Summertime usually conjures up images of lakes, sunshine and gardens. Here at the Federation,  summer is also the time to think about priorities – specifically, to develop our submission to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance, with our recommendations on the priorities for the 2011 federal budget.

This year, our recommendations centre on mentoring the next generation, supporting the highest levels of research excellence and building strong connections with the user community.  The Federation also identifies key features for new investments in SSH research, including:

•    Well-defined ambitious and large themes linked to pressing socio-economic issues, with direct relevance in Canada and within the international community;
•    Cross-sectoral, interdisciplinary, cross-jurisdictional work as required  by the issues;
•    Promoting knowledge mobilization and links with users in the public, private, and voluntary sectors;
•    Strengthening the ability of not-for-profits to partner with academia to address socio-economic issues, notably by creating a level playing field for the voluntary sector to access start-up and entrepreneurial funds that are at present available only to business;
•    Support for skills development and mobility nationally and internationally;
•    Developing clusters of global expertise at Canadian universities; and
•    Training of next-generation research talent by providing opportunities to work with best researchers and users in public, private and voluntary sectors.

Our full submission can be found on our website.