Mr. Chair, thank you for the invitation.
Hello to all the members of the committee.
I'm delighted to be with you to discuss such an important issue.
I also want to thank you again for all your leadership in focusing public discussion on building a better future based on science and research.
In terms of our topic today, as you have heard from previous witnesses, Canadian universities take research security extremely seriously. This work has increased rapidly in recent years.
Previously, successive federal governments had strongly encouraged Canada's universities to increase international collaboration, especially with China. This consistent encouragement in recent decades emphasized two key reasons for international engagement. On the one hand, Canada sought to benefit from China's scientific and research expertise. On the other hand, Canada saw international collaboration as a way to tackle the world's complex challenges, such as those related to climate change and health.
The result was that the Canadian research community became one of the most internationalized, thereby gaining access to the global pool of knowledge. This approach enabled Canada's successful economic, social and cultural transition into the turbulent 21st century, as recently illustrated by our ability to confront the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, globalization and internationalization can also threaten research security and, therefore, national security, by opening the door to foreign interference. Over recent years, universities have responded to a range of emerging threats. In Canada, defending against these threats is a shared federal and university responsibility. The federal role is based on its national intelligence services. The university role is based on its assurance of the responsible conduct of research.
To take immediate action to exercise this shared responsibility, in 2018 university and federal leaders established the Government of Canada-universities working group to develop policies and practices to maintain the principle of “as secure as necessary; as open as possible”.
Over the years, the working group has met on a regular basis to reach this objective. In September 2020, the working group's discussions informed the federal government's launch of an online portal, entitled “Safeguarding Your Research”, to provide researchers and universities with tools and information about how to protect research security.
In March 2021, the federal government asked the working group to help develop guidelines and processes to integrate security into research partnership applications for federal funding. The result was the “National Security Guidelines for Research Partnerships”, which was published on July 12, 2021. National security assessments are now being systematically rolled out across all federal research agency funding opportunities.
Thanks to support in the federal budget in 2022, universities have continued to hire research security officers and to develop sophisticated risk management frameworks and associated policies and practices. To support this work, in June 2023, U15 Canada published a document entitled “Safeguarding Research in Canada: A Guide for University Policies and Practices”. This document is an evergreen document that will be annually reviewed for updates as practices evolve.
While universities are using public sources to do their own due diligence, they await a clear indication of which entities have been evaluated by our national intelligence services, using their own sources, as inappropriate for any research collaborations. Our understanding is that such lists are forthcoming.
Universities are also working hard to avoid unintended consequences of enhanced research security measures, especially racism or discrimination on campuses, and a decline in research on important, sensitive areas that are crucial for Canada’s future.
In this changing geopolitical context, leading countries such as the United States, Japan and Germany are doubling down on investments to increase their own domestic research capacity. It is now increasingly clear, in the so-called globalized 21st century, that such domestic capacity underpins national security and national sovereignty. The massive research funding investments elsewhere have put enormous pressure on Canadian universities, as they struggle to compete for and retain top research talent and the best graduate students.
We must act now to bolster domestic research capacity in order to strengthen national security and sovereignty in an increasingly competitive global environment. Our future depends on it.
Thank you.