Thank you, Madam Chair.

I would like to extend my greetings to all the committee members.

I'm pleased to be here and to have the chance to contribute to your discussions.

I want to especially thank you for inviting me back to talk about the capstone research funding organization announced in budget 2024, but first let me emphasize the impact of the new research funding announced in budget 2024 for scholarships, fellowships and the core budgets of the federal research granting agencies, as well as AI compute capacity. While more remains to be done, this support better positions Canada and all Canadians for a competitive 21st century.

As you know, U15 Canada is composed of the leading 15 research-intensive universities that came together in 2012 to help advance research and innovation policies and programs for the benefit of all Canadians. These universities act as domestic research hubs for Canada's entire diversified research ecosystem. That includes not only universities but also research hospitals, research organizations and colleges.

In this context, U15 Canada welcomed budget 2024's announcement that it would act on the advice of the advisory panel by creating a new capstone research funding organization. This development reflects increasing efforts to combine the strengths of disciplinary research to study deeply complex phenomena.

When they were first created during the 1960s and 1970s, the federal research funding agencies reflected the established assumption that the best way to advance knowledge was through specialized research. This approach proved stunningly effective during the 20th century and led to major advances that have improved quality of life in remarkable ways.

In recent decades, however, we have also become increasingly aware that disciplinary expertise by itself cannot always tackle complex research questions. For this reason, the federal funding bodies began working years ago to make their collective achievements greater than the sum of their parts.

To manage this approach, the federal research agencies collectively created what is now called the “Tri-agency Institutional Programs Secretariat”, which administers about one-third of the three federal research agency budgets, as well as the vast array of common research policies.

The Bouchard panel concluded that the time had come to take further steps in leveraging the specialized disciplinary strengths of the research funding agencies by evolving the tri-council's secretariat with a new governance structure.

U15 Canada supports these efforts to build on the long-standing success of Canada's research system with updates that seek to strengthen coordination across the granting agency programs through a new governance mechanism. As recommended in the Bouchard report, such updates must preserve and build on the existing strengths of the research support system, including the excellence in fundamental research at the granting councils.

Similarly, updates must be implemented cautiously to minimize any disruption to the existing system and ongoing research.

The new capstone organization must continue to maintain the political independence of funding decisions. This core commitment to academic freedom and the free pursuit of knowledge are foundational principles of Canada's research system and are central components of its success. Funding decisions must always be guided by a commitment to scientific and scholarly excellence, based on competitive applications and merit-based review to support the best proposals and the best researchers.

The new organization must commit to diverse representation, including indigenous researchers, to achieve truly inclusive excellence.

An ongoing connection to health research must ensure that health-based research is guided by health care delivery, patient outcomes and the activities of other federal departments and agencies. Similarly, it is essential that the social sciences and humanities research on human thought and behaviour be fully supported in keeping up with the complex challenges and opportunities of the 21st century.

Finally, we welcome the recent publication of a “what we heard” report following tri-agency-led consultations. We appreciated their recommendation for sustained engagement and ongoing dialogue as the capstone changes are developed and implemented.

Overall, the opportunity to pursue greater interdisciplinary research, to strengthen international research collaboration and to drive mission-driven research, building on the essential specialized research supported by the granting agencies, promises to be an important step forward for the research ecosystem for the benefit of Canada.

We look forward to learning more about this initiative in the coming weeks.

Thank you.

I look forward to the discussion.