OTTAWA, March 23, 2016 – The Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) applauds the Government of Canada’s strong commitment to innovation, higher education and research, as reflected in this year’s budget.
Budget 2016 includes a number of measures that will strengthen university research, which in turn advances innovation and economic growth. As CARL member libraries play an increasingly important role in supporting the academic research enterprise, we particularly welcome the new $2B Post-Secondary Institutions Strategic Investment Fund, the additional ongoing $95 million per year allocated to the research granting councils, and the several targeted investments in advanced research disciplines.
“Enriching research and higher education is central to CARL’s mission, so from our perspective there is much to applaud in this budget,” said Martha Whitehead, President of CARL. She added that, “We hope that some of the investment will be earmarked for digital research infrastructure, as CARL believes that advanced networks and computing capacity, together with solid policies and tools to support the management of research outputs and data, are critical to building and sustaining Canada’s innovation capacity.”
CARL was also pleased to see the range of investments that will be made to strengthen open government and improve the government’s ability to manage its own digital information assets.
CARL includes Canada’s twenty-nine largest university libraries. Enhancing research and higher education is at the heart of our mission. CARL promotes effective and sustainable scholarly communication, and public policy that enables broad access to scholarly information.
-30-
For more information:
