Government press releases keep on coming
The Government of Canada is continuing their strategy of releasing a steady stream of press releases to demonstrate their strong commitment to research funding. Yesterday’s release had Gary Goodyear (who’s showing up to so many grant competition announcements with bags of pre-budget-cut money that he’s going to need one of his chiropractor colleagues to readjust his back from the strain) in Saskatoon announcing the results of Genome Canada’s Bioproducts and Crops Competition. Goodyear and his government apparently don’t see the irony (admittedly not their strong suit) of using a Genome Canada funding competition announcement to bolster their scientific bona fides, despite their decision not to include any money for Genome Canada to fund new research in the most recent budget.
The Applied Genomics Research in Bioproducts and Crops competition was launched over a year ago (April 1, 2008) and was based on recommendations from position papers produced in July 2007. So while Goodyear and his government can still keep up appearances by showing up at grant decision announcements and stating, “our government recognizes the important role that research excellence plays in furthering innovation and competitiveness,” they’d better make the most of them now, since there will be fewer such opportunities next year.
The press release included a statement from Dr. Calvin Stiller, Chairman of the Board of Genome Canada. Though Genome Canada has been publicly onside with the government, even the quote in the press release hints at his frustration:
In addition to creating and maintaining approximately 250 jobs in Canada, today’s announcement reinforces the important scientific advances that can be achieved through Genome Canada’s funding model.
The press release notes that the competition awarded 12 projects in six provinces a total of $112-million, of which $53-million was provided by the Government of Canada, through Genome Canada. Details of the competition can be viewed here.
[...] Annan has some amusing commentary on the whole affair. I couldn’t have said it better [...]
Oops…forgot to say great post! Looking forward to your next one.