The debate over the value of research - and the federal government's role in supporting it - will kick up a notch this week when thousands of scholars descend on Ottawa for the largest annual gathering of academics in the country.

Carleton University will play host this year to the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, and with the nation's capital as its backdrop, the politics of research, as well as the research itself, will take centre stage.

Social scientists and humanities scholars are feeling especially stung by the federal government's policies on research, and the tendency to equate innovation with science alone. The rich new Canada Excellence Research Chairs program does not include a single finalist from disciplines in the humanities or social sciences. The January budget that directed new granting-council money to business research provoked a huge backlash, especially among young scholars, including a Facebook protest page with more than 4,500 members.

This week's marathon event, with research that ranges from elevator sex in cinema to Canada's defence policy and the use of online media in elections, is an opportunity for academics to rub shoulders with federal politicians as well as the civil servants and political staff who craft policy.

"We are lucky to be in Ottawa" said Nathalie Des Rosiers, a law professor and president of the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, which organized the event. "It is a good time for our scholars to interact with the public that uses their research."

The federal government, eager to be seen as a supporter of innovation and to stem the tide of criticism over cuts to granting councils, will send Minister of State for Science and Technology Gary Goodyear to address delegates today. Mr. Goodyear is expected to speak about the government's commitment to fostering research in the social sciences and humanities.

Prof. Des Rosiers, who met with Finance Minister Jim Flaherty following the budget, said the government felt that its message was not getting through to the academic community. "Well, come and say it," she said.

Prof. Des Rosiers said her group has asked the federal government to increase funding to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council by $100-million, or more than 20 per cent over the next three to five years. At current funding levels, scholars in these disciplines are far less likely to get federal research dollars than their lab-coat wearing colleagues across campus. Just one researcher in five who applies to SSHRC receives funding, compared with success rates that range from 75 to 100 per cent at the other two federal granting agencies.

"Investment in health research is good, but certainly there is an imbalance in terms of funding," Prof. Des Rosiers said.

That imbalance is also being noted by university leaders, who are growing increasingly concerned that young professors in major departments such as English, history, and political science are facing daunting odds of getting funding.

"Successful societies are built around creative and well-balanced communities," University of Toronto president David Naylor told a Toronto business crowd recently. "You can't have them without the social sciences, the arts and the humanities."

Such arguments are a constant theme for Chad Gaffield, president of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, who believes that recognizing the importance of social sciences and humanities is the unfinished business of the innovation agenda. "Understanding ideas and behaviour," he said, "are key to innovation and building a successful society."

Mr. Gaffield, a historian, said this year's congress in Ottawa gives researchers the opportunity to emphasize how their work relates to today's headlines. "I welcome the attention," he said. "We are becoming much better at explaining what we do and why it is important."

There is evidence the message is one that still needs to be told.

On Wednesday, the congress will be competing with another closed-door meeting in Ottawa that will bring together university presidents, business leaders and senior civil servants to discuss the role of research and innovation in contributing to Canada's economic recovery. The name of the event: Science Day in Canada.