Indeed, blue skies research is essential to the health of science and innovation. Everything comes from an idea, and the ideas are the ones that are then mobilized to produce well-being for society.
I myself am a mathematician. Everything we do is about ideas, and very abstract ideas, so the whole point I think about fundamental research is that we do not choose the winners. It is the scientific method that is developed and the participation of peer review, the scientific community evaluating proposals in an open, intellectual discussion, that then results in appropriate funding for these projects.
I'm very proud of the discovery grants program that we have at NSERC, where we fund thousands of researchers working on blue skies research. We're really investing in people and their ideas. Afterwards these ideas might be mobilized into an application, into interdisciplinary activities, but it really is, I think, at the core.
I moved to Canada because of the strength of its funding system and the discovery grants program, because in an area such as mine it really is unique in the world.
That point is well taken, and in our consultations with the community invariably we hear that that is the bedrock of science and research in Canada.