Canada launched a C$1.7 billion ($1.2 billion) program on Tuesday to recruit top global researchers, part of efforts to poach intellectual talent seeking to leave the United States due to President Donald Trump’s policies.
Canada’s leading institutions — including the country’s largest hospital network and the University of Toronto — have already announced multimillion-dollar strategies to recruit experts whose work has been hurt by Trump’s vast budget cuts to scientific research.
Canada’s federal government has now joined the effort, in what it called “one of the largest recruitment programs of its kind in the world.”
The plan isn’t just for U.S.-based researchers affected by Trump.
A statement from the Ministries of Industry and Health says the aim is “to attract and support more than 1,000 leading international and expatriate researchers”, including French speakers.
But asked by AFP At a news conference Tuesday, if scientists alienated by the president were targeted for recruitment, Industry Minister Mélanie Joly said: “Some countries are turning their backs on academic freedom. We will not do it.”
The recruiting effort would be global, she said, but she added, “We know that many people south of the border are raising their hands and expressing interest already.” Our universities have already started having these conversations.
Experts have warned that Trump’s policies could trigger major changes in the global competition to recruit some of the world’s brightest minds, dominated for decades by deep-pocketed American universities backed by strong federal funding.
Trump’s funding cuts have impacted a range of research projects, and studies focusing on climate change or diversity, equity and inclusion have been heavily affected.
The European Union has also pushed to attract American researchers, announcing an incentive package worth 500 million euros ($582 million) earlier this year to make the 27-country bloc “a magnet for researchers.”
Joly said a priority would be to encourage leading Canadian researchers working abroad to return.
“I think for a long time in Canada we’ve been talking about brain drain,” Joly said, expressing hope that the country would now be able to “bring our people home.”
