The following public statement is endorsed by the signatories appearing beneath it.
The signatories include 35 Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada and 27 Canada Research Chairs.
Over the past decade Canada has enriched its world-class research community in the mathematical and statistical sciences through strategic recruitment by Universities aided by the Canada Research Chairs Program, and by the prospect of a supportive and relatively stable Canadian research funding environment. NSERC’s Discovery Grants program plays a continuing vital role as these scientists advance their research programs and train the next generation of innovators.
However, recent changes to the Discovery Grants Program threaten this investment in mathematical and statistical talent, and could precipitate a reversal of all the gains that Canada made in the last decade. We are therefore calling on the Minister of Industry and on NSERC’s President to:
- Rebuild confidence in the merit-based peer review system for NSERC Discovery Grants funding research.
- Reconfirm Canada’s long-term commitment to fund research in the mathematical and statistical sciences at internationally competitive levels.
The mathematical and statistical sciences community calls upon the NSERC leadership to proceed promptly with the following specific actions:
1. As stressed in the NSERC peer review manual, research grant review and subsequent funding decisions should be equitable and fair, considered from year to year and across Canada’s diverse university research environments. We therefore request that an equalizing bin-to-funding map should be applied to the anomalous 2011 results in mathematics and statistics in order to restore fairness compared with the 2009 and 2010 results. This requires a one-time-only investment and should be announced as soon as possible to signal Canada’s commitment to fairness and long-term investment in mathematical sciences.
2. NSERC should recognize that its investment in mathematical and statistical research is not at internationally competitive levels and make appropriate changes:
- There is inadequate funding for a mathematical or statistical scientist in Canada to run a standard research program.
- There is an inequity between research funding in the mathematical sciences (including computer sciences) and other NSERC supported disciplines. A scientist in Canada has an average Discovery grant that exceeds \$34K/year. A mathematical scientist has an average Discovery grant less than \$20K/year. (These grants are mostly used by all sciences in the same way, to fund the training of junior scholars.)
- In pure mathematics, the Discovery Grant Program is the only research resource available, and pure mathematicians are less able to leverage their Discovery Grants to obtain other grants than scientists in other disciplines.
3. A large segment of the research community is losing confidence in the system for assigning grant awards presently used in NSERC’s Discovery Grants competition.
- The peer review process, translating proposal evaluation into funding amounts, should be reconstructed to ensure fairness.
- The scientific community should be intimately involved in choosing high caliber scientists to serve on evaluation and granting committees.
- Scientists should be actively involved in setting the research investment strategy at every step from proposal evaluation through the assignment of dollar amounts on proposals, not just in the assignment of scientists into bins.
- Research grants should be funded with amounts sufficient to carry out the proposed studies.
We therefore request an immediate review of the newly implemented review system by an independent international panel to consider its impact on Canadian mathematical sciences.
