|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Discrimination achieves ‘equity’ at the federal health research agency
Identity-based ‘equalization measures’ will be used to direct project grant funding at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research
“Equalization” as we generally know it is an interprovincial funding formula that takes from net producers (like Alberta) and gives to net spenders (like Quebec). It breeds resentment from some, but it’s part of our constitutional architecture, so we’re stuck with it, just as families are obligated to provide for their young, net-consuming children. We also call this “equity.”
The principle will soon be applied to race among federally funded health researchers. In a news release by Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) vice-president Dr. Christian Baron in June, the government agency announced that it is adding identity-based “equalization measures” to its funding process for project grants.
“This equalization will ensure that the proportion of funded grants awarded to these groups is at least equal to the proportion of applications received from them,” reads the document.
So, that’s the idea. White (or non-identifying) grant recipients should be awarded in proportion to the number of white (or non-identifying) applicants, and non-white grant recipients should number in proportion to non-white applicants. In recent years, there has been a gap, but it’s small: non-white applicants submit 26 per cent of applications but only receive 21 per cent of grants, which translates to a gap of 82 grants.
