British Columbia launches endowed chair program to strengthen research clusters and attract top talent to provincial institutions

The British Columbia government has unveiled its long-awaited endowed chairs program that it hopes will help create and reinforce centres of excellence and clusters of research expertise at the province’s publicly funded colleges and universities. The first 17 of 26 permanent chairs through the Leading Edge Endowment Fund (LEEF) were announced earlier this month and the government is providing $32.25 million that will be released when the successful institutions secure the necessary matching funds.

When fully committed, $52.5 million in government funding matched by contributions from other sources will result in $105 million in endowed funding. The LEEF program awards endowed chairs in two categories — leadership chairs each worth $4.5 million for universities, and regional innovation chairs each worth $2.5 million — through an external peer-reviewed, competitive process. The program’s regulations stipulate matching support must be cash and that there must be at least three chairs in each category — health, economic development, environmental and technological research.

Based on a rate of return of between 5% and 7%, each leadership chair will generate between $225,000 and $315,000 annually, while the regional chairs will generate approximately half those amounts.

“This program clearly has a strong commitment from the provincial government and will produce top quality candidates and research projects,” says Dr Max Cairns, LEEF’s executive director. “We hope it will help to attract students and research funding to build centres of excellence and clusters of expertise for a broad range of research activities at a high level.”

The institutions asked to submit full proposals have one year to secure matching funds. The June 30 announcement covers the first three rounds of LEEF competitions, and the closing date for the next competition is September 30/04. Once the next slate of chair recipients is announced, the program will be fully committed with 20 leadership chairs and six regional chairs. An initial chair in spinal chord research was announced in 2002 at the Univ of British Columbia through the Rick Hansen Institute.

“As we complete the announcements of awards, we’ll look at extending the program,” says Cairns. “It has caught the imagination of the universities and colleges as it gives them the flexibility to structure research around the chairs and provides the opportunity to recruit and offer security for a long period.”

The leadership chair selection committee is headed by Dr Bernard Shapiro, former principal and vice-chancellor of McGill Univ and recently appointed federal ethics commissioner. The regional chairs selection committee is chaired by Ron Woodward, president of Red Deer College. External peer review is provided by the Canada Research Chairs program through an agreement with LEEF.

INDEPENDENT SOCIETY PROVIDES ADMINISTRATION

The LEEF program is administered by an independent society headed by Dr Martha Salcudean, chair of LEEF’s board of directors and an esteemed member of the Univ of British Columbia’s faculty. The society was created by government as a mechanism for bringing together a range of stakeholders, especially from the academic and business communities.

The society is structured to receive additional research support from organizations like the Canada Foundation for Innovation. It can also receive donations. LEEF has already supported a $500,000 donation from the Don Rix Family Foundation. The funding will be used to provide $25,000 in scholarship funding to each of the 20 chairs. Rix is a prominent BC businessman and chairman of MDS Metro Laboratory Services.

The Univ of British Columbia received six endowed chairs under the leadership chairs program, followed by two for Simon Fraser Univ, two for the Univ of Victoria and one for the Univ of Northern British Columbia (see chart).

“The LEEF program is unique It provides very strong support for already strong programs and it’s enough to attract world class talent,” says Dr Bruce Clayman, SFU’s outgoing VP research. “The funds will be a challenge to match but I think we can meet it from donations and other sources. I’m very happy with it.”

The LEEF program launched in 2002, fulfilling a pledge made by the Liberal government prior to gaining power as part of its New Era pre-election commitment . The regional chair component was added in 2003. Chairs in early childhood development and Aboriginal childhood health were mandated by the government.

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