Science and Research committee  The minister has had a lot of discussions with members of the university community, as well, to better understand the needs. There are still—

Science and Research committee  Thank you for the question. It is clear that federal scholarships have not increased in 20 years. In the 1990s, when I was a student, the amounts were—

Science and Research committee  Do you mean in terms of scholarship amounts or in terms of our place in the world in research?

Science and Research committee  With respect to scholarships, the data are there. I do not think we need to do any studies to see that the amounts have not increased. We have the numbers in front of us. So it is quite clear. With regard to brain loss, I may not have read the same reports you have in front of you.

Science and Research committee  As a public servant, I explained the problem to the minister. He himself said that he was aware that there was something to fix. The government has not yet found a specific solution, but as you said and as I have reiterated, the problem is there and it is obvious.

Science and Research committee  That's not what I said. I said that the government had not yet found a solution, but that it was discussing this issue.

Science and Research committee  For about five years.

Science and Research committee  Thank you for the question. If you go back, it's been a very interesting progression, from my perspective. I was a graduate student in the mid-nineties, and—

Science and Research committee  There was a pretty significant investment starting at the end of the nineties and continuing for quite a period of time to build up Canada's research capabilities in terms of research infrastructure and research funding. You've seen the Canadian research ecosystem really evolve into something that's very well respected globally.

Science and Research committee  A lot of the universities, particularly for graduate-level and post-doctoral research, depend on international students to a great extent. They've added a lot of value to our research ecosystem, so I would expect there would continue to be an effort to try to attract talent to universities, not only for the benefits of revenue raising and research at universities, but also as a means to bring talented people from around the world to Canada and hopefully have them stay and contribute to the economy.

Science and Research committee  You'd have to look at the trends for the undergraduate student population, which is the largest component of revenues for universities. If you're talking about scholarships and fellowships that are targeted at graduate students and post-doctoral fellows in particular, the numbers we're talking about are not huge in terms of the overall student population.

Science and Research committee  The government is studying the recommendations of the report. I think there's a general sense there could be more done in terms of driving mission-oriented research in having a more coordinated approach to how to engage with the research funders and how we engage internationally on science and research.

Science and Research committee  One thing we've seen in the way research has evolved over time is that there has been a greater appreciation of the synergies between different disciplines of research. You see a lot of the more transformative projects that are put forward by researchers cutting across social sciences, humanities and health sciences.

Science and Research committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the invitation. I am pleased to join this committee once again to testify on this important topic. I wish to acknowledge that I am working on the traditional unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe people. As you mentioned, I am the Assistant Deputy Minister for the Science and Research Sector at Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada.

Science and Research committee  I don't have those numbers on hand.