In fact, as the chart below shows, more money is being spent than ever before on research, and research budgets are bigger than they were pre-Harper. (Although, there are now more scientists working in Canada—a 23 per cent increase between 2002 and 2007—so competition for dollars is now more intense.)
“The money is still there but priorities have changed,” said Alberta-based Tim Caulfield, Canada Research Chair in Health, Law and Policy, who has written extensively about commercialization in genetics and stem cell research. The government seems to be moving away from an emphasis on basic research and toward applied research and commercialization. Of course, “scientific inquiry has never been ‘pure’ ” and governments have always tried to nudge researchers in various directions, he added. But he has also found that “commercialization and links with industry have never been more intense.”
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