Media Releases

Ontario universities celebrate contribution of federal Canada Research Chairs program

November 19, 2010

TORONTO, ON — The Coun­cil of Ontario Uni­ver­si­ties (COU) con­grat­u­lates Ontario’s 700 Cana­da Research Chairs (CRCs), who are mark­ing a decade of impact with the 10th anniver­sary of the pro­gram, which attracts tal­ent from across Cana­da and around the world to help answer big ques­tions about how peo­ple live, work and play.

“This pro­gram has made a major con­tri­bu­tion to qual­i­ty research, attract­ing high­ly skilled peo­ple to our insti­tu­tions, and con­tribut­ing to the eco­nom­ic and social well-being of our province and coun­try,” says Shel­don Levy, Chair of COU and Pres­i­dent of Ryer­son Uni­ver­si­ty. “We applaud the Gov­ern­ment of Cana­da for its sup­port of this pro­gram and thank the Gov­ern­ment of Ontario for enabling this impor­tant work to be done by pro­vid­ing fund­ing for labs, equip­ment and oth­er infra­struc­ture costs.”

The pro­gram was estab­lished in response to major con­cerns about a “brain drain” – the loss of tal­ent­ed researchers and teach­ers to oth­er parts of the world. The CRC pro­gram has helped reverse that, cre­at­ing a “brain gain.” In addi­tion to attract­ing domes­tic tal­ent, 46 per cent of inter­na­tion­al­ly recruit­ed CRCs are Cana­di­ans who have been repa­tri­at­ed from uni­ver­si­ties abroad.

Titled Think­ing Ahead for a Strong Future, a CRC cel­e­bra­tion and con­fer­ence will be held at the Metro Toron­to Con­ven­tion Cen­tre on Novem­ber 24 and 25, and will show­case the con­tri­bu­tion of the chairs to research in areas such as health, food, tech­nol­o­gy, the envi­ron­ment and the econ­o­my. The event has been made pos­si­ble through a col­lab­o­ra­tion of the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment, the Pub­lic Pol­i­cy Forum, Tourism Toron­to, the Metro Toron­to Con­ven­tion Cen­tre and COU.

“Ontar­i­ans can be proud of the robust pro­grams at our uni­ver­si­ties that cov­er the full spec­trum of research, from dis­cov­ery research that expands the bound­aries of knowl­edge, to applied research that dri­ves eco­nom­ic activ­i­ty, shapes social pol­i­cy and enrich­es our lives,” says Bon­nie M. Pat­ter­son, Pres­i­dent and CEO of COU. “Research sup­port is crit­i­cal to ensur­ing that Ontario is suc­cess­ful in main­tain­ing our qual­i­ty of life in the years ahead.”

The suc­cess­es that have been achieved and the advance­ments that con­tin­ue to be made in research and dis­cov­ery are only pos­si­ble through col­lec­tive efforts. “Col­lab­o­ra­tion on research between busi­ness and post­sec­ondary insti­tu­tions is one of the crit­i­cal fac­tors in dri­ving Ontario’s pros­per­i­ty and progress,” says Len Crispino, Pres­i­dent of the Ontario Cham­ber of Com­merce. “We are proud to cel­e­brate, pro­mote and be part­ners in devel­op­ing the inno­va­tion capac­i­ty of our province.”

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For more infor­ma­tion, please con­tact:

Han­nah Yako­bi
Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Coor­di­na­tor
416–979-2165 ext. 238
hyakobi@cou.on.ca