Why Universities, Research and Human Capital Are Becoming Strategic Assets
By Xiaodong Wu, Yang Song and Rob McLay
There was a time when discussions about international competitiveness focused primarily on trade, natural resources, manufacturing capacity and access to capital. Those things still matter enormously. But another form of competition is becoming increasingly important to the economic and social prospects of countries: the competition for people.
Researchers, scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, graduate students and other highly skilled people have become strategic assets in a world being reshaped by artificial intelligence, biotechnology, clean energy, demographic change and geopolitical uncertainty. Increasingly, countries are recognizing that their future prosperity will depend not simply on financial or natural resources, but on their ability to educate, attract and retain people capable of generating new knowledge and translating it into economic and social value.
Universities sit at the centre of this transformation. They educate future workers and leaders, but their importance extends much further. Leading universities bring together researchers, students, entrepreneurs, governments and industry. They generate intellectual property, create companies, attract investment and connect countries to international networks of knowledge and innovation.
This helps explain why research talent has moved from what was once largely a university concern into the realm of national economic strategy.
A genuinely global competition
The international movement of researchers is hardly new. Science has always crossed borders, and many of the world’s most important discoveries have emerged through collaboration among researchers from different countries. What is changing is the scale, speed and strategic importance of that movement.
Recent OECD data illustrate the extent of this mobility. Across OECD countries, internationally mobile students represented approximately 29 percent of doctoral graduates in 2023, up from about 24 percent in 2015. At the master’s level, the corresponding share was approximately 19 percent. Around one in ten scientific authors affiliated with institutions in OECD countries in 2024 also showed evidence of having previously moved internationally.
The overall research workforce is growing as well. Research and development personnel now account for almost 1.6 percent of employment across OECD countries, compared with approximately 1.3 percent in 2015. OECD countries awarded more than 300,000 doctoral degrees and 3.9 million master’s degrees in 2023.
These numbers matter because the movement of researchers is also a movement of knowledge. Internationally mobile researchers build relationships between institutions and countries. When scientists move, they bring professional networks, collaborators and ideas with them. Research talent therefore contributes not only to the institutions where people work, but also to the international networks through which knowledge increasingly moves.
The OECD’s 2026 Research and Innovation Careers Observatory describes research systems as being transformed simultaneously by geopolitical pressures, technological change, fiscal constraints and changing labour-market demands. Its central message is straightforward: scientific breakthroughs and new technologies ultimately depend on people. Developing, attracting and retaining research and innovation talent has consequently become an increasingly important element of national competitiveness.
Artificial intelligence makes the connection especially visible. AI leadership depends on computing infrastructure and capital, but it also depends on scientists, engineers, mathematicians and entrepreneurs capable of advancing the technology and applying it across economies. Similar dynamics are visible in quantum computing, biotechnology, advanced manufacturing, health research, climate science and clean energy.
Canada’s experiment
Canada has recently made an unusually ambitious move in this global competition.
The federal government’s Canada Global Impact+ Research Talent Initiative committed up to $1.7 billion over 12 years to attract more than 1,000 international and returning Canadian researchers at different stages of their careers. The initiative includes major research chairs as well as support for emerging research leaders, doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows.
The first results demonstrate the scale of the ambition. In August 2026, the federal government announced $504 million over eight years for 64 research chairs in areas considered strategically important to Canada’s prosperity, health, sovereignty and resilience. The first competition attracted nominees from 19 countries, with significant concentrations in health and biotechnology, advanced digital technologies, and environment, climate resilience and Arctic research. A subsequent intake broadened the international reach further.
The initiative extends well beyond established researchers. In the first phase of the Canada Impact+ Research Training Awards, 659 doctoral and postdoctoral awards were offered to researchers representing 72 countries. Of these, 399 were doctoral awards and 260 were postdoctoral awards. Roughly one-third of the nominees came from the United States, while approximately two-thirds came from elsewhere in the world.
