Media Releases

Federal Budget’s Research Excellence Fund Huge Step in the Right Direction: U of T President

February 11, 2014

Toron­to – Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to Pres­i­dent Mer­ic Gertler says the Gov­ern­ment of Cana­da has tak­en a huge step in the right direc­tion with invest­ments in research and inno­va­tion and in par­tic­u­lar the announce­ment of the Cana­da First Research Excel­lence Fund in today’s fed­er­al bud­get.  This fund, which will grow to $200M annu­al­ly, will sup­port world-lead­ing research at insti­tu­tions right across Cana­da.

“This new fund will sup­port research that leads to vital dis­cov­er­ies and will help us con­tin­ue to attract the best minds from around the world,” said Gertler.  “That is good news for the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to and those engaged in fos­ter­ing inno­va­tion and excel­lence.”

Gertler said the U of T and insti­tu­tions around the coun­try have been encour­ag­ing the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment to cre­ate such a fund.  He point­ed out that Canada’s post-sec­ondary insti­tu­tions face stiff com­pe­ti­tion from insti­tu­tions around the world where invest­ments in research con­tin­ue to grow.  The new fund, he said, will give Cana­da a much stronger abil­i­ty to meet that com­pe­ti­tion effec­tive­ly.

The U of T pres­i­dent also thanked his col­leagues in oth­er uni­ver­si­ties for their joint sup­port of the cre­ation of the fund announced in today’s bud­get.

Gertler also wel­comed the fed­er­al budget’s announce­ment of an increase in fund­ing for the grant­i­ng coun­cils that sup­port a sig­nif­i­cant amount of the research con­duct­ed by schol­ars at Cana­di­an uni­ver­si­ties.  The bud­get announced an addi­tion­al $46 mil­lion annu­al­ly for those coun­cils, fund­ing Gertler says will con­tin­ue to sup­port research excel­lence at the U of T.

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