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“I can tell you that the vast majority of Canadian scientists think Alain Beaudet should be replaced with more progressive leadership,” Rudnicki said.

Beaudet defended the reforms in an interview with the Citizen, saying critiques about less funding for basic research are not borne out and changes to the peer review system were necessary: “If we want to be able to fund excellence in all areas of research … Research has become multidisciplinary, our panels were not multidisciplinary. We needed to change the system so we were in a better position to appraise where the research is going.”

Rudnicki, who also teaches at the University of Ottawa, led a team that discovered a stem cell link to Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a groundbreaking finding that came about through the kind of discovery research increasingly under pressure in Canada, he noted.

“He has rammed through what he calls reforms which have radically altered the grant delivery system and the system for evaluating grants has been done in a way that distorts the entire process,” said Rudnicki of changes brought in by Beaudet.

Top research scientists from across the country, in interviews with the Citizen, described their mood as demoralized and deeply disturbed by what has been going on at the CIHR. “There is a lot of scorched earth out there,” said one.

According to researchers, the malaise cannot be fixed by simply unmuzzling government scientists. The federal government needs to support basic scientific research, they say, with more money and with a system that is transparent and designed to reward the country’s best and brightest researchers. Instead, researchers say, a series of recent changes at the agency that funds a billion dollars of research each year, notably to the peer review system, have done the opposite.