That last figure is particularly revealing. Much of the public discussion surrounding Canada’s initiative has focused on the opportunity to attract researchers from the United States during a period of uncertainty within the American research system. That opportunity is real, but the Canadian strategy is considerably broader. Researchers and students are being recruited from Asia, Europe, Africa, Latin America, Australia and other parts of the world.
Canada is therefore attempting something larger than taking advantage of temporary circumstances in a neighbouring country. It is seeking to position itself as an international destination for research talent.
The multiplier effect of talent
This matters because recruiting an exceptional researcher can produce effects extending far beyond a single university appointment.
A leading scientist may establish a laboratory and recruit doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers from around the world. Those researchers collaborate with Canadian colleagues and international partners. They may work with businesses, governments or communities. Over time, some will establish companies, commercialize discoveries or move between universities, government and industry.
The real prize in the global competition for talent is therefore not the individual alone. It is the ecosystem that can grow around that individual.
Countries sometimes approach talent policy as though the objective were simply to persuade accomplished people to cross a border. But successful innovation environments demonstrate that talent is attracted to other talent. Researchers want excellent colleagues. Graduate students want outstanding supervisors. Entrepreneurs want engineers, scientists, investors and experienced managers. Companies want access to skilled employees and research institutions. Investors are more likely to commit capital where those ingredients already exist.
This creates a cumulative effect. Strong research ecosystems attract talented people, and talented people make those ecosystems stronger.
Canada’s larger innovation challenge
There is, however, an important qualification. Attracting exceptional people does not automatically produce an exceptional innovation economy.
Canada remains a significant research nation and has internationally respected universities, but its overall investment in research and development continues to lag many competitors. According to the OECD, gross domestic expenditure on research and development represented approximately 1.8 percent of Canadian GDP in 2023. The OECD average was approximately 2.7 percent, while the United States invested about 3.3 percent and South Korea approximately 4.9 percent.
Statistics Canada estimates that total Canadian research and development expenditure reached approximately $57.4 billion in 2023, an increase of 8.6 percent from the previous year. Yet Canada’s comparatively weak level of business investment in research and development remains a persistent concern in discussions about productivity and innovation.
This provides important context for the current talent initiative. Recruiting world-class researchers can strengthen universities and research networks, but recruitment alone will not resolve Canada’s productivity or innovation challenges.
Researchers need competitive funding and modern infrastructure. Graduate students and postdoctoral researchers need viable career pathways. Universities need strong connections with industry and communities. Entrepreneurs need access to capital and markets. International recruits need predictable immigration processes, while their families need housing, schools, employment opportunities and communities in which they can imagine building their lives.
Perhaps most importantly, Canada needs to become better at translating research excellence into innovation, companies and productivity.
A country can recruit outstanding scientists and still fail to capture the full benefits of their work if discoveries are commercialized elsewhere, promising companies move abroad to obtain capital, or talented graduates leave because better opportunities exist elsewhere. The competition for talent is therefore inseparable from the competition to build environments in which talent can succeed.
Universities as strategic assets
The changing role of universities deserves greater attention within this discussion.
Universities are sometimes treated primarily as educational institutions whose principal task is awarding degrees. Education remains fundamental, but major research universities increasingly function as anchors within much larger innovation ecosystems.
Around successful universities, clusters of laboratories, companies, hospitals, investors, start-ups and research institutes can develop. Knowledge circulates between them. Students move into companies, researchers collaborate with industry, entrepreneurs return to universities, and international partnerships connect local ecosystems to global ones.
The most successful examples demonstrate that the boundary between university and economy can become remarkably porous. Silicon Valley’s relationship with Stanford University and the San Francisco Bay Area’s connections with the University of California system are well-known examples, but similar clusters exist around Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts; Oxford and Cambridge in the United Kingdom; Singapore; Seoul; Toronto-Waterloo; Montreal; and other centres of research and innovation.
This is one reason countries invest heavily in leading universities even when the economic returns cannot always be measured immediately. Research often produces benefits over decades rather than electoral or budget cycles.
