We recommend two specific policy changes.
The first is establishing a new framework for research funding and distribution quotas determined by the number of graduate students enrolled in research-based programs at each institution. This would shift the current allocation of funding to a model that is balanced, based upon academic merit of the students and aligned with the proportion of researchers in each of the three tri-agencies. This would also expand access to funding opportunities for all universities regardless of their size, location and profile.
The second is creating a mobility scholarship program, which CAGS is proposing. It should provide funding to graduate students and post-doctoral scholars to pursue part of their research program and their studies outside of their own institution. It should be similar to the European Commission's Erasmus mundus program. CAGS would like the tri-agencies to evaluate the introduction of a Canadian Erasmus program to encourage interprovincial graduate student and post-doctoral student mobility.