Finally, we call for a robust national strategy to stabilize the research infrastructure and investment necessary for basic research and scientific innovation so as to safeguard Canada’s past investment in recruiting talented scientists.
Signatories:
- Alejandro Adem, UBC, CRC
- Martial Agueh, Victoria
- Amir Akbary, Lethbridge
- Walter Allegretto, UAlberta
- S. Twareque Ali, Concordia
- Stephen Anco, Brock
- Razvan Anisca, Lakehead
- Richard Anstee, UBC
- Vestislav Apostolov, UQAM
- Tom Archibald, SFU
- Jim Arthur, Toronto, FRSC
- Tom Baird, Memorial
- Catharine Baker, Mount Allison
- Martin Barlow, UBC, FRSC, FRS
- Michael Barr, McGill
- Heinz Bauschke, UBC Okanagan, CRC
- Margaret Beattie, Mount Allison
- Kai Behrend, UBC
- Mike Bennett, UBC (member 2011 Evaluation Group)
- François Bergeron, UQAM, CRC
- Nantel Bergeron, York (member 2011 Evaluation Group)
- Ed Bierstone, Toronto and Fields Institute, FRSC
- Ilia Binder, Toronto
- Ted Bisztriczky, Calagry
- Tom Bloom, Toronto, FRSC
- George Bluman, UBC
- Richard Blute, Ottawa
- Hans Boden, McMaster
- Anthony Bonato, Ryerson
- Chris Bose, Victoria
- Christian Boudreau, Waterloo
- David Boyd, UBC, FRSC
- Steven Boyer, UQAM
- Fred Brauer, UBC
- Elena Braverman, Calgary
- Murray R. Bremner, Saskatchewan
- Berndt Brenken, Calgary
- Nils Bruin, SFU
- Carmen Bruni, UBC
- Thomas Brüstle, Sherbrooke (member 2011 Evaluation Group)
- Ragnar-Olaf Buchweitz, Toronto
- Ryan Budney, Victoria
- Almut Burchard, Toronto
- Sue Ann Campbell, Waterloo
- James B. Carrell, UBC
- Bill Casselman, UBC
- Duong Eui Chang, Waterloo
- Hugo Chapdelaine, Laval
- Albert Chau, UBC
- Cedric Chauvet, SFU
- Jingyi Chen, UBC
- Vladimir Chernousov, UAlberta, CRC
- Hugh Chipman, Acadia
- Stephen Choi, SFU
- Yemon Choi, Saskatchewan
- Tahir Choulli, UAlberta
- Dan Christensen, Western
- Gerald Cliff, UAlberta
- Bernard Colin, Sherbrooke
- James Colliander, Toronto
- Olivier Collin, UQAM (member 2011 Evaluation Group)
- Octav Cornea, U. Montreal (member 2011 Evaluation Group)
- Helene Cossette, Laval
- Walter Craig, McMaster, FRSC, CRC
- Bill Cunningham, Waterloo
- Clifton Cunningham, Calgary
- James Currie, Winnipeg
- Henri Darmon, McGill, FRSC
- Ken Davidson, Waterloo, FRSC
- Robert Dawson, St. Mary’s
- Jean-Marie De Konick, Laval
- Alex de Leon, Calgary
- Gerda de Vries, Alberta
- Andrew P. Dean, Lakehead
- Charmaine Dean, SFU
- Dejan Delic, Ryerson
- Florin Diacu, Victoria
- Charles Doran, UAlberta
- Alan Dow, UNCC (member 2011 Evaluation Group)
- Danny Dyer, Memorial
- Hermann Eberl, Guelph, CRC (member 2011 Evaluation Group)
- Charles Edmunds, MSVU
- Roderick Edwards, Victoria
- Ivar Ekeland, UBC, FRSC
- George Elliott, Toronto, FRSC,
- Heath Emerson, Victoria
- Mike Evans, Toronto
- Ilijas Farah, York
- Joel Feldman, UBC, FRSC
- Shui Feng, McMaster
- Sebastian Ferrando, Ryerson
- Razvan Fetecau, SFU
- Ailana Fraser, UBC
- Don Fraser, Toronto, FRSC
- John Friedlander, Toronto, FRSC
- Marlene Frigon, U. Montreal
- Richard Froese, UBC
- Ricardo Fukasawa, Waterloo
- Jose Garrido, Concordia
- Paul Gauthier, U. Montreal
- Jim Geelen, Waterloo, CRC
- Anthony V. Geramita, Queens
- Nassif Ghoussoub, UBC, FRSC
- Alison Gibbs, Toronto
- Thierry Giordano, Ottawa
- Michael Goldstein, Toronto
- Edit Gombay, UAlberta
- Edgar Goodaire, Memorial
- Pawel Gora, Concordia
- Eyal Goren, McGill (member 2011 Evaluation Group)
- Shonda Gosselin, Winnipeg & Regina
- Colin C. Graham, UBC
- Ian Graham, Toronto
- Andrew Granville, U. Montreal, CRC
- Justin Gray, SFU
- Priscilla Greenwood, UBC
- Marco Gualtieri, Toronto
- Pengfei Guan, McGill, FRSC, CRC
- Stephen Gustafson, UBC
- Lucien Haddad, Royal Military College
- Ian Hambleton, McMaster
- Megumi Harada, McMaster
- Nadia Hardy, Concordia
- Kathryn Hare, Waterloo