Parliament and the emerging Canadian debate
The importance of talent has also entered Canada’s parliamentary debate.
In 2026, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration launched a study titled Attracting and Empowering Global Talent to Strengthen Canada’s Economy. The framing is significant because it moves the discussion beyond immigration numbers toward a larger question of how Canada attracts, integrates and retains people whose skills can contribute to economic growth and innovation.
This distinction matters. Attracting people is only the first step.
A successful talent strategy requires countries to think about the full experience of internationally mobile researchers, students and entrepreneurs. Immigration policy is part of that equation, but so are research funding, housing, taxation, professional opportunities, quality of life and the ability of spouses and families to build careers and communities.
Retention is ultimately a measure of whether talented people believe that a country offers them a future.
This is particularly important for younger researchers. Today’s doctoral student may become tomorrow’s leading scientist, entrepreneur or university president. A strategy focused exclusively on recruiting people after they have achieved international recognition risks overlooking the much larger task of developing talent over decades.
Canada’s decision to include doctoral students, postdoctoral researchers and emerging research leaders within its talent initiative is therefore significant. But international recruitment should complement rather than replace investment in Canadian students and researchers. A durable strategy requires both.
A wider international conversation
The same questions are increasingly visible internationally.
During the opening of the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York in September 2026, discussions surrounding artificial intelligence, human development and technological transformation repeatedly highlighted the importance of bringing together governments, scientists, universities, innovators, industry and civil society.
The significance of these discussions is not that the United Nations is endorsing any particular country’s talent strategy. Rather, they illustrate how closely scientific capability and human capital have become connected to some of the largest questions facing governments.
Artificial intelligence is one example. Governments have considerable regulatory and policy responsibilities, but much of the relevant knowledge resides outside government in universities, laboratories, technology companies and international research networks. Climate change, pandemic preparedness, food security, biodiversity and emerging technologies present similar challenges.
Countries therefore face an interesting tension. They are competing more intensely for scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs while simultaneously depending upon international scientific cooperation.
Competition and collaboration are occurring at the same time.
The countries that benefit most may be those capable of doing both: building strong domestic research ecosystems while remaining deeply connected to international networks of knowledge.
From brain drain to brain circulation
This also suggests that the traditional language of “brain drain” may be becoming less useful.
Researchers increasingly build careers across several countries and institutions. A Canadian scientist may study in Britain, conduct research in the United States and return to Canada while continuing to collaborate internationally. A researcher from China, India, Nigeria, France or Brazil may establish a laboratory in Canada while maintaining research partnerships in their home country and elsewhere.
Knowledge does not necessarily leave one country and permanently arrive in another. It circulates.
The objective for countries should therefore not simply be to prevent people from leaving or persuade them to stay indefinitely. It should be to create environments that talented people want to join and remain connected to.
That means encouraging international mobility while ensuring that domestic institutions are sufficiently strong to participate in global networks on favourable terms.
For universities, this means international partnerships, exchanges, joint research projects and the movement of students and faculty across borders. For governments, it means recognizing that openness can itself become a strategic advantage.
An opportunity, but not an automatic advantage
Canada’s current opportunity is significant, but it should not be overstated.
Changes in research funding, immigration policies or political conditions elsewhere may encourage scientists to consider Canada. Canada’s relative openness, quality of life, respected universities and international connections can make it attractive.
But temporary circumstances do not create lasting competitive advantage.
The more meaningful test will come five or ten years from now. Have the researchers recruited today built globally important laboratories? Have they trained a new generation of researchers? Have discoveries produced companies, technologies or better public policy? Have Canadian universities strengthened their international networks? Have talented students remained and built careers? Have partnerships developed among universities, businesses, governments and communities?
These questions are harder than simply counting how many researchers have crossed the border. They are also much more important.
Canada’s relatively low overall level of R&D investment makes this especially significant. Recruiting talented people without providing the ecosystem in which they can succeed risks producing impressive announcements without equivalent long-term impact.
