Higher education R&D expenditures enjoyed healthy increase in FY07-8: StatsCan

Spending on higher education R&D resumed healthy growth in FY07-08 after nearly grinding to a standstill in FY06-07, according to the latest data from Statistics Canada. Higher ed expenditures reached nearly $10.2 billion last year, thanks to increases from every funding source except foreign sources. Since FY94-05, R&D expenditures at Canadian post-secondary institutions have nearly tripled and have more than doubled when measured in constant 2002 dollars.

The federal portion of funding has also increased over the same time period from 23.7% of the FY94-5 total to 26.7% in FY07-8 and has increased 7% from FY98-9 when it accounted for just 19.7% of the total. Federal spending jumped a healthy 9.4% in FY07-08 to $2.7 billion, prompting a press release from Gary Goodyear, minister of state for science and technology. Goodyear touted his government's "leadership of R&D investments at institutions of higher learning" and noted that Canada is "number one in higher-education R&D (as a percentage of gross domestic product) in the G7" group of nations.

The press release did not mention, however, that federal support actually slipped 2.2% FY06-7 from FY05-06 when federal outlays totaled $2.488 billion. When measured in constant dollars, the increase between FY05-6 and FY07-8 is just 1.3%.

Provincial support was also up 4.2% in FY07-8 to $1.034 billion but has yet to reach its high of $1.039 billion in FY04-5. When measured in 2002 constant dollars, provincial outlays have actually declined 9.9% from their constant dollar high in FY03-4.

By far the biggest increase in any single funding source occurred in the private non-profit sector, which jumped $114 million or a remarkable 14.7% in FY07-8. And for the first time, it surpassed the business sector, which increased 7.7% to $870.2 million.

Foreign sources of funding hit their lowest level since FY04-5 with just $99.1 million in FY07-8, down from $125.7 million a year earlier.

Natural sciences and engineering and health sciences were virtually neck and neck receiving $3.5 billion and $3.4 billion respectively in FY07-8. The social science and humanities trailed with $1.8 billion, although they achieved the highest percentage increase with 7.9% compared to 6.2% for health sciences and 4.5% for natural sciences and engineering.

Ontario accounted for 42.3% of all spending in FY07-8 with $4.3 billion, continuing a slow increase in its share of the total. In FY94-5, Ontario had a 39.2% share, increasing to 39.9% in FY00-1. Quebec ‘s 26% share in FY07-8 was $2.6 billion, followed by the prairies ($1.5 billion/15%), British Columbia ($1.1 billion/11%) and Atlantic Canada ($553 million/6%).

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