- Warren Hare, UBC Okanagan
- Bradd Hart, McMaster
- Deirdre Haskell, McMaster
- Wenqing He, Western
- Florian Herzig, IAS and Toronto
- Thomas Hillen, UAlberta
- Christophe Hohlweg, UQAM
- Monica Ilie, Lakehead
- Reinhard Illner, Victoria
- Adrian Iovita, Concordia, CRC
- Victor Ivrii, Toronto, FRSC
- David M. Jackson, Waterloo
- Ken Jackson, Toronto
- Sebastian Jaimungal, Toronto
- Dmitry Jakobson, McGill
- Jeannette Janssen, Dalhousie
- Lisa Jeffrey, Toronto, FRSC
- Robert Jerrard, Toronto
- Barry Jessup, Ottawa
- Tomasz Kaczynski, Sherbrooke
- Vadim Kaimanovich, Ottawa
- Niky Kamran, McGill, FRSC
- Spiro Karigiannis, Waterloo
- Yael Karshon, Toronto
- Lee Keener, UNBC
- Nicholas Kevlahan, McMaster
- Kostya Khanin, Toronto
- Askold Khovanskii, Toronto
- Omar Kihel, Brock
- Young-Heon Kim, UBC
- Hershy Kisilevsky, Concordia
- Robert Klinzmann, UBC
- Jochen Koenemann, Waterloo
- Manfred Kolster, McMaster
- Dmitry Korotkin, Concordia
- Michael Kozdron, Regina
- David Kribs, Guelph
- Lilia Krivodonova, Waterloo
- Mary-Catherine Kropinski, SFU
- Steve Kudla, Toronto, CRC
- Wentang Kuo, Waterloo
- Rachel Kuske, UBC, CRC
- Jochen Kuttler, Alberta
- Marcelo Laca, Victoria
- Claude Laflamme, Calgary
- Matilde Lalín, U. Montreal
- Francois Lalonde, U. Montreal, FRSC, CRC
- Kevin Lamb, Waterloo
- Michael Lamoureux, Calgary
- William Langford, Guelph
- Anthony Lau, Alberta (also representing Canadian Mathematical Society)
- Michael Lau, Laval
- Jerry Lawless, Waterloo, FRSC
- Victor LeBlanc, Ottawa
- Jerome Lefebvre, UBC
- Chistiane Lemieux, Waterloo
- Ghislain Léveillé, Laval
- Claude Levesque, Laval
- Andrew D. Lewis, Queens
- Mark Lewis, UAlberta, CRC
- Sheldon Lin, Toronto (member 2011 Evaluation Group)
- Yu-Ru Liu, Waterloo
- Frithjof Lutscher, Ottawa
- Gordon MacDonald, PEI
- Neal Madras, York
- Rogemar Mamon, Western
- Brian Marcus, UBC
- Greg Martin, UBC
- Javad Mashregi, Laval
- David E. Matthews, Waterloo
- Robert McCann, Toronto (member 2011 Evaluation Group)
- Connell McCluskey, Laurier
- David McKinnon, Waterloo
- Don McLeish, Waterloo
- Eckhard Meinrenken, Toronto, FRSC
- Franklin Mendivil, Acadia
- Paul Mezo, Carleton University
- Pierre Milman, Toronto, FRSC
- Ján Mináč, Western
- Maung Min-oo, McMaster
- Jamie Mingo, Queen’s
- Richard A. Mollin, Calgary
- Michael Monagan, SFU
- Rahim Moosa, Waterloo
- Ruxandra Moraru, Waterloo
- Joy Morris, Lethbridge
- Fiona Murnaghan, Toronto
- Kumar Murty, Toronto, FRSC
- Ram Murty, Queens, FRSC
- Kieka Mynhardt, Victoria
- Alex Nabutovsky, Toronto
- Adrian Nachman, Toronto
- Erhard Neher, Ottawa
- Zhuang Niu, Memorial
- Ortrud Oellermann, Winnipeg
- Pablo Oliveras, Ryerson
- B. Doug Park, Waterloo
- Anthony Peirce, Toronto
- Edwin Perkins, UBC, FRSC, CRC
- Alexandra Pettet, UBC
- John Phillips, Victoria
- Arturo Pianzola, U. Alberta
- Chris Pickles, Queens
- Martin Pinsonnault, Western
- Iosif Polterovich, U. Montreal
- David Poole, Trent
- Dorette Pronk, Dalhousie
- Bartosz Protas, McMaster
- Mary Pugh, Toronto
- Kevin Purbhoo, Waterloo
- Ian Putnam, Victoria, FRSC, CRC
- Anthony Quas, Victoria, CRC
- Jeremy Quastel, Toronto
- Chris Radford, Memorial
- Sujatha Ramdorai, UBC, CRC
- Robert Raphael, Concordia
- Andrew Rechnitzer, UBC
- Nancy Reid, Toronto, FRSC, CRC
- Jean-Francois Renaud, UQAM
- Bruce Richter, Waterloo
- Louis-Paul Rivest, Laval
- Dale Rolfsen, UBC
- Mike Roth, Queens
- Regina Rotman, Toronto
- Christiane Rousseau, U. Montreal
- Damien Roy, Ottawa
- Volker Runde, Alberta
- Peter Russell, McGill
- Hassan Safouhi, UAlberta
- Yvan Saint-Aubin, U. Montreal
- Mateja Sajna, Ottawa
- Tom Salisbury, York
- Hadi Salmasian, Ottawa
- Bill Sands, Calgary
- Manuele Santoprete, Laurier
- David Saunders, Waterloo
- Alistair Savage, Ottawa
- Nabil Sayari, Moncton
- Renate Scheidler, Calgary
