Canadians have so much faith in our medical researchers, we'd even pay more taxes to help them continue their life-saving work, a new survey has found.

The survey for six health organizations that include universities and pharmaceutical companies found that most Canadians believe breakthroughs for cancer, diabetes, heart disease and Alzheimer's are attainable within 10 to 20 years.

In order to achieve those goals -- even in this weak economy -- an overwhelming majority of respondents said governments should increase funding for health and medical research.

The survey, called "Canada Speaks! 2010: Canadians Go for Gold in Health and Medical Research" was conducted by Angus Reid for six organizations:

• Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada (AFMC)
• BIOTECanada
• Canada's Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies (Rx&D)
• Canadian Healthcare Association (CHA)
• MEDEC - Canada's Medical Technology Companies
• Research Canada: An Alliance for Health Discovery

Almost nine out of 10 Canadians believe Canada should be a global leader in health and medical research, the survey found, but the majority also recognized that Canada is currently a middle-of-the-pack player in the research field among industrialized nations.

Nine out of 10 Canadians think it is important for both federal and provincial governments to invest in the education and training of health and medical researchers, the survey also found.

Dr. Michael Julius, the chair of Research Canada and vice-president of research at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto says he thinks it's "stunning" that even in a recession, Canadians see health and medical research as a top priority.

"Their faith is merited," Julius told Canada AM Monday.

"We simply have to look at the track record that health researchers across the land have achieved over the last decade or so. We have achieved material advances so that whereas people once essentially received a death sentence, that's no longer the case. It's for one simple reason: research works."

But the survey also found that Canadians are greatly confused about how much money is currently spent on medical research.

Before being told the real figures, the survey respondents believed that an average of 23.2 cents out of every dollar spent by governments on health care went to medical research.

In fact, currently, less than one cent out of each dollar goes to research.

Once the survey respondents were told the actual figures, they said they believed that an average of 20.7 cents of each health care dollar should go toward health and medical research.

Julius says he finds it inspiring to hear Canadians think that researchers deserve so much funding.

"Asking Canadians who don't understand, frankly, how much money it costs to do medical research, it's a wonderful dream to hear them indicating we should be spending around 20 to 25 per cent of every health care dollar on medical research," he said.

"In fact, our own aspirations are a little more modest. We're hoping for one per cent of total health care funding dedicated to medical research."

The survey found that seven out of 10 Canadians would be willing to pay out of pocket to improve health and research capacity. Most said they would be willing to spend $1 more per week to fund new health and medical research projects in Canada.

As well, four out of five Canadians agree the federal government should support tax and regulatory policies that encourage private industries to conduct more medical research.

Again, Julius finds it surprising yet heartening that Canadians support medical researchers so strongly.

"They appreciate the health care system that they enjoy as Canadians. And they joined the dots; they understand that medical research is finding its way into the clinic and its providing new methods for prevention, for early detection and new modalities for intervention," he said.

The research was conducted by Angus Reid Public Opinion between Dec. 7 and 10, 2009 and involved a random survey of 1,000 adult Canadians. The survey has a margin of error of +/- 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.