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An Ottawa scientist whose lab has been able to prevent cognitive decline in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease using a drug aimed at other illnesses says he can no longer “in good conscience” advise students to pursue a career in science in Canada “due to the dismal outlook we are facing.”
Stephen Ferguson, a professor in the faculty of medicine at the University of Ottawa, a career investigator with the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and who has held several prestigious Canada Research chairs, is one of many Canadian scientists expressing dismay at changes to science funding in Canada through reforms at the Canadian Institutes for Health Research.
The situation, he says, has changed the way he views science as a career. Not only has he stopped advising students to pursue science careers in Canada but Ferguson, who comes from a family of scientists, said he has “actively pushed my own children away from science.”
Other scientists told the Citizen on Wednesday they face the possibility of closing successful research labs and laying off staff. One early career researcher said reforms at the billion-dollar funding agency “represent an existential threat to my career.”
Kristin Baetz, interim director of the Ottawa Institute of Systems Biology, and president of the Canadian Society for Molecular Biosciences, sent a letter to colleagues asking them to write to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Minister of Health Jane Philpott, Minister of Science Kirsty Duncan and Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Navdeep Singh Bains asking for changes at the CIHR.
“It is critical that the new Liberal government hear about how the CIHR reforms have impacted your research program.”
Michael Rudnicki, a leading Canadian stem cell researcher based at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, has called on the federal government to make leadership changes at the CIHR, including replacing president Alain Beaudet.
Dr. Michael Rudnicki, Canada Resarch Chair in Molecular Genetics, says changes are needed at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the federal agency that overseas $1 billion in research funding annually.
Rudnicki and others say there is less money for basic research and that reforms have distorted the peer review system. Morale among scientists has bottomed out and many are struggling to hang on, he and others said.
Beaudet defended the reforms saying he is concerned about morale among scientists but that changes were both necessary and requested by researchers.
Complaints about the reforms are focused on changes to the peer review system, which selects who receives funding dollars. Instead of the traditional model in which a peer of experts in an area meets in person to review proposals, the system was changed. The new system involves individuals — some who are not experts — who send in comments online. The result, critics say, is a system that is opaque, unaccountable and random — more like a lottery than a means of choosing the best research proposals.
“I seriously fear for the future,” said Ferguson. “I have seen colleagues who I look up to and respect as being better than me who didn’t make it through the last round of funding and that just puts the fear of God into me. When you’ve got people who are world-class scientists who don’t get funded … ”
Veronique Bohbot, an associate professor in the department of psychiatry and an associate member in the department of neurology and neurosurgery at McGill University’s faculty of medicine, is running a CIHR funded clinical trial to alleviate symptoms in patients with mild cognitive impairments and who are at risk of Alzheimers disease. “I have made huge breakthroughs that were fundamental to obtaining the current funds,” she said, including a discovery that will enable the detection of Alzheimer’s up to a decade before symptoms appear.
Neuroscientist Véronique Bohbot.
Despite that, Bohbot said, she faces the risk of running out of funding in a year. Because of CIHR reforms, she could not apply for funding in September, and can apply in March 2016, but said she is aware there is a low probability of getting any.
“This means that, as it stands, my laboratory is scheduled to shut down most operations by the end of September 2016. Even if I receive funding soon after, it would take me years to train new staff and recover the lost expertise. This has caused serious anxiety in my life.”
Bohbot said she knows other scientists in the same situation “and at a great chance of closing their labs.”
The new federal government has promised a new relationship with scientists and has appointed two ministers to oversee science, a message researchers say they hope will translate into more funding for discovery science and changes to a system of reforms that they say has made the climate increasingly tough for those doing scientific research in Canada.
Currently, 14 per cent of researchers who apply for funding through the CIHR are successful.
epayne@ottawacitizen.com
查看原文...
Stephen Ferguson, a professor in the faculty of medicine at the University of Ottawa, a career investigator with the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and who has held several prestigious Canada Research chairs, is one of many Canadian scientists expressing dismay at changes to science funding in Canada through reforms at the Canadian Institutes for Health Research.
The situation, he says, has changed the way he views science as a career. Not only has he stopped advising students to pursue science careers in Canada but Ferguson, who comes from a family of scientists, said he has “actively pushed my own children away from science.”
Other scientists told the Citizen on Wednesday they face the possibility of closing successful research labs and laying off staff. One early career researcher said reforms at the billion-dollar funding agency “represent an existential threat to my career.”
Kristin Baetz, interim director of the Ottawa Institute of Systems Biology, and president of the Canadian Society for Molecular Biosciences, sent a letter to colleagues asking them to write to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Minister of Health Jane Philpott, Minister of Science Kirsty Duncan and Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Navdeep Singh Bains asking for changes at the CIHR.
“It is critical that the new Liberal government hear about how the CIHR reforms have impacted your research program.”
Michael Rudnicki, a leading Canadian stem cell researcher based at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, has called on the federal government to make leadership changes at the CIHR, including replacing president Alain Beaudet.
Dr. Michael Rudnicki, Canada Resarch Chair in Molecular Genetics, says changes are needed at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the federal agency that overseas $1 billion in research funding annually.
Rudnicki and others say there is less money for basic research and that reforms have distorted the peer review system. Morale among scientists has bottomed out and many are struggling to hang on, he and others said.
Beaudet defended the reforms saying he is concerned about morale among scientists but that changes were both necessary and requested by researchers.
Complaints about the reforms are focused on changes to the peer review system, which selects who receives funding dollars. Instead of the traditional model in which a peer of experts in an area meets in person to review proposals, the system was changed. The new system involves individuals — some who are not experts — who send in comments online. The result, critics say, is a system that is opaque, unaccountable and random — more like a lottery than a means of choosing the best research proposals.
“I seriously fear for the future,” said Ferguson. “I have seen colleagues who I look up to and respect as being better than me who didn’t make it through the last round of funding and that just puts the fear of God into me. When you’ve got people who are world-class scientists who don’t get funded … ”
Veronique Bohbot, an associate professor in the department of psychiatry and an associate member in the department of neurology and neurosurgery at McGill University’s faculty of medicine, is running a CIHR funded clinical trial to alleviate symptoms in patients with mild cognitive impairments and who are at risk of Alzheimers disease. “I have made huge breakthroughs that were fundamental to obtaining the current funds,” she said, including a discovery that will enable the detection of Alzheimer’s up to a decade before symptoms appear.
Neuroscientist Véronique Bohbot.
Despite that, Bohbot said, she faces the risk of running out of funding in a year. Because of CIHR reforms, she could not apply for funding in September, and can apply in March 2016, but said she is aware there is a low probability of getting any.
“This means that, as it stands, my laboratory is scheduled to shut down most operations by the end of September 2016. Even if I receive funding soon after, it would take me years to train new staff and recover the lost expertise. This has caused serious anxiety in my life.”
Bohbot said she knows other scientists in the same situation “and at a great chance of closing their labs.”
The new federal government has promised a new relationship with scientists and has appointed two ministers to oversee science, a message researchers say they hope will translate into more funding for discovery science and changes to a system of reforms that they say has made the climate increasingly tough for those doing scientific research in Canada.
Currently, 14 per cent of researchers who apply for funding through the CIHR are successful.
epayne@ottawacitizen.com
查看原文...