- Dana Schlomiuk, U. Montreal
- David Scollnik, Calgary
- Matthew Scott, Waterloo
- Jonathan P. Seldin, Lethbridge
- Paul Selick, Toronto
- Gordon Semenoff, UBC, FRSC
- Karen Seyffarth, Calgary
- Vasilisa Shramchenko, Sherbrooke
- Alexander Shnirelman, Concordia, CRC
- Israel Michael Sigal, Toronto, FRSC
- Gordon Slade, UBC, FRSC
- Christopher G. Small, Waterloo
- Gregory G. Smith, Queen’s
- Robert Smith, Ottawa
- Gary Sneddon, Memorial –> MSVU
- Jozsef Solymosi, UBC
- Juan Souto, UBC
- Artur P. Sowa, Saskatchewan
- Blair Spearman, UBC Okanagan
- Roland Speicher, Queen’s
- Patrick Speissegger, McMaster, CRC
- Nico Spronk, Waterloo
- Muni Srivastava, Toronto
- Alina Stancu, Concordia
- Juris Steprans, York
- Brett Stevens, Careleton
- Cameron Stewart, Waterloo, FRSC
- Anna Stokke, Winnipeg
- Ross Stokke, Winnipeg
- Catherine Sulem, Toronto
- Wei Sun, Concordia
- Ken Seng Tan, Waterloo
- Keith Taylor, Dalhousie
- Hugh Thomas, UNB
- Mary Thompson, Waterloo, FRSC
- Aaron Tikuisis, Toronto
- James G. Timourian, Alberta
- Stevo Todorcevic, Toronto, CRC
- Nicole Tomczak-Jaegermann, UAlberta, FRSC, CRC
- Vladimir Troitsky, Alberta
- Manfred Trummer, SFU
- TaiPeng Tsai, UBC
- Murat Tuncali, Nipissing
- Adam Van Tuyl, Lakehead
- Stephanie van Willigenburg, UBC
- Yevgeniy Vasilyev, Memorial
- Bálint Virág, Toronto, CRC
- Roman Viveros-Aguilera, McMaster
- Edward Vrscay, Waterloo
- McKenzie Wang, McMaster
- Shawn X. Wang, UBC Okanagan
- Michael Ward, UBC
- David Wehlau, Queens
- Alfred Weiss, UAlberta, FRSC
- William Weiss, Toronto
- Walter Whiteley, York
- Ross Willard, Waterloo
- Hugh Williams, Calgary
- Gord Willmot, Waterloo
- Shelly Wismath, Lethbridge
- Gail Wolkowicz, McMaster
- Henry Wolkowicz, Waterloo
- Douglas G. Woolford, Laurier
- Jianhong Wu, York, CRC
- Michael Yampolsky, Toronto
- Vlad Yaskin, UAlberta
- Grace Yi, Waterloo
- Ozgur Yilmaz, UBC
- Noriko Yui, Queens
- Imed Zaguia, Royal Military College
- Kirill Zainoulline, Ottawa
- Ping Zhou, SFXU
- Zhou Zhou, Toronto
Please feel free to use the comments sections to add your name to the list of signatories.
Please add my name to the list.
Olivier Collin
UQAM
member 2011 committe
Please add my name to the list of signatories.
David Poole
Trent
Please add my name to the list of signatories.
Please add my name to the list of signatories.
Dorette Pronk
Dalhousie
Please add my name to the list.
Please add my name to the list.
Please add my name to the list of signatories.
I agree with the letter.Please add my name to the list.
I agree fully with this letter. Please add my name to the list of signatories.
NSERC seems to have gone out of their way to turn a well-functioning system into a mess. I hope the letter will bring some prompt action. A fair, transparent and stable Discovery Grant system is vital to the health of mathematics in Canada. Please add my signature to the letter.
Please add my name to the list.
UBC
Please add my name:
Brian Marcus (UBC)
Please add my name to the list.
Please add my name.
The positive impact of keeping active people with grants that permit support of undergraduate and graduate students, rather than cutting such people off from grants.
Walter Whiteley
York University
Please add my name to the list.
Yu-Ru Liu
Waterloo
Thank you for your help.
Please add my name to the list.
Wentang Kuo
Waterloo
Thank you for your help.
Please add my name to the list (Matthew Scott, Waterloo). Thank you.
Please add my name too.
I am a former GSC/EG member (2007-9). I like many features of the new system, but strongly dislike the way that the financial part of the decision is divorced from the committee.
Please add my name to the list (Laval University)
Please add my name to the list. (Memorial University of Newfoundland)
Please add my name to the list.
