Nature Network - Recent topics from Canada

FELLOWSHIPS FOR POST DOCTORATE AND DOCTORATE RESEARCHERS (0 replies)

For Women in Science — Fri, 23 May 2008 15:00:44 -0000

Deadline approaching « For Women in Science» national fellowships

Only a few weeks left before subscriptions close

For the past 10 years, L’Oréal and UNESCO have been actively supporting the scientific and academic communities.

Fellowships of $20 000 and $40 000 are still available to allow female researchers to develop and pursue their research projects in the field of Life Sciences.

Apply now. The deadline for subscriptions is June 15th 2008. The admission criteria are available on the website, at www.loreal.ca/fwis/en

«The World needs Science. Science needs Women.»

Is Toronto booming? (6 replies)

Cath Ennis — Thu, 15 May 2008 00:00:34 -0000

There’s an interesting article in a recent Nature Jobs section on the recent brain-gain in Toronto.

Any Torontonians care to comment? Does this feel like a real phenomenon “on the ground”? Will the boom benefit the whole of Canada, or just Ontario?

Systems Biology in Canada? (0 replies)

Erfan Younesi — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 11:25:20 -0000

As a research assistant in the Department of Bioinformatics, Fraunhofer Institute, Sankt Augustin, Germany, I’m interested in tackling the complexity of human diseases by means of integrative bioinformatics and systems biology approaches.
To my knowledge, the US is currently leading the field of systems biology. However, I am wondering how the situation is in the neighboring country, Canada. Is this emergent field supported by the Canadian government? What’s the outlook of systems biology in Canada? Are foreign researchers welcome to join the relevant initiatives?

Canadian Research Funding (0 replies)

Cath Ennis — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 00:21:06 -0000

(Cross posted from my blog).

Well, that was one crazy week. I was involved in a grand total of 8 grants, 5 of which had a February 29th deadline (specialised Provincial programme) with the remaining 3 due on March 3rd (CIHR operating grants). My role ranged from that of co-applicant, writing most of the proposal, to supplier of specific blocks of text, to proof-reader and CV formatter. And man am I glad this week is over!

Now why would these big deadlines cluster together in this way? My exhausted and over-caffeinated brain has come up with the following explanation:

Canada does not have a large population and has limited funds available to support scientific research.

The big funding bodies therefore set their deadlines within a day or two of each other.

This limits the number of applications that can feasibly be submitted by one PI, thus spreading the available funds more evenly around the country.

Then, of course, big institutions start to hire people like me, whose goal is to help a group of PIs submit more applications than would usually be possible without someone having a meltdown.

Ha ha, take that, Canadian funding bodies. And will someone please take me out for a drink now? I think I’ve earned it this week…

p.s. the above is intended to be humorous. Canadian Government, if you’re reading this, I’m only joking! Please approve my upcoming Citizenship application. Thanks.

p.p.s. don’t even get me started on why the CV format requirements are different for every single competition.

p.p.p.s. T Ryan Gregory has written a beautiful post condemning the current government’s policies, which he feels are threatening the current egalitarian mode of Canadian research funding. He’s already a citizen so he can criticise with impunity! And I bet he didn’t submit 8 grants today ;)

Introductions (6 replies)

Cath Ennis — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 01:50:05 -0000

I’m based in Vancouver and my job involves helping a group of basic and clinical researchers with ther grant and manuscript submissions. I’m also involved in developing a website to describe their research to the public.

With that bias in mind, future forum topics that I’d like to see might include such things as the state of research funding in Canada etc.

Your turn!