Science and Research committee  Mr. Chair, I would just add very quickly that perhaps in graduate studies your future is not very predictable. That's perhaps what affects the ability of students to come to join a graduate program. If you go to a trade course, your future is predictable. If you want to do this—i

Science and Research committee  I fully agree. I'll give you an example. A post-doctoral fellow in my lab was considering moving to the U.S. because they have a K99 fellowship program. The funding from it gives you a much higher salary, and you also get investments to kick-start your own lab. In some ways the g

Science and Research committee  My colleague previously alluded to a loss of trainees, and I really believe in curiosity-driven science. I'm part of Let's Talk Science and I talk to school kids. You see the spark in their eyes. The children, by nature, are extremely curious. Our kids are very curious. If you ta

Science and Research committee  Thank you for the question. It's an excellent question. This is something we do have an application in for, under the New Frontiers program, the transformation stream, which is about $24 million. It's a big enough program, but it's also extremely competitive, and the program fun

Science and Research committee  Thank you for the question. I think I'll step back a couple of years. When COVID-19 showed up, we were one of the first to mobilize. At the time, I was at McMaster University and the University of Toronto. I think the biggest challenge we faced was in personnel. We had no perso

Science and Research committee  I think it has been widely acknowledged that we didn't have biomanufacturing capacity in Canada. Again, for me, it's very refreshing to see that we are making those investments. We may not be as impactful for COVID-19, but COVID-19 is probably on its way to becoming endemic, and

Science and Research committee  Thank you for that question. That's a fascinating question. In fact, there is data as of last week for this, so this is very timely. My colleague, Dr. Raina Plowright at Cornell, just published a 25-year longitudinal study identifying factors that directly impact pathogen sheddi

Science and Research committee  There are very good surveillance programs in the U.S., and not just within the U.S.—American colleagues are surveilling overseas. I think what we really lack in Canada—this is through conversations with my colleagues in Canada—is that we really don't do surveillance. We don't h

Science and Research committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair and members of the committee, thank you for inviting me to this discussion. This session is my first time, so I'm nervous and excited. I'm joining you from the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization. We are based at the University of Sas