Please add my name to the list.
Please add my name to the list. (UBC Okanagan)
Please, add my name to the list – I don’t think that changing the grant policies so fast and unpredictable makes Canada
attractive on the world scale, especially among young scientists.
Please add my name
Dong Eui Chang
Waterloo
Please add my name to the list.
Catharine Baker
Mount Allison
Please add my name to the list of signatories.
Michael Lamoureux, University of Calgary
Please add me to the list.
Hermann Eberl, University of Guelph, CRC, Member 2011 Evaluation Group,
Thank you for writing this letter. Please add my name to the list.
Please add my name to the list.
Stephen Anco (Brock University)
Please add my name to the list
Stephen Choi (Simon Fraser University)
Please add my name to this list.
Paul Mezo
Carleton University
Please add my name to this list.
Michael Kozdron (Regina)
Please add my name to the list.
Shui Feng (McMaster University)
Hi, I’ve just want to sign. Thank you! Matilde
You can add my name to the list of signatories. (York University)
Please add my name to the list of signatories. Thank you for writing this letter.
Thank you for drafting this letter and please add my name to the list of signatories.
I fully agree with the opinions stated in this letter and wish to be added as a signatory. Thank you for writing it!
Please add my name to the list.
Please add my name too.
And mine as well.
I would like to have my name included as a signatory of this letter. Thank you.
Please add my name to the list.
hola, I would like to sign as well, thanks
Hi,
I would like to sign as well.
Christophe Hohlweg
Professor
UQAM
Please add my name as well… A rating of OVV should not have a 12K disparity from year to year…. this is not acceptable.
You can sign my name to this list as well.
Please add my signature. Thank you
Please add my signature to this list. Thank-you.
Please add my signature to this list. Thank you.
Please add my signature.
Thank you for writing this letter. Please add my name to the list of signatories.
Please add my signature.
Thank you for writing this letter. Please add my name to the list of signatories.
Please add my signature as well. from Univ. of Waterloo.
Please add my name to the list. Thank you.
Please add my name to the signature list. (University of Waterloo)
Please add my name too. Thank you.
Please add my name to the list. Thanks! (I’m from Lakehead University)
Please add my name to the list.
This basic inequity in the award system is not acceptable: NSERC Discovery Grants for proposals of equal merit should receive comparable funding across all the disciplines and grant panels.
Please add my name (Lakehead University)
Please add my name to the list of signatories.
The NSERC Discovery Grants Program has been admired by many of our colleagues in the US and around the world. Indeed, the government funding for research in a number of developing countries has been modeled on the highly successful NSREC DGP. There was widespread satisfaction, even pride, in a peer evaluation system that was seen as measured and fair. However, this perception of fairness has all but evaporated with the recent changes to the evaluation process that seen the introduction of a “binning system” that removes the nuance and discretion from the peer adjudication panel in favor of a bureaucratic override to achieve a lowering of the success rate. A key change in the evaluation system is to make HQP output as important as research output. While training of HQP is clearly an important enterprise for researchers, not all research fields, though equally important, are best served by or even capable of producing large teams of graduate students. Many researchers, despite active and productive research activity, have seen their grants cut and their research programs compromised. This is dangerous territory. In order to meet the new criteria for the DGP, these researchers will need to modify or abandon their research programs in order to accommodate a greater number of HQP. This could easily lead to the dilution of standards as advisors are pressured to push graduate students through the system – independent of the quality. The rich diversity of research will be compromised, and the negative impact on the advancement of science in Canada will be profound.
So please add my name to the list.
Thanks. Please also direct your comments to the LRP.
http://longrangeplan.ca/
Please add my name to the list (Simon Fraser University)
Please add my name to the list (Simon Fraser University)
Please add my name too.
Please add my name.
Please add my name to this list.
Please add my name to this list.
Please add my name to the list (Simon Fraser University)
Please add my name to the list (Simon Fraser University)
Thank you for taking this initiative. I fully support the letter. Please add my name to the list. (University of Ottawa)
I would like to sign, too. Thank you. (University of Ottawa)
I fully support this effort. Please add my name to the list. (University of British Columbia)
Please add my name to the list of signatories (Simon Fraser University).
Please, add my name to the list of signatories (McGill)
Please add my name to the list of signatories. Thank you. (Waterloo University)
The strong focus on HQP is problematic. I understand that the evaluation committee does not simply count students and postdocs, but what is a “good” number of graduate students and postdocs clearly depends on the field. The system also needs some memory, taking on HQP is a long-term commitment.
I support the letter, I would like to sign. (Simon Fraser University)
Please add my name to the list. (Lethbridge)
I also want tosign. And, thank you very much for expressing so clearly what
we all believe to be the problem.
