Alberta Budget provides $188 million to fund Alberta Innovates corporations

Surplus expected by FY12-13

Alberta has allocated $188 million to support the operations of Alberta Innovates (AI), its new structure for provincial research, innovation and technology commercialization. The funding will flow through the ministry of Advanced Education and Technology (AET) and is contained in the province's February 9th Budget, which outlines spending of $38.7 billion, carries a forecast deficit of $4.7 billion and a projection for returning to surplus by FY12-13.

While the AI funding is not equal to the funding received by the 11 organizations that were folded into four new corporations, its inclusion is being taken as a positive signal of support for the province's new approach to research and innovation (R$, December 9/09).

"The minister (Doug Horner) always said we are moving forward on this … We started