Canada is taking advantage of growing uncertainty within the US academic system by offering hundreds of millions of dollars to researchers willing to move north, according to Bloomberg.
The Canadian government has committed C$504 million, or roughly $362 million, to support 64 scientists and scholars joining universities across the country. Three quarters of the recruits currently work in the United States, many at institutions including Harvard, MIT and the University of North Carolina. The remaining researchers are arriving from a dozen other countries, including China, Japan, Germany and the UK. Nearly half of the group coming from the US are Canadian citizens returning home.
The new arrivals include Sara Seager, a leading planetary scientist leaving MIT for the University of Toronto, and MIT materials scientist James LeBeau. The University of British Columbia is adding Brian Kuhlman, whose protein research was connected to work recognized by the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, along with Harvard computational biologist Curtis Huttenhower, who studies the relationship between microorganisms and human health.
Bloomberg writes that each researcher will receive support over an eight-year period, with their work concentrated in fields Canada considers strategically important, including health care, artificial intelligence, advanced computing, environmental science and commercially promising tech