Please add my name to the list of signatories.
Andrew D. Lewis (Queen’s University)
Please add my name to the list. (Ryerson)
Please fixed the typo in my name; my middle initial is “G”. Thanks.
Sorry about that.
Please add my name to the list of signatories.
David Wehlau (Queen’s University)
I agree completely; please add my name to the signatures.
Please add my name to the list of signatories.
Jamie Mingo (Queen’s)
Please add my name to the list of signatories.
Please add my name to the list of signatories. Thank you for a well-written and cogent letter.
Please add my name to the list of signatories
Please add my name. Thank you. (University of Ottawa)
Please add my name to the list. (SFU)
Please add my name.
Thank you for writing this letter. Please add my name to the list of signatories.
Please add my name to the list of signatories
I would like to add that NSERC’s recent decision to ignore major administrative contributions (e.g. Chair/Associate Chair of the department) by applicants during their award will discourage young (and not-so-young!) researchers from taking an active role in the leadership of our Universities.
To make matters worse, this decision has been ‘back-dated’ and applied to researchers who had taken on major administrative roles before NSERC changed the rules. Change the policy if you must, but give us – and our Universities – enough notice to plan ahead. Huge adjustments will be needed inside Faculties to accommodate this misguided policy change.
Please also direct these comments to the LRP (http://longrangeplan.ca/).
I wholeheartedly agree with this, even as someone who isn’t limited to just NSERC.
Thank you for drafting this letter. Please add me to the list.
Yes indeed! Please add my name to the list.
Please add my name to the list.
Please add my name to the list.
Please add my name to the list.
Roland Speicher (Queen’s)
Please add my name to the list of signatories
Ivar ekeland, FRSC
I strongly agree with the letter. Please add my name to the list.
Please add my name to the list. Thank you very much! (Applied Mathematics, U Waterloo)
Please add my name to the list.
Lucien Haddad. Royal Military College of Canada.
Please add my name to the list.
Lucien Haddad, math & info, Collège militaire royal du Canada.
It is especially troubling for me as a former member of the grant selection committee to hear about the results of the
last three competitions. I wish to reiterate some of the points made so eloquently in the open letter.
1. It is always bad to insert administrative layers between academic evaluations and the final outcome, be it a grant
award, a tenure decision, or an academic appointment.
2. The more emphasis is placed on the training of HQP, the more ridiculous the low levels of funding handed out to larger and larger numbers of very good mathematicians appears, since there are fixed costs for supporting HQP that are the same across all disciplines.
Thank you. Please also direct your comments to the LRP Committee.
http://longrangeplan.ca/
Please add my name to the list.
(Ryerson University, Toronto)
Please add my name to the list.
Please add my name to the list.
Please add my name to the list.
Please add my name to the list. (Calgary)
Please add my name to the list.
Please add my signature to the list.
Ken
I agree with the letter, please add my name to the list.
I agree with the statement that “In pure mathematics, the Discovery Grant Program is the only research resource available, and pure mathematicians are less able to leverage their Discovery Grants to obtain other grants than scientists in other disciplines.” I would like to add that the Discovery Grant Program is also essential to protect the integrity of applied mathematics (if anyone believes there is a clear boundary between pure and applied mathematics), specially if we anticipate applied mathematics should also lead to new mathematical challenges, in addition to novel applications. A healthy applied mathematical community cannot be sustained without a critical national strength/capacity in pure mathematics.
My limited information indicates that the outcome of this year’s competition in “applied” mathematics is not better than “pure” mathematics (even taking into account of other NSERC programs). Some proposals seem to have carried the additional burden of “not being applied enough”. Knowledge translation in mathematics should involve a continuous spectrum of fields rather than two endpoints, and interdisciplinary research should also be understood to include collaborations of mathematicians from different fields (including both pure and applied).
Again, I agree with the letter.
Please add my name to the list.
Please add my name the list.
Florin Diacu
Please add my name to the list. (University of Calgary)
Please add my name to the list.
Please add my name to the list as well.
(Acadia University)
Please add my name to the list.
Please add my name to the list also.
Please add my name to the list.
Please add my name to the list
Please add my name to the list (U Alberta).
I agree very strongly with the letter from the Mathematics Liaison Committee.
My application this year was significantly stronger than five years ago, with a
much larger number of HQP – but my grant was renewed at exactly the same
level. Furthermore, there is strong evidence that if I had submitted the same
application last year, I would have received a substantially larger grant. The
inconsistencies in the results of the evaluation process are obvious, and are
seriously undermining the Canadian mathematical community’s confidence
in, and respect for, the NSERC Discovery Grant system.
