Manitoba tops up research funding following pleas from scientists
Research Manitoba allocation now $19M a year, up $5M from provincial budget
Manitoba's NDP government is topping up its annual funding for Research Manitoba following complaints from scientists about inadequate support for the agency responsible for providing the bulk of research funding in Manitoba.
The province will increase its annual funding for Research Manitoba from $14 million to $19 million, Innovation and New Technology Minister Mike Moroz announced Wednesday in a press release.
Oversight of the agency is also moving over to his ministry from advanced education, he said.
The increase in research funding comes two months after dozens of Manitoba scientists, researchers and academics penned an open letter to the government, noting funding to Research Manitoba had not increased significantly since the former Progressive Conservative government cut the agency's budget.
That letter was inspired by comments made in March by Premier Wab Kinew, who mused about attracting disaffected U.S. scientists to Manitoba.
Dylan MacKay, a University of Manitoba nutrition researcher who was among the signatories of the April letter, said Wednesday he was pleasantly surprised the provincial government listened to him and his peers.
More funding for Research Manitoba will translate directly into more actual research and make the province more competitive, both nationally and internationally, MacKay said.
Provincial funding for Research Manitoba bottomed out at $12 million in 2023, according to the agency's most recent annual report.
In 2023-24, the agency allocated nearly $7 million to health research, slightly more than $5 million to natural science and engineering research, and just over $500,000 for the social sciences and humanities, according to the report. That supported 195 researchers and 267 students at a total of 154 organizations, the report stated.