As a result of their deliberations committees may make recommendations which they include in their reports for the consideration of the House of Commons or the Government. Recommendations related to this study are listed below.

Recommendation 1

That the Government of Canada continue its funding for the Service to Assist Research in French project launched by Acfas to support francophone scientists across Canada.

Recommendation 2

That the Government of Canada provide permanent funding for research involving Canadian francophone communities.

Recommendation 3

That the Government of Canada earmark funds so that the research community can draw upon official languages data from the 2021 Census and future data from the Survey on the Official Language Minority Population.

Recommendation 4

That the Government of Canada, in collaboration with the provinces and territories, develop a program for sustainable funding for post-secondary institutions in official language minority communities; and that this program take into consideration the challenges that these post-secondary institutions face as regards small size, distance and additional costs.

Recommendation 5

That the Government of Canada, in collaboration with the provinces and territories, develop and fund a Canada-wide strategy for supporting research and publication in French, in partnership with federal institutions, the provinces and territories, universities and colleges, and other stakeholders.

Recommendation 6

That the Government of Canada establish a French-language science office, attached to the Office of the Chief Science Advisor, tasked with:

• monitoring and coordinating support efforts by the Federal government for research and scientific publication in French;
• measuring progress achieved; and
• proposing concrete actions to be implemented by federal research funding organizations.

Recommendation 7

That the granting agencies, namely the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, review the criteria and procedures used to assess research excellence in the context of allocating funding by:

• discontinuing the use of bibliometrics such as the impact factor; and
• introducing weighting mechanisms to more accurately recognize research conducted or published in French.

Recommendation 8

That the granting agencies—namely the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research—and the Canadian Foundation for Innovation institute an objective evaluation of the language proficiency of the experts who sit on their review committees.

Recommendation 9

That a quota of the funding awarded by each of the granting agencies, namely the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, be determined and used as a minimum level of funding for research conducted or published in French.

Recommendation 10

That the granting agencies, namely the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, take concrete steps to encourage researchers to submit funding applications in French and that they publicly report on their progress.

Recommendation 11

That within each of the granting agencies, namely the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, measures be taken to monitor the proportion of funding applications submitted in French and to ensure that the success rate of these applications is fair; and that the granting agencies publicly report on their progress.

Recommendation 12

That, through the granting agencies, namely the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the federal government increase its financial support for scientific publication in French and for French-language and bilingual scholarly journals, and develop measures to encourage the bilingual scholarly journals that they fund to increase the percentage of articles they publish in French.

Recommendation 13

That the Chief Science Advisor of Canada organize and lead a special committee tasked with making suggestions to the Department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development regarding other concrete actions that could increase scientific publication in French, the translation to French of the most important research published in English and the availability of French-language scientific publications for teaching purposes.

Recommendation 14

That the Government of Canada, through the granting agencies, invest in translation support services in both official languages for use by researchers.

Recommendation 15

That the Government of Canada continue to support initiatives offering open access to French‑language scientific research, such as the Érudit platform, by providing stable, predictable funding.

Recommendation 16

That the granting agencies develop support programs for science outreach, science communication and the mobilization of scientific knowledge in French across the country.

Recommendation 17

That the Government of Canada develop an international student exchange program for post-secondary institutions in the Francophonie, in collaboration with the provinces and territories.