The following message, posted on July 29, can be viewed on the CIHR website at https://cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/53988.html:
Dear colleagues,
As you have probably heard, the federal government’s Budget 2024 provided significant new investments in Canada’s research ecosystem. This is exciting news for the community, and the investment is a testament to the abundance of talent and the important role research plays in driving innovation in this country.
As part of this investment, there will be an increase in the annual value of tri-agency awards. The annual value of all current and new master’s and doctoral student scholarships will increase to $27,000 and $40,000, respectively, and current and new postdoctoral fellowships will increase to $70,000. This award increase will take effect for new and ongoing awards on September 1, 2024.
This is wonderful news for award-holders, but we recognize that the majority of trainees are paid out of research grant funds. As such, these new, higher award values will put pressure on grant budgets to increase stipends for all students in the research environment.
As ever, our guidance for applicants is to ask for a budget that is consistent with the research project proposed in their application, including the need to pay students a fair stipend in consideration of the new award values and the higher cost of living facing our trainees.
We will continue to instruct reviewers that they are not to adjudicate the stipend amounts requested, but rather the number of students proposed to do the work. Where we see this happening, CIHR staff will intervene to prevent budget cuts that contravene our position on paying trainees a fair wage.
Regarding the Budget 2024 investment in the granting councils—$1.8 billion in core research grant funding over five years starting in 2024-25, with $748.3 million per year thereafter—we continue to work closely with the other granting councils and our partners in government on the details of how these investments will be implemented. We look forward to sharing more information with you as soon as possible.
Sincerely,
Dr. Christian Baron
Vice-President, Research – Programs
Adrian Mota
Associate Vice-President, Research – Programs (Operations)