The Canada Research Chairs Program and Social Science Reward Structures‪.‬

FOLLOWING A DECADE OF SUBSTANTIAL FUNDING cutbacks in universities throughout the 1990s, the Canadian government introduced the Canada Research Chairs (CRCs) program in 1999. After being fully implemented in 2006, the program endows 2000 research chairs in Canadian universities (Polster 2002:277). Considering the preceding decade of financial austerity in Canadian postsecondary education, the $900 million program was a significant investment in research and postsecondary education. Further, the CRC program was heralded as a step forward to combating a perceived "brain drain" of top Canadian faculty to other countries, looming problems of faculty attrition due to retirement, and as evidence of fulfilling a vow made by the federal government to become a "top rive" country in research and development (Toronto Star, January 10, 2004:F4). Significantly, the CRC program represents a substantial infusion of government money and influence into the research practices, graduate programs, and status hierarchies of Canadian academics.