Canada pledges C$504 million to attract top scholars, including Harvard and MIT researchers

Canada disclosed a C$504 million investment to attract 64 world-renowned scholars to its universities, targeting research areas such as health and artificial intelligence. Among the new arrivals, 48 researchers were drawn from the United States, including staff from Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, while the other 16 come from a dozen nations including the United Kingdom, Germany, China and Japan.

Industry Minister Melanie Joly said the program counters recent reductions in U.S. federal research funding and tighter immigration rules, emphasizing Canada's commitment to academic freedom. She also noted that 23 of the research chairs will be filled by Canadians who are returning to the country. This funding is part of a larger strategy unveiled by Prime Minister Mark Carney's administration last year, which earmarks C$1.7 billion over a 12-year period to recruit more than 1,000 researchers to Canadian institutions.