The ambition should therefore be larger than recruitment. It should be to create an environment in which exceptional people can do consequential work.
The competition is ultimately about possibility
The phrase “global competition for talent” can make the movement of people sound like a zero-sum contest in which one country wins whenever another loses a scientist, engineer or entrepreneur. Reality is more complicated.
Knowledge moves through networks. Researchers collaborate internationally. Students study in one country and work in another. Companies build research teams across multiple jurisdictions. Scientific discoveries made at one university can improve lives around the world.
Countries nevertheless have legitimate reasons to want talented people to live, research, innovate and build companies within their borders. The economic and social benefits can be substantial.
The challenge is to create environments people actively choose to join.
That requires excellent universities, but it also requires openness, research funding, infrastructure, entrepreneurial opportunity, international connections and communities in which talented people and their families can imagine building a future.
Canada’s recent investments represent an important experiment in whether those ingredients can be brought together at sufficient scale. The results will matter well beyond universities because the global competition for talent is ultimately a competition over something larger: the capacity to generate ideas, turn those ideas into innovation and create opportunities for future generations.
In a century increasingly shaped by knowledge, technology and human creativity, talent does not simply fill jobs. It creates possibilities.
References and Further Reading
Government of Canada (2026). Government of Canada Announces Results for Intake 1 of the Eddie Goldenberg Research Chairs of Canada and Canada Impact+ Emerging Leaders. Details the first 64 research chairs and the $504 million investment supporting the initial intake.
Government of Canada (2026). Canada Impact+ Research Chairs: Intake One Statistics. Provides data on applications, countries of origin and priority research areas represented in the first competition.
Government of Canada (2026). Canada Impact+ Research Chairs: Intake Two Statistics. Provides updated information on the international reach and research priorities represented in the subsequent intake.
Government of Canada (2025). Canada Global Impact+ Research Talent Initiative. Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada. Describes the approximately $1.7 billion initiative intended to attract more than 1,000 international and returning Canadian researchers.
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (2026). Phase One Results of Canada’s Talent Attraction Strategy. Reports 659 doctoral and postdoctoral research awards involving nominees from 72 countries.
Government of Canada (2025). Budget 2025. Includes Canada’s international talent attraction measures and connects research recruitment with the country’s broader economic and innovation strategy.
House of Commons of Canada (2026). Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration. Attracting and Empowering Global Talent to Strengthen Canada’s Economy. Parliamentary study examining Canada’s capacity to attract, integrate and retain international talent.
OECD (2026). Research and Innovation Careers Observatory 2026. OECD Publishing, Paris. Comparative analysis of research and innovation workforces, researcher mobility, career pathways and the growing strategic importance of research talent.
OECD (2025). OECD Economic Surveys: Canada 2025. OECD Publishing, Paris. Includes analysis of Canada’s productivity performance, business investment, research and development and innovation challenges.
OECD (2025). OECD Science, Technology and Innovation Outlook. Analysis of international research, innovation and technology systems and the effects of technological and geopolitical change.
Statistics Canada (2025). Gross Domestic Expenditures on Research and Development. Provides national data on Canadian R&D expenditures and trends across sectors.
United Nations General Assembly (2026). Opening of the General Debate of the Eighty-First Session. New York, September 2026. Includes discussion of artificial intelligence, technological transformation and the role of scientists, academia, industry and civil society.
United Nations (2026). AI and Human Development. UN General Assembly High-Level Week, New York. Examines the implications of artificial intelligence for human development, institutions and societies.
United Nations Academic Impact and partners (2026). Building Sustainable Futures: A Consensus Statement on the Unique Position of Higher Education in the Pursuit of Solutions. Addresses the role of universities and higher education in responding to complex global challenges.
Note on the use of AI: AI-assisted tools were used in the preparation of this article for translation, fact verification, research assistance and editorial support. The authors reviewed and approved the final article and are responsible for its analysis, perspectives and content.