Editorial - 26-13

Is NSERC fulfilling its mandate and if not, who's to blame? The issue is the dominant focus of discussion in academic circles these days as tight budgets and an activist government are resulting in some difficult choices at the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council. In this year alone, several decisions by the granting council have provoked the ire of researchers.

First it was the cancellation or suspension of key research support programs, prompting a report by the opposition New Democratic Party to issue a report calling for their immediate reinstatement (see page 4). This was quickly followed by the abysmally low success rate for the latest post-doctoral fellowships competition, underscoring what some have termed the deterioration of NSERC's flagship vehicle for fundamental research — the Discovery Grants program. One particularly barbed blogger has described the current NSERC as a "demolition derby".

So how much of this is true, and if so, who's in charge of steering the NSERC ship — the bureaucrat in charge of its administration (Dr Suzanne Fortier) or the responsible minister (Gary Goodyear)? The former is publicly silent while the latter says NSERC makes its own decisions on how to use the funding allocated to them. And what of the role of NSERC's governing council. Are they advising the president and doing it well?

An intelligent and frank discussion of NSERC's direction and actions is long overdue. The key players have to get beyond either avoiding the issues or papering them over with bland platitudes. The community it serves deserves no less.