Thank you, Madam Chair.
I would like to begin by thanking you for inviting me to testify before your committee and wishing you great success in your mandate. On behalf of the Université du Québec en Outaouais, I assure you of our full cooperation for the future of science and research in Canada.
We already know that Canada has many successes in science and high-quality research, which is worth celebrating. My comments today will focus more on the challenges and opportunities in science and research.
The Université du Québec en Outaouais is a young university with some 6,000 students across its three locations: in Gatineau, Ripon and Saint-Jérôme. We are a university with a regional mission and very internationally diverse staff and student body. Our researchers often tackle real and multicultural challenges that require a multidisciplinary approach, including in natural sciences, the environment, forest sciences, education, computing, engineering and social sciences.
The COVID‑19 pandemic has been and still is a tremendous challenge for all of our systems, both in Canada and abroad. It has also provided an opportunity for transformation, as we have been forced to become more agile, more flexible and more quick to meet needs.
Canada's research councils and the Fonds de recherche du Québec, a Quebec research fund, have implemented agile funding to find solutions quickly. Researchers from around the world have been working together and have developed solutions faster than before based on knowledge they have acquired, such as the vaccine and experimental treatments, which are currently of interest to us.
We have also seen innovation in other fields, such as transportation logistics, distance education, telemedicine, the development of technological solutions for service delivery, but also cybersecurity, an area of excellence at the Université du Québec en Outaouais.
Canada will now have to learn from the crisis by identifying the needs and deficiencies exposed by the crisis before addressing them. So we will have to go from a reactive approach to a proactive approach if we want to forecast the future better and, more importantly, innovate more.
Major global challenges, such as the climate change crisis, will increasingly require ongoing intersectoral, interprovincial and international partnerships. Therefore, we will have to foster collaborations with countries that share our values of democracy and openness to the world.
International partnerships increase our research capacity. Therefore, strengthening research, institutions and the system for managing research and its outcomes in Canada is becoming a fundamental and vital issue for the sustainability of Canadian success and its benefits for the country and for the world.
In addition to developing fundamental knowledge, research in the 21st century must reflect complex issues and, more so than ever, it will have to be multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary. Some programs from Canada's research councils foster that approach. We will have to develop more of them and train more researchers on multidisciplinary approaches. So we will also have to recognize this type of training and expertise and researchers' background in order to develop young scientists's full potential.
It is no exaggeration to say that one of the dangers to democratic society nowadays resides in the lack of science culture and research culture. Our education systems hope to develop critical thinking in our young people. However, many of them can't distinguish between a personal opinion, the public opinion and a proven scientific fact. So young people must be introduced to research culture when they start school and given support, with general culture, throughout their development, whether they are headed to university or not.
Our universities' research offices are working hard to meet funder requirements. However, even large universities are suffering in having to manage all those requirements. So Canada could simplify procedures, thereby giving small universities more means.
As far as perspectives go, Canada has a lot of friends around the world. We export knowledge and know-how. We can also import more of it and thereby ensure a more sustainable development of science and research skills in Canada.
The pandemic has shown us the benefits, but also the limitations, of a globally interconnected society. We will now need more investment in leading sectors to position us as a global leader and to ensure scientific innovation and social innovation through research.
Finally, allow me to reiterate the following ideas. Science culture must be developed in young people—