Category Archives: Financial

CIHR Updates: Budget 2012 and Science Policy Fellowships

Today’s post is actually two mini-posts – one on CIHR’s response to Budget 2012 and the other on the announcement of their Science Policy Fellowship program. Response to Budget 2012 Earlier this month, CIHR President Alain Beaudet released a message concerning … Continue reading

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A Difficult Pill to Swallow: The Harsh Realities of a 15% Funding Rate

A country’s biomedical advancement and innovation is intimately linked to its investment in academic research (Measure for Measure: Chemical Research & Development Powers the U.S. Innovation Engine). Funding for research comes almost entirely from government and private donors (Stossel, T.P., … Continue reading

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Biomedical Research and Broken Clocks: All the Parts, but No Instructions

The day-to-day rigors of academic biomedical research are difficult to appreciate, and it is necessary that scientists share their perspective of the knowledge market with politicians and government representatives who are burdened with making difficult decisions on our behalf. Unlike … Continue reading

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Bidding You Adieu

So, a while back I mentioned that I would be applying to CIHR’s Science-to-Business (S2B) program, which provides scholarships for individuals with PhDs in a health related field to do MBAs. And the good news is that I was fortunate enough … Continue reading

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Notch 4 in the STIC – The 30 year old question: Why does Canada lag in R&D spending?

Many reports have been written over the past 30 years about Canada and its R&D spending, and they clamour one after the other about Canada’s relative lack of investment into R&D.  We’ve been through periods of deep cutbacks and periods … Continue reading

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Notch 3 in the STIC: Business Expenditures on Research & Development

In his last posting, Dave mentioned that statistic on Canada’s direct vs. indirect funding really jumped out of the STIC report. Another stat that really jumps out is something known as “Business expenditure on R&D (BERD) intensity.” BERD intensity is … Continue reading

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Quick Hit: News about Trainee Stipends From Grants

A quick break from our summer series on the STIC report to bring you some news about rules around paying trainee stipends from CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC grants. From the CIHR e-newsletter I just received: Tri-agencies harmonizing policies on stipends … Continue reading

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Posted in Education and Training, Financial | 9 Comments

Quarterly Summary: Expanding our Reach

This quarter, both Beth and Dave have made efforts to bring the Black Hole out of e-space and into the new territory.  Firstly, a panel organised by science blogger Maryse de la Giroday at Frogheart.ca will feature Beth at Northern … Continue reading

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Posted in Education and Training, Financial, General, Jobs, Policy, Science Communication | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Reducing medical (science) waste: Thinking before doing…

I was sitting down with a group of scientists following a football/soccer game the other day and dropped a bomb into the conversation by asking if people thought cancer research got too much money.  Nobody, myself included, disputed the obvious … Continue reading

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2011 Taxes for Post Docs: At least we know the rules this year

Last year, one of the hottest topics on the site was Budget 2010 and the new rules regarding postdoctoral fellowships. Those entries are still amongst the most popular: (latest post) 2012 Taxes for Postdocs: Dredging up the Past 2010 Canadian Taxes: … Continue reading

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Posted in Education and Training, Financial, Policy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 31 Comments