Northern Research Gets a $1 Million Boost

NSERC takes steps to begin rebuilding Canadian university-based northern research

(Ottawa, Ontario) - The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) will launch up to six Northern Research Chairs and make available additional support for postgraduate and postdoctoral study.

"Discovery and innovation are vital to our economic and social future," said the Honourable Brian Tobin, Minister of Industry and Minister responsible for NSERC. "These Chairs and the partnership with northern communities and organizations will insure that we address important scientific, environmental and social challenges with northern dimensions."

"It's a modest but important step for our Council. We felt obliged to take it in light of the significance of the North to Canada," said NSERC President Tom Brzustowski. "We hope, of course, that our action will catalyze a much more substantial program of northern research."

Last June, the federal government announced that $10 million would be allocated to implement the Northern Dimension of Canada's Foreign Policy. The funding would address five priority areas, two of those areas will be, the strengthening of the Arctic Council and the establishment of a University of the Arctic.

In September 2000, a task force organized by NSERC and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) issued a report on the state of research in the North.

The report, From Crisis to Opportunity: Rebuilding Canada's Role in Northern Research, proposed a five-point program: establish university research chairs, create scholarships and fellowships, support strategic research projects, build new partnerships between universities and northern communities, and provide funding for equipment and infrastructure.

"There's no doubt that the last few decades have been extremely challenging for university and government researchers alike," said Brzustowski. "The number of new researchers entering these fields has declined dramatically."

"With the impetus created by our new Chair program, and the increasing public awareness of the importance of the Arctic and Canada's role there, we are confident things can be turned around," he added.

NSERC and SSHRC expect to post a joint response to the report's policy recommendations on their Web sites in March. In expressing its support for the report's findings, SSHRC made a commitment to fund the proposed activities - including its innovative concept for northern Community-University Research Alliances - should additional funding become available.

The new NSERC program will begin immediately and over two years ramp up to approximately $1.25 million per year.

Information on the new NSERC Chair and stipend program will be available on the NSERC Web site by the end of February.

For more information, contact:

Elizabeth Boston, NSERC,
(613) 995-5695 or elizabeth.boston@nserc.ca

Dr. Tom Hutchinson, Chair, Task Force on Northern Research, Trent University,
(705) 748-1634 or thutchinson@trentu.ca.