Canada attracts 64 top researchers from US and beyond with half-billion-dollar grants

Canada has landed 64 leading researchers from around the world with C$504 million in grants, pulling nearly four dozen scientists away from American campuses including Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The funding package, announced Thursday by Industry Minister Melanie Joly in Vancouver, awards each scholar millions to relocate their laboratories and projects, ranging from health research to artificial intelligence, to Canadian universities. Forty-eight of the incoming academics currently work in the United States, while the remaining 16 are based in a dozen other nations including the United Kingdom, Germany, China and Japan.

Carney government seizes on U.S. research cuts

"While certain countries are cutting research and turning their back on academic freedom, we're doubling down on science and we're doubling down on research," Joly said.

The recruitment drive capitalises on recent U.S. federal funding reductions, immigration restrictions and escalating tensions between the Trump administration and elite universities that have prompted scholars to explore exits. Twenty-three of the 64 research chairs are Canadians now returning home.

C$1.7 billion commitment over 12 years

Thursday's announcement forms part of a broader initiative Prime Minister Mark Carney's government launched last year to strengthen Canadian universities, with C$1.7 billion allocated over 12 years to recruit more than 1,000 researchers. The opening wave of awards signals Ottawa's intent to position Canada as a destination for scientists who feel policy shifts have left them unsupported in the United States.

Source: South China Morning Post