Previously on this blog I have written about the changing balance of scientific research in Canada (see “Who cares about the direction of science in Canada?”). Since then the situation has changed. It now looks like all of science in Canada has a clear direction: down.

Last week at the World Economic Forum Harper bemoaned the “less-than-optimal results” from our investments in science, a “significant problem for our country” (Vancouver Sun, January 28, 2012). Yikes! These statements sound bizarre. The scientific work that goes on in this country is highly respected around the world and Harper knows that. Does he perceive that we’ve been too slow to turn discovery into product?

Whatever the perceived problem is (and that isn’t clear) a drastic misdirected fix — such as a cut in funding for Science and Technology in the upcoming budget — could lead to serious unintended consequences. What is urgently needed is a shift in the allocation of funding within Science and Technology.

Over the past ten years there has been a dramatic decline in funding to basic biomedical researchers in Canadian Universities. Many excellent Canadian scientists – highly trained, intelligent, hard-working scientists with creative ideas that could lead to the next big breakthrough – are running their labs on fumes. Graduate students and postdoctoral fellows who would normally receive stipends to work in these labs are turning to other careers. As a result, Canadian labs engaged in basic research are doing fewer experiments.

What exactly is basic research? It is research directed at fundamental questions about how cells work. Scientists use model organisms, such as fruit flies, yeast and green algae to discover how cells divide or how they communicate with one another to build a complex multicellular organism. Basic research is not directed at understanding a specific disease, and it may not have any immediate impacts, but there is a long list of important medical advances that have arisen from basic research. You can read about a few of them here.

Meanwhile, under the Harper government there has been a dramatic increase in funding for applied and translational research, industry partnerships and commercialization at the expense of basic research.* There is not a distinct line between basic and translational research; it is a continuum. Scientists poke and prode discoveries from the most basic research with progressively more targeted goals in mind. It is the last stages of this process that are easiest to squeeze (or try to squeeze) into political timetables.

I don’t believe that the Harper government is on a mission to kill basic research in Canada. Its imminent demise is more likely the unintended consequence of giving too much of science’s slice of pie to the targeted phases of scientific research. Basic research is slow and unpredictable; it requires long-term stable funding.

Basic researchers know how to tighten their belts. They are familiar with tight funding cycles. Unfortunately we are approaching a critical point where people can no longer hold on and wait for things to get better. The current situation is threatening to become severe enough that recovery could take decades.

— Lynne Quarmby

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*Thanks to Lisa Craig for providing data documenting the shifting in funding priorities in Canada:

Ten years ago about 33% of the applications submitted to the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR) were funded. Success rates are currently hovering at a low of 17%. In 2001, 91% of CIHR funding for operating grants went to open operating grants (OOGs), which fund a broad spectrum of basic health research for hundreds of labs across the country (see http://www.cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/43812.html). The remaining 9% went to strategic initiatives mandated by CIHR. The amount of funding dedicated to strategic grants has been steadily increasing: in 2010, 33% of CIHR operating funds went to strategic grants, while the OOGs were reduced to 67%. The breakdown for 2010 is as follows: 43.5% of CIHR’s total budget went to OOGs and 33.5% went to a combination of Catalyst, Team Grants, RCTs, Commercialization/Industry Partnerships, Knowledge Translation and Other.