Canada launches billion-dollar plan to hire top researchers

(Patria) - Canada has launched a program worth 1.7 billion Canadian dollars (1.2 billion US dollars) to recruit the world's leading researchers, as part of efforts to attract intellectual talent looking to leave the United States due to President Donald Trump's policies, AFP reported.

Leading Canadian institutions, including the country's largest hospital network and the University of Toronto, had previously announced multi-million dollar strategies to recruit experts whose work has been affected by Trump's broad cuts to scientific research. The Canadian federal government has now joined this effort, in what it called "one of the largest recruitment programs of its kind in the world".

The plan is not strictly aimed at US-based researchers affected by Trump.

A statement from the ministries of Industry and Health stated that the goal is to "attract and support more than 1,000 leading international and expatriate researchers", including French speakers.

However, when asked by AFP at a press conference on Tuesday whether scientists targeted by the US president would be recruited, Industry Minister Melanie Joly said: "Some countries are turning their backs on academic freedom. We will not do that."

She said that recruitment efforts would be global, but added: "We know that many people south of the border are throwing up their hands and already showing interest. Our universities have already started these conversations."

Experts have warned that Trump's policies could cause major shifts in the global competition for some of the world's brightest minds, a field dominated for decades by wealthy US universities backed by strong federal funding.

Trump's funding cuts have affected a range of research projects, with studies related to climate change or diversity, equity, and inclusion being hit hard.

The European Union has also made an effort to attract US researchers, announcing a stimulus package worth 500 million euros (582 million dollars) earlier this year to make the 27-country bloc a "magnet for researchers".

Joly said that the priority would be to encourage leading Canadian researchers working abroad to return.

"I think for a long time in Canada we've talked about brain drain," Joly said, expressing hope that the country would now be able to "bring our people home".