Science and Research committee  Thank you. We made sure that in our most recent annual science meeting—we held it here in Canada—there was funding provided for Inuit researchers and community members to come over from Canada, from Inuit Nunangat, to the U.K., to Cambridge here, to share their testimony. That was in really all of the 13 projects, and it was fantastic to see because we don't just want to have western science results; we want to have a combined knowledge.

Science and Research committee  Thank you for your question. Yes, the reason why the CINUK programme was developed very much in partnership with Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and local community members, northerners, Inuit and others was to make absolutely sure that the themes of the program addressed local priorities.

Science and Research committee  Yes, very much so. Particularly in this CINUK programme, yes, absolutely, because we knew, having cast the net widely for ideas and having said to people that you have to have Canadian, U.K. and Inuit researchers together, that it wasn't going to be enough to just filter the quality of those through a Western science lens.

Science and Research committee  Yes, absolutely. There is a really broad range of projects within the CINUK programme. We have wanted to make sure that, all the way through, we share the knowledge from the projects across the 13 projects as well. It's not just 13 individual projects that are doing their work; they're coming together at least once a year to share what they know.

Science and Research committee  Yes, some of the funds are directed. In the past, we had the Arctic research program and the changing Arctic ocean program. Both of those were strategic investments through the Natural Environment Research Council. The money was placed on the table, the questions were set and it was then for universities and research centres to bid into that money with good ideas.

Science and Research committee  It was decided, back in 2018 or 2019, that Canada and the Arctic were priorities for UK Research and Innovation investment. At that point, we began open and frank conversations with funding agencies in Canada to see how we could work together, essentially—how we could bring the best of UK expertise and assets together with Canadian expertise and assets, and, from that, develop the CINUK programme.

Science and Research committee  I would say that, if you are third in the world in the number of Arctic science publications, that puts you world class. Yes, I would safely say that.

Science and Research committee  I'm not familiar with the details of the report, but, in all of our countries, in all our international work, we strive to be as good as we possibly can be. From the quote you read out there, I got the sense that she wanted Canada to be as good as possible, rather than saying that it wasn't world class at the moment.

Science and Research committee  You'll have to forgive me, as I'm not an expert in the Canadian kind of science funding models and individual bodies. From my own experience, having seen Canadian researchers at international meetings, I know that in the work that happens within the International Arctic Science Committee and at events like ArcticNet and elsewhere, I see the quality and the skill of the researchers there, and I put them at a world-class level.

Science and Research committee  Thank you for your question. I represent the Natural Environment Research Council. That's one of seven councils under the UK Research and Innovation organization. We are funding bodies, essentially. It's a mixture. There are research centres funded by UKRI, such as the British Antarctic Survey, the National Oceanography Centre and others.

Science and Research committee  Thank you for your question. I'm not in a position to give a view on the level of funding and the appropriateness of funding within the Canadian federal system. That's not something that I can address in those terms, but in thinking about it in a U.K. context, I would say that, of course, as researchers, as people committed to understanding climate change across the Arctic, we would all want to see as much investment as possible in that, because we realize the urgency of it, and we realize what really major gains there are to be got, nationally and internationally, from knowing more about what's happening so that we can mitigate and also adapt to it.

Science and Research committee  I don't have the exact figures on hand, but I would say that there are proportionally more researchers in Canada than there are in the U.K. What's interesting is that there was a study by the University of the Arctic that was released in the summer of 2023 that looked at the ranking of countries in producing Arctic science publications.

Science and Research committee  Yes. Thank you. I said in my opening statement that the CINUK programme and the way we had designed it together as partners had challenged us within the U.K. That's certainly the case, because when you combine traditional western forms of knowledge with other Inuit and local and traditional forms of knowledge, those are not systems that we have a huge amount of expertise in yet.

Science and Research committee  Thank you for the question. Yes. At the time of Russia's full-scale illegal invasion of Ukraine, there was a government-wide look at ongoing research funding with Russia. All of those areas within the Natural Environment Research Council where there was work with Russia on Arctic science has been either paused or relocated to other countries.

Science and Research committee  No. There is no such injunction with regard to China.