzwords that people want to hear, the concern we have is about what we're hearing from researchers around the country who believe that when they apply for that research, everything is based on those two points, those two goals. Yet they're finding that there's a third one in there, DEI, which steps in the way of what they're presenting, when it should be based on the quality of their research.
Dr. Kerr, your point is that if that person isn't knowledgeable in that area, then they shouldn't be doing that research, but that's where the funding goes. We get a lot of crossover from basic natural sciences to health care sciences and even to social sciences. There might be some overlap, so there can be some crossover there. How do we ensure that when it's done, the people who are making this decision on federal funding and providing that funding for excellent research...? When we're talking about federal money, which we are responsible for, how do we ensure that it's based on those two principles and not something else?