OTTAWA--The National Graduate Caucus (NGC) of the Canadian Federation of Students has joined the call for Minister of State for Science and Technology Gary Goodyear to resign over political interference with internal peer-review processes at an independent granting council.

In an unprecedented move, Goodyear asked the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) to reconsider its financial support of a conference scheduled for York University later this month. SSHRC's decision to award funding was based on a long-recognised peer review process conducted by independent scholars across a number of disciplines.

"The independence of research granting agencies is a major pillar of our academic system," said Megan Nicholson, Chairperson of the National Graduate Caucus. "For the Minister to involve himself in the awarding of this funding not only constitutes a dangerous precedent of political interference in the Canadian research community, but it also undermines Canada's academic reputation abroad.This latest move by the Minister continues a dangerous trend by the Harper Government of directing research funding to score political points with little regard for academic merit. In the 2009 Federal Budget new funding for graduate students in SSHRC programmes was exclusively assigned for "business related" research-representing less than 10% of all SSHRC programmes-and continued the government's policies of preferentially funding commercially-oriented research and development over curiosity-based research.

"Researchers know best when it comes to funding and directing academic inquiry," said Nicholson. "Graduate students are starting to wonder whether it is academic merit or the political position of government that determines their access to research funding."

The National Graduate Caucus (NGC) of the Canadian Federation of Students is the national voice of graduate students in Canada, uniting more than 50,000 graduate students from campuses in every province.