Thank you for your comment. Please also direct these statements to the LRP:
http://longrangeplan.ca/
Hi,
I understand that the deadline to provide feedback in http://longrangeplan.ca/
has already passed, correct?
Regards,
Please add my name to the list. (UBC)
Please add my name to the list. (UNBC)
Engineering and controlling research initiatives in mathematics (and other pure sciences) presume that assessment of quality and content of proposals can be done with some kind of perfect system. Bureaucrats like to believe, and advertise, that they are running such a glorified system, some scientists serving in committees may play along and provide the seal of approval. It seems wiser to acknowledge the serious limitations of any such a system, and the negative implications of its limitations, by providing financial support to a larger percentage of serious and productive mathematicians across Canada. The previous granting methodology provided a sense of fairness and helped to build a healthy and strong mathematical community with members that care for each other and for the future of mathematics and our students.
Please add my name to the list. (University of Winnipeg)
Please add me too (U. Ottawa)
Please add me to the list.
Department of Mathematics,
Ryerson University.
Please add my name to the list. (UBC)
Please add my name to the list.
Please add my name.
NSERC seems carried away by their own rhetoric. Recent “fixes” do more damage than good to the DG program, were completely unsupported by the community they serve, and are antithetic to the language NSERC uses to describe them.
I suport this. Please add my name to the list.
Please add my name to the list of supporters.
Mount Saint Vincent
Please add me to the list of supporters:
Robert Klinzmann
University of British Columbia
Please add my name to the list.
Please add me to the list of signers.
Fred Brauer
University of British Columbia
Please add my name to the list. (UBC)
Christopher G. Small
Waterloo
Please add my name to the list.
Jonathan P. Seldin
University of Lethbridge
Chris Bose, University of Victoria
Please add my name to the list.
David Saunders
University of Waterloo
B. Doug Park
University of Waterloo
I concur with this letter. Please add my name to the list
David Matthews
University of Waterloo
David McKinnon, University of Waterloo
Please add my name to the list.
Ozgur Yilmaz, UBC
Please add my name to the list
I agree with the letter. Please add my name to the list.
Manuele Santoprete
Wilfrid Laurier University
Please add my name to the list of signatories.
I support the letter — please add my signature.
I believe that if we are to restore confidence in the peer review process, we ought to address all aspects of it. The present letter focuses on the shortcomings of the binning system, and other generally administrative aspects of the process. While these are important issues, we should also review the scientific and cultural aspects of the process.
It seems that little attention is given at present to the adverse effects of undeclared conflict of interest. It is my perception that some referees abuse the peer review process to deter competition. Many innovative proposals will not get a fair review, unless the committees are given the means and the authority to identify and turn away dishonest or sloppy reviewers. In addition, a randomization of the process of referee selection may be one possible way of addressing this hidden problem.
Please also share your comments about a more vigorous peer review process with the LRP:
http://longrangeplan.ca/
Please add my name to the list.
Rogemar S Mamon
University of Western Ontario
Please add my name to the list.
Karen Seyffarth
University of Calgary
Please add my name to the list.
Douglas G. Woolford
Wilfrid Laurier University
Please add my name to the list.
Wilfrid Laurier University
Please add my name to the list.
Murat Tuncali
Nipissing University
Please add me to the list of signatories.
Please add my name. University of Lethbridge.
Please add my name to the list of signatories. Thank for this, and for drafting this letter.
Please add my name.
Please add my name to the list.
Tomasz Kaczynski, Université de Sherbrooke
Please add my name to the list
Chris Radford.
Head, Department of Mathematics and Statistics
Memorial University.
Please add my name.
Danny Dyer, Memorial University of Newfoundland
Please add my name to the list of signatories. ………Edgar
Please add my name to the list of signatories.
Please add my name to the list.
Please add my name to the list.
Thank you for your efforts. Please add my name to the list of signatories.
Yemon Choi (U. of Saskatchewan)
Please add my name to the list:
Wenqing He (UWO)
Please add my name to the list of signatories. Thank you.
Please add my name to list of supporters
Please add my name to the list of supporters.
Please add my name to the list, and thank you for writing this letter.
Christian Boudreau
University of Waterloo
Please add my name to the list of supporters.
Prière d’ajouter mon nom à la liste des signataires. Cette lettre est bien rédigée et témoigne bien du malaise que crée la dérive des politiques du CRSNG depuis quelques années, en particulier l’importance exagérée donnée à la formation de chercheurs et leur dogme qu’il faille réduire le taux de succès des demandes de subvention pour assurer l’excellence du programme.
