Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to both of our witnesses. Your opening statements were so comprehensive that they answered a lot of the questions I had for you, so thank you so much.
I think there's no question that we need both the applied research that the colleges specialize in and the theoretical research that the universities do, so I don't think it's one versus the other. We need both, and we need to try to get fair and adequate funding for both.
Ms. Watts-Rynard, you were here in May 2022 and, at that point, you raised the issue of the criteria for allocating federal funding with the committee. This is what you said at the time:
while the college sector is technically eligible under the Canadian research chair program, allocations are based on funding received from tri-councils in the previous year. The college and community innovation program, which is the major and often only source of federal research funding, is excluded from this calculation.
Could you elaborate on the way the criteria the granting agencies use to award research funding apply to colleges and polytechnics, and what are the consequences of using those criteria?