In a rapidly changing world, research universities are essential for ensuring Canada has the knowledge and talent necessary to keep up.
By Vivek Goel Contributing Columnist, Waterloo Region Record
Vivek Goel is President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Waterloo
In a rapidly changing world, research universities are essential for ensuring Canada has the knowledge and talent necessary to keep up.
That’s why the University of Waterloo recently developed our Global Futures, a focus on five interconnected problem areas that can only be tackled with transdisciplinary scholarship and action.
Take Prof. Jason Thistlethwaite’s climate risk group — focused on our sustainable future by enabling Canadians to gauge personal disaster exposure. After a summer of climate-triggered wildfires in virtually every part of the country, and around the world, the importance of Thistlethwaite’s work comes into sharp focus. Or consider Professor Gautam Kammath’s health data privacy work, it showcases how advances in AI could improve health information exchange to ensure better health outcomes for our community and across the country.
Such research doesn’t happen overnight — it builds on decades of fundamental scholarship and requires collaboration and partnerships. Research labs like these not only focus on the biggest problems our society faces, but they also serve to train the next generation of big thinkers, graduate students who provide the capacity to do this work today and get the training to continue to address big challenges in the future.
Unfortunately, research such as this that creates tomorrow’s Canadian-made discoveries is at risk as funding support for universities and research institutes continues to be eroded. We will lose a generation of scholars if current funding trends continue, and recovering from such a loss will not be easy.
Canada has fallen behind our closest competitors in research and development funding. Canada lags behind G7 and OECD partners in commitments to masters and doctoral education and research. And the gaps are only going to grow.
The United States is committing $200 billion to science funding in the coming decade, while Germany, Israel, South Korea and others have all made similar pledges, with Japan recently unveiling an $87-billion science fund. China recently surpassed the United States in quantity of high quality research publications, the result of several decades of focused investment.
Put simply, we are hitting a point where the pace of change is so great, and our neighbours (friendly, and hostile) are investing so heavily in future-focused research, that merely relying on the status quo won’t just cost us our edge in the knowledge economy. It will see us lose ground to the point where our economy and society will be at the mercy of those innovating at a faster pace.
If wildfires in Yellowknife or Spain or the challenges of health data information exchange seem faraway or arcane, there is plenty at stake in the here and now. In Waterloo Region, we have enjoyed the benefits of well-funded, innovative universities for decades.
Since its founding in 1957, University of Waterloo has blended advanced research with co-operative education, and these areas of focus, alongside our regional partners, have forged a local identity rooted in technological innovation and entrepreneurship.
Our ability to attract talent, expertise, investment due to well-funded research, access to labs and startup incubation have all contributed to Waterloo Region’s reputation as an economic powerhouse.
According to an independent 2019 study, the University of Waterloo added $1.16 billion to our region’s GDP while creating 8,485 full-time equivalent jobs locally. Last year alone, Waterloo-incubated startups raised $70 million in capital, filed 110 patents and helped the region expand and diversify its economy, launching more than 40 health-tech companies.
None of this would have been possible without the support of the federal and provincial research funding agencies.
As people and capital move more freely around the world, it will take more than grants, and labs to attract brilliant minds to come here and help us prosper. Waterloo Region also needs to be a place where people feel they belong.
Investing in universities is an also an investment in social cohesion. They are places where people of all identities meet, work together, live together, and bridge the gaps between our differences. This doesn’t happen by accident. Investing in universities leads to breakthroughs in fields like decolonization, gender and society, and anti-racism.
To future-proof Canadian society we need globally competitive universities that can offer competitive grants, access to well-equipped research labs and research assistant roles for graduate and postgraduate students that pay enough to meet the rising cost of living.
We need governments to apply funding strategically so academia and industry can work together and deliver the things Canadians need. In short, if we can’t keep pace, we’ll fall behind before we know it, and we can’t keep pace unless we have the research dollars we need to equip the brightest minds in the world with the tools to solve the greatest challenges we face.
Read this op-ed in the Waterloo Region Record
