By Larissa Fong, Research Team Member
Kaitlin Kharas, an alumna of the University of Toronto, was recognized as one of Nature’s 10 in 2024. This annual list highlights ten individuals who significantly influenced science in a given year. Rather than serving as an award or ranking, Nature’s 10 focuses on impactful narratives to underscore key events in science. Kharas earned this distinction for her instrumental role in securing a major pay hike for Canadian researchers.
Kharas comes from a family of political scientists in Ottawa. However, she chose to follow in her grandfather’s footsteps who graduated from the Temerty Faculty of Medicine.
“I was always much more drawn to the sciences.” Kharas reflects. “I find it very interesting how science and government interact - they cannot exist without each other. Government is our biggest source of research funding and good government requires research to make good policy. I find that dynamic fascinating and how it can work in the most efficient and productive way.”
After beginning her PhD in Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at the University of Toronto, Kharas joined the Toronto Science Policy Network (TSPN). Initially serving as a fundraising lead, she later became treasurer and eventually co-president. Alongside her TSPN colleagues, she co-authored a paper, Improving the Accessibility of Federal Graduate Research Awards in Canada, published in the Journal of Science Policy and Governance. This work led to a meeting with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) directors, marking her first experience in advocacy.
Kharas’s growing passion for science advocacy led her to join the Support Our Science (SOS) campaign, where she first participated as a member before becoming its Executive Director. SOS, founded in 2022, was spearheaded by Marc Johnson, a biologist at the University of Toronto Mississauga. Johnson knew that from the start, the campaign needed to be led by graduate students speaking in their own voice.
The inaugural executive director of SOS was Sarah Laframboise, a PhD candidate at the University of Ottawa. In November 2023, Laframboise stepped down, prompting Johnson and the board to appoint Kaitlin Kharas as her successor. At the time, Kharas was pursuing a PhD in pediatric brain cancer at the University of Toronto, bringing both her academic expertise and a passion for advocacy to the role of Executive Director.
Since 2003, graduate scholarships and postdoctoral fellowships from Canada’s three national granting agencies have remained static while the cost of living has risen dramatically. Stagnating investment in basic research and increases in the cost of living have provoked a crisis for early-career researchers, who are finding their work perilous for both their finances and their mental health. To alleviate financial hardship and attract talent, Temerty Medicine announced at the end of 2022 that graduate student stipends across the Faculty would increase to $37,000 for master’s students and $40,000 for PhD students. The advocacy began with an open letter to the Government signed by 6,000 professors across the sciences, including Nobel Laureates, stating the need for a raise. “It became obvious that this was not enough and that a long-term vision was needed to convince the Government to invest in next-generation researchers,” said Kharas. This led to the formation of SOS, where graduate students, postdoctoral fellowships, faculty, and their supporters came together to strategically advocate for increased funding from the Federal Government.
The SOS employed a range of strategies to pressure the government into action. They submitted four House of Commons petitions, each endorsed by a Member of Parliament from a different political party, gathering thousands of signatures. Leveraging social media and email campaigns, they mobilized people to contact local MPs and key government leaders, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and former Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland. In the months preceding the 2024 federal budget announcement, SOS hosted a press conference and rallied supporters to write to the Prime Minister and the former Finance Minister. Their most impactful initiative was a nationwide walkout in May 2023, during which approximately 10,000 researchers from 46 institutions across Canada ceased work to protest the government’s failure to increase scholarship funding in the 2023 budget. Additionally, Kharas played a pivotal role by organizing walkouts and meeting directly with former Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland.
On 16 April 2024, Kharas was selected to preview the 2024 federal budget inside an office near the Canadian Parliament. The 2024 federal budget marked a historic milestone for graduate students and postdoctoral researchers across Canada, including the largest pay raise in two decades. Stipends for master’s and PhD students were increased to $27,000 and $40,000 per year, respectively, while postdoctoral scholars saw fellowships rise to $70,000. The budget also allocated funds to expand the number of scholarships and fellowships available, with an additional 1,720 opportunities to be offered annually over the next five years. This significant increase in funding was a direct result of the tireless efforts of Kharas and the SOS, who advocated for a substantial boost to support graduate and postdoctoral researchers, securing the largest funding increase in over 20 years. Achieving the nationwide salary boost is rare for the SOS. Kharas attributes the success of the SOS campaign to its alignment with the priorities of Canada’s present government which emphasizes their support for economic contributions of research as well as highlighting the diversity of the graduate-student community.
As of December 2024, Kaitlin Kharas now works as a consultant at Boston Consulting Group and has recently stepped down as executive director of SOS. Although Kharas and many of the students and postdoctoral fellows she worked with will not personally benefit from the pay increase, she takes pride in leaving Canadian research in a stronger position. “This money isn’t going to directly impact us, but we felt passionate about making sure the Canadian science-research ecosystem was viable, sustainable, and inclusive for everyone coming next,” she says.
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