John Bergeron is the emeritus Robert Reford professor and a professor of medicine at McGill University. Kathleen Dickson is a former chief technician from the Montreal Neurological Institute. Dr. Stanley Kutcher is Professor Emeritus in the Faculty of Medicine at Dalhousie University and an Independent Senator for Nova Scotia.
The science that underlies the health and prosperity of people and countries is under attack in our southern neighbour. As demonstrated by the appointment of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., to the position of U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, the state, which has been entrusted with helping maintain the health security of its citizens, has now taken on the role of attacking the science that has in large part provided that security.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH), arguably the world’s most prestigious health research organization, is under attack from the Trump administration. No matter that its funding has resulted in more than 100 Nobel prizes, or that between 2000 and 2019, NIH-funded basic and applied research led to 386 of the 387 medications approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration; under Donald Trump’s leadership, it is being systematically torn apart.
The last few weeks have seen chaos break out at the NIH. Grant funding has been frozen. Communication from agency employees has been banned. A list of flagged terms in active research projects, such as “trauma,” “equity” and “historically,” are reportedly triggering funding reviews. Indirect costs that provide the infrastructure needed for university research development have been slashed.
Other science-driven organizations, including the National Science Foundation, have also been targeted. Overall, the Trump administration’s driven war on science will only have negative consequences for those living in the United States – not to mention to people around the world. Indeed, one of Mr. Trump’s early acts was to remove the U.S. from the World Health Organization. Global health security is now at a much higher risk.
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But Canada has an opportunity to benefit from the chaos under way that affects the lives and livelihoods of some of the world’s best and brightest health researchers. Top talent in the U.S. or those attracted to the U.S. for its capacity for discovery research may now have to look elsewhere if they want to continue their work – and Canada could be the alternative that they seek.
These are the health researchers who will solve the challenges of diseases such as cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s, and more. They are the researchers who can help us mitigate the negative health impacts of climate change and help us better prepare for the inevitable next pandemic. Canada could be a welcome home for such talent, all motivated to make the world a better place through discovery research.
To attract and retain this talent, Canada will need to compete with other nations for whom best-in-class health research is a priority. This will mean that Canada’s current underfunding of discovery-based research must be immediately addressed through substantial new investment.
The opportunity lies squarely in the wheelhouse of the federal government. It can step up quickly to at least double its investment in the Tri-Councils, which provide the standards and funding for excellent research in Canada. This is not a new call for support, but never in the history of our country has there been such an opportunity to attract world-class talent to Canada.
Attracting talent doesn’t require new legislation, regulations or programs. For example, the Canada Research Chairs program is already in place; it just requires improvement and increased funding support. Our universities are already internationally competitive research hubs; additional funding for Tri-Council-provided grants and Canadian Foundation for Innovation infrastructure funds would vault them into the global top tier.
Some tweaking will need to be made to our immigration system to allow us to expeditiously admit top scientific talent to Canada with a clearly defined pathway to citizenship, similar to what the O-1A visa did for the pre-Trump U.S. scientific community.
The world we entered when Mr. Trump was inaugurated on Jan. 20 is the most uncertain, chaotic and challenging time we’ve faced since the 1930s. The Trump administration’s dismantling of arguably the greatest research organizations in the history of humankind is an example of that chaos.
Yet, in this chaos, an opportunity arises for Canada. The question is – will we seize it, or let it slip away?