OUR MAD SCIENTISTS.

This article focuses on federal funding of scientific research in Canada and how scientists are reacting to rejection of research grants. Michel Desjardins, who holds a Canada Research Chair in cellular microbiology at the Université de Montréal, applied for a research grant from Genome Canada, the arms-length foundation that since 2000 has provided most of the federal money in Canada that goes toward genetic research. In a previous competition, Genome Canada had granted him money for projects that led to research papers in two prestigious journals, Cell and Nature. Genome Canada funds only half the cost of a research project. It requires that researchers identify other agencies or private-sector donors willing to pay the other half. Desjardins' tuberculosis project had an $8-million budget, so he needed $4 million from Genome Canada. Near the end of April, Genome Canada told Desjardins his project had been rejected. He never had a chance to defend his science in front of other scientists. To Desjardins, this was a fundamental breakdown in the doctrine of "peer review," by which scientists decide among themselves which of their colleagues should have a project funded or a paper published. Biomedical researchers in Canada are a tightly knit community. It didn't take long for rejected scientists to find one another and compare notes. In a series of interviews with Maclean's, more than a dozen researchers across the country depicted Genome Canada as an organization that has become so concerned about demonstrating sound book-keeping that it is failing to promote the best science. Serious complaints are also being levelled by scientists who survived the co-funding exam and who are still in the running for big Genome Canada grants.