Post-secondary institutions hold firm

with minor increases in research income

The Univ of Toronto has lost its status as Canada's only $1-billion-plus university ranked by sponsored research income. After topping the $1-billion mark for three consecutive years, U of T tumbled 4.1% to $998.5 million in FY15, due to continued soft federal and provincial funding — the main sources of university research. Canada's Top 50 universities managed just a 0.6% increase in FY 2105 to $6.71 billion, according to the latest data from Research Infosource Inc.

U of T wasn't the only university to experience a slump in research support. The next three ranked universities — Univ of British Columbia, Univ of Montreal and McGill Univ — all declined, and 29 of the top 50 institutions decreased year over year while 21 reported increases.

"Two-thirds of research money comes from government and we're now seeing a steady state economy with no real growth when you account for inflation. In fact it's a step back in the value of funding when you have an increase of 0.6%," says Research Infosource CEO Ron Freedman. "Over the last five years, it's not been great for the economy or government revenues … This year comprehensive/undergraduate institutions took a big hit."

Smaller institutions like the Univ of Regina, Brock Univ, Royal Military College, St Francis Xavier Univ and Acadia Univ all suffered double-digit declines.

Canada's Top 50 research-performing colleges fared little better than their university counterparts, boosting research income just 0.5% to $168.7 million. After riding a multi-year growth spurt, increases faltered beginning in 2014 as federal funds proved harder to come by.

The top college research performer — Cégep de Saint-Hyacinthe — increased 9.8% to $10.3 million while 16th ranked SAIT Polytechnic declined 39.8% to $4.3 million.

Freedman says colleges have built-in limitations to their ability to perform research such as teaching obligations and other contractual issues. In FY15, industry support for colleges dropped 8.3%.

"They're caught in the SME (small- and medium-sized enterprise) trap. Colleges are like SMEs in that they operate like local businesses for local customers. There aren't many multi-nationals supporting them."

15-Year Snapshot

Research Infosource is marking its 15th year of collecting research income data by calculating what the 44 top university research earners have secured between 2000 and 2014. U of T attracted a whopping $12.1 billion, followed by the Univ of Montreal ($7.0 billion), UBC ($6.7 billion), McGill Univ ($6.4 billion) and Univ of Alberta ($6.3 billion).

"The golden era of university research started in 1998 (and) institutions were on a rapid growth trajectory until five years ago," says Freedman. "That rate of growth cannot be sustained. We're now in a steady state."

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