OTTAWA, June 5, 2019 — Canada’s best and brightest students, whose numbers are growing, are vital to our knowledge economy; however, there are fewer and fewer opportunities for them to develop careers in academia, leading many graduates to seek career opportunities in other sectors. No one, though, is helping to prepare them for careers in other sectors or enabling and empowering them to learn the business skills necessary to take advantage of other career options.
Postdoctoral fellows and doctoral trainees, in particular, are faced with inadequate support through federal scholarships and fellowships, lengthy training times, and lack of access to benefits like health and pension plans. These challenges leave post-doctoral trainees – many of whom are in their 30s, wanting to buy homes and start families – working in low-paying trainee positions with little or no benefits and uncertain career prospects. This has left Canada’s young researchers – the future of Canadian health research – in a particularly precarious position.
Research Canada and the Parliamentary Health Research Caucus are proud to welcome two young trainees in health research as they share their experiences, their research and their perspectives on the opportunities and challenges a career in science presents in 2019. To celebrate the 10thAnniversary of the Parliamentary Health Research Caucus, we are also pleased to be joined by previous and current Chairs, Mr. John Oliver, MP (Oakville) and Ms. Kim Rudd, MP (Northumberland—Peterborough South) who will take stock of some of the best moments over the past decade.
This event will be held during Research Canada’s Annual General Meeting.
Date: Wednesday, June 5, 2019 from 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Where: Sir John A. Macdonald Building, 144 Wellington Street, Ottawa
Social media: #HealthResearchCaucus, #NextGenHealthResearch
Who:
Shawn McGuirk, PhD
PhD Biochemistry McGill University
Mitacs Canadian Science Policy Fellow, NSERC
Taylor Morriseau, B. Sc.
PhD Student, Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba
Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, University of Manitoba
Parliamentary Health Research Caucus
Chair: Kim Rudd, MP (Northumberland—Peterborough South)
Vice-Chairs: Marilyn Gladu, MP (Sarnia—Lambton)
Carol Hughes, MP (Algoma—Manitoulin—
Senate Representative: The Honourable Judith Seidman
Research Canada
Dr. Robert McMaster, Chair
Deborah Gordon-El-Bihbety, President and CEO
About Research Canada
Research Canada is a national alliance dedicated to increasing investments in health research through collaborative advocacy and engaging government, academia, industry and non-profit sectors to build support for long-term health research funding. For more information, visit rc-rc.ca.
Since 2009, Parliamentary Health Research Caucus events on Parliament Hill have helped to educate politicians on the social and economic benefits of Canadian health research and innovation, as well as introduce them to the multi-sector partnerships among academic, private sector and health charity stakeholders essential to a robust health research enterprise and innovation system.
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For inquiries:
Christie Tomkins
Manager of Policy and Public Affairs
613-234-5129
ctomkins@rc-rc.ca