It's a great question.
Although I did a graduate degree, I'm not a researcher by background or training, as you are.
Again, we take academic fraud extraordinarily seriously. I do think it's a tiny percentage. Especially when you're talking about critical scientific studies, it still is important beyond the reputation of the university. It's critical for the credibility of the entire scientific method. It gives credence to conspiracy theories and all sorts of other odious things in society. I think we do need to stand on guard against it.
With regard to the impact of research across Canada, I will say, to your previous question about the provinces, I think that research and especially some of the excellence-based projects—CFREF is a good example—really serve to bring researchers together across different universities and regions. Yes, there's sort of a home base institution for these projects, but all of them have clusters and partnerships that span the country and bring together researchers across the country who are at the top of their fields, as well as non-profit organizations, businesses and others, in those projects that are really meant as an “own the podium” type of exercise for Canada.
This is really about building platforms up that help us compete on the global stage.
Again, research impacts our lives every day, whether it's cardiac research that saves the lives of Canadians, or research on lipid nanoparticles that you're familiar from UBC that helped unlock mRNA vaccines, or social research or economic theory, or whatever, that solves problems and gives us new perspectives on issues.