Canada Recruits 64 Top Researchers, Including 48 from US Institutions, Amid Federal Funding Turmoil
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Canada announced the hiring of 64 scholars supported by more than C$500 million ($350 million) over eight years through its Global Impact+ Research Talent Initiative.
Forty-eight of the recruited academics come from US institutions including Harvard, Cornell, and MIT, spanning medicine, engineering, and climate science.
Researchers cited frozen federal grants and concerns over academic freedom under the Trump administration as key factors driving their departure.
Canada has recruited dozens of academics from American campuses as the United States cracks down on prestigious institutions, announcing the hiring of 64 scholars who will be supported by more than 500 million Canadian dollars (more than $350 million) for eight years at several universities across Canada.
The announcement was made on Thursday by Canadian Industry Minister Mélanie Joly at a press conference at the University of British Columbia (UBC). Forty-eight of the academics will come from institutions in the US, including Harvard, Cornell, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and they span a range of disciplines including medicine, engineering, and climate science.
A Shift Driven by Funding Uncertainty and Academic Freedom
US President Donald Trump's administration has targeted a set of elite colleges and universities since he returned to office, exerting control by cutting them off from federal funding. The administration has also frozen federal research grants for many institutions and groups that it has argued are wasteful, while accusing universities of being dominated by left-wing ideology and diversity policies and of failing to tackle alleged campus antisemitism.
Researchers have expressed concern over the White House's increasing power over who receives scientific grants, and these concerns have led to turmoil as academics at colleges and universities in the US consider the future of their research.
"The funding environment in the US for anything related to climate and resilience has become challenging," said Seth Guikema, a climate resiliency researcher at the University of Michigan and one of the 48 US researchers relocating to Canada. "I was looking for a good intellectual home where I could have practical impact."
Guikema said he would use C$8 million over the next eight years to research tools for better preparing for natural hazards, like storms and wildfires, at the University of Western Ontario.
Researchers Cite Barriers to Their Work
Some of the researchers cited concerns over academic freedom in the US as contributing to their decision. Phillip Zamore, a researcher of RNA biology at the University of Massachusetts, told NPR affiliate WBUR that he decided to depart his institution after recruitment became an issue.
"I cannot do my best work in America," Zamore said. "I can't recruit the best people to help me do that, and I can't promise them an environment where they'll be safe."
Peter Caravan, who worked for two decades as a biopharmaceutical researcher and professor at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, appeared emotional at the Thursday news conference announcing the research appointments. Caravan is researching how illnesses like cancers and chronic diseases (搜索) can be better detected, work that will now be done out of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.
Steven Lamy, a professor of International Relations at the University of Southern California, argued that major grant agencies "have been cut and politicised" by the current US administration.
Canada's Investment in Research Excellence
The funding for the researchers comes from Canada's Global Impact+ Research Talent Initiative, a 1.7 billion Canadian dollars (more than $1.2 billion) effort to "attract world-leading researchers to Canada."
"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 at the press conference.
When asked whether she believes Trump will view the hirings as an escalation of the trade war, Joly said that the move represents Canada making its own decisions. "The US administration is taking its own decisions and we're taking ours," Joly said. "We're very glad that these fantastic professors are coming."
The institutions that hired the professors celebrated the move in a series of statements. Dr. Benoit-Antoine Bacon, the president and vice-chancellor of UBC, which hired nine of the researchers, said the university is "delighted to welcome these nine exceptional researchers, whose work will have important and meaningful impact."
"This vital government support is helping Canada build an extraordinary foundation of research excellence amid an uncertain international landscape," said Melanie Woodin, president of the University of Toronto, where six researchers will work.
Ethan Zuckerman, a media scholar who will leave the University of Massachusetts Amherst for McGill University, said in a statement that he saw it as an opportunity to join a team doing "groundbreaking work." "Canada's willingness to support research that challenges commercial and political threats to democracy is deeply necessary at a moment where authoritarianism is on the rise around the globe," he said.