The Canada Research Chairs Program emphasizes diversity in largest investment yet

The Canada Research Chairs Program (CRC) is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. In 2021, the CRC is providing $195 million to support 259 new and renewed Canada Research Chairs at 47 institutions across Canada. The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) continues its longstanding partnership with the CRC to provide $14 million in new funding for research infrastructure, to support 57 Chairs at 27 institutions. The combined funding constitutes the program’s largest-ever investment in a single calendar year.

Focus on EDI

In keeping with its formal mandate for diversity, equity, and inclusion, this year's research chair recipients are diverse: 26% self-identify as racialized minorities; 5% as Indigenous Peoples; 10% as persons with disabilities; and 51% as women.

"Since the implementation of the program’s EDI action plan, the participating institutions have made significant progress in nominating individuals from the four designated groups resulting in the nomination rate being close to or higher than Canada’s population levels and the representation rates being the highest they have been in the 20-year history of the program," a CRC spokesperson wrote to Research Money in an email.

Diversity of thought, of disciplines, and of researcher backgrounds are key objectives of the program, said Ted Hewitt, chair of the Canada Research Chair Program Steering Committee and president of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, in a statement. "Excellence can only be achieved in an environment that fully respects and promotes the principles of equity, diversity and inclusion, and by advancing knowledge across a variety of research disciplines—from developing new technologies to help clean and protect our oceans, to creating better and more inclusive education systems for our youth, and to applying machine learning to the field of biomedicine."

Building talent, achieving excellence

Attracting and retaining talent and research excellence are also primary aims of the program. “By ensuring that all qualified Canadians have opportunities to build research careers, succeed in generating new knowledge, and contribute to quality of life, we make sure that Canadian research meets high standards of excellence," said Mohamad Nasser-Eddine, director of programs at the Canada Foundation for Innovation, in an email to Research Money.

"Federal Budget 2018 proposed a new investment of $210 million over five years for the Canada Research Chairs Program to attract and retain leading early career researchers," wrote Nasser-Eddine. "In reaction to this increased investment, we have allocated an additional $50 million between April 2018 to March 2021 to 285 additional Canada Research Chairs and to ensure a greater diversity in the pool of talent that we support.”

"This Government of Canada investment will allow Canada’s most distinguished academics to train and mentor the next generation of researchers, pursue ground-breaking research that responds to society’s economic, social and health needs, as well as foster important international research collaborations," said the CRC spokesperson.

Areas of research and new grants

Given the increased focus in the public discourse in recent years on EDI, climate change and sustainability, population health, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity, the following projects were notable recipients of the CFI funding from its John R. Evans Leadership Fund (JELF):

• Funding to the Centre for the Study of Black Canadian Diaspora at OCAD university
• Study in privacy-preserving technologies at Ryerson
• Sustainable energy grids for smart communities at Ryerson
• Machine learning in biomedicine at the University of Toronto
• Funding to the Community Water Innovation Lab at the University of Victoria

New grants were given to support research in a variety of domains: climate change & sustainable technologies; use of technology for population health & wellness; making technology and science environmentally sustainable; mining & energy; interaction of science, technology and identities; new uses of communication technologies.

Here is a selection of Canada Research Chairs receiving new grants:

• Concordia University: Critical Disability Studies and Media Technologies
• McGill University: Sustainability Science
• McGill University: Population Health Informatics
• McGill University: Planetary Climate
• McGill University: Indigenous nutrition, and food sovereignty
• McGill University: Value theory and the philosophy of public policy
• McGill University: Human Rights and Transnational Environmental Governance
• McGill University: Regenerative Medicine and Nanomedicine
• NSCAD University: Transatlantic Black Diasporic Art and Community Engagement
• Queen's University: Future Communication Networks
• UBC: Computational Urban Science and Planning
• Université de Montréal: Computational Design for Digital Manufacturing
• Université de Sherbrooke: Northern and Planetary Geological Remote Sensing
• Université du Québec à Montréal: Arts, écotechnologies et changements climatiques (Arts, Environmental Technologies and Climate Change)
• Université Laval : Sustainable Animal Protein Production
• Université Laval: Human-Centred Digital Health (Santé numérique axée sur les personnes)
• University of Alberta: Aquatic Global Change Ecology and Conservation
• University of Calgary: Integrated Knowledge, Engineering & Sustainable Communities
• University of Ottawa: Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Enabled Next-Generation Wireless Networks
• University of Toronto: Urban Mining Innovations
• Cape Breton University: Healthy Environments and Communities
• University of Toronto: Atmospheric Chemistry and Health.

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