Merci. Veuillez partager également vos commentaires avec le LRP : http://longrangeplan.ca/
Please add my name to the list of signatories.
Maung Min-Oo
McMaster University
Please add my name.
Please add my name and affilitation
Please add my name to the list of signatories.
Please add my name to the list: Shelly Wismath, University of Lethbridge
Please add me to the list: Tom Baird, Memorial
Please add me to the list. Hadi Salmasian, University of Ottawa.
Please add my name to the list
Dmitry Korotkin, Concordia University
Please add my name.
Javad Mashreghi
Laval Univesity
Please add my name to the list.
Blair Spearman
UBC Okanagan
Please add my name to the list.
Anna Stokke, University of Winnipeg
Please add my name to the list.
Shonda Gosselin, University of Winnipeg
Please add my name to the list.
Gerald Cliff, University of Alberta
1. Please add my name to the list.
Colin C. Graham, UBC
2. The current system of binning penalizes people at institutions that don’t have large graduate programs (most of the Maritime schools, for example). A decrease on emphasis on training HQP and a return to small grants should be considered.
Thank you for your comments. Please also direct these suggestions to the LRP:
http://longrangeplan.ca/
Please add my name to the list.
Michael Lau, Université Laval
Hi, Please add me to your list. There are diverse ways to achieve research objectives and one of them is to have HQP. One should not be penalized for not having “enough” HQP or publications with HQP. This means a single author paper is not only zero its a negative. Let’s divide these multiple author papers by the number of authors!
Please add my name to the list.
Please add my name to the list of signatories.
Please, add my signature.
Best,
Volker.
Please add my name to the list.
Yevgeniy Vasilyev, Grenfell Campus, Memorial University
Please add my name to the list.
Imed Zaguia
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
Royal Military College of Canada
Please add my name to the list.
Please add my signature.
Ed Perkins
Please add my name to the list.
Joel Feldman
Please add my name to the list.
Ram Murty
Please add my name to the list.
Kathryn Hare
Please add my name to the list.
please add my name to the list.
Gordon MacDonald
Dept. of Math & Stats,
University of Prince Edward Island
Please, add my name to the list.
Alexander Shnirelman, CRC
Department of Mathematics and Statistics
Concordia University
Montreal
Please add my name to the list:
Mike Roth
Department of Mathematics and Statistics,
Queen’s University
Please add my name to the list
Hugh Chipman, CRC
Department of Mathematics and Statistics
Acadia University
You can add my name to the list. (You can also mention that
I chaired the NSERC GSC 336 in Pure Math in 2007.)
Please add my name to the list of signatories.
Please add my name to the list
Omar Kihel Brock University
Please add my name to the list.
Adrian Iovita
Please add my name to the list.
Please add my name to the list.
Renate Scheidler, University of Calgary
Please add my name to the list.
University of Waterloo
Please add my name to the list.
Please add my name to the list.
Please add my name to the list:
Aaron Tikuisis
U. of Toronto
Please add my name.
Hugh Thomas
UNB
Please add my name to the list of signatories.
Vasilisa Shramchenko
Université de Sherbrooke
I would very much like to sign this statement, but I want to add some comments. I feel that we should be also calling for the NSERC success rates to go back up again; I would argue back to 80% or higher. High success rates was one of the strengths of the NSERC discovery grant program according to the “Report of the International Review Committee of the Discovery Grant Program”; this is the best way to create a vibrant scientific community in Canada: Give as many active and talented mathematical scientists as possible funds to pursue their research program!
I think that the emphasis on production of HQP has become much too high. Scientists can produce excellent research, contribute to the strength of our research community in Canada and keep Canada at the forefront of research without having to produce more and more HQP. This is related to the difficulty that primarily undergraduate universities are having with NSERC and thus also to the geographic inequities that are showing up in NSERC funding and if fixing this part of the problem fixes the disadvantages that these types of universities and these regons are having then great; but we should be prepared to keep speaking out if NSERC corrects its success rate problem and HQP over-emphasis and we still see certain universities and regions at a disadvantage.
I would like to thank Catherine Baker for pointing out (in Vol 43, No. 3 of the CMS Notes) that the low success rates are, oddly enough, artificially high since many in our community have become so discouraged that they are not applying any more thus lowering the denominator in the success rate calculation and permitting us to believe that the problem is not as bad as it is! We should recognize this hidden problem and be absolutely outraged the fact that the true success rate is even lower than the “official” number.
I have had many conversations with NSERC officers who I keep hoping, do hear and understand us. When these problems are not corrected I worry that we are not speaking to the right individuals but I have yet to be told who we can speak to to finally fix these problems.
thanks for the medium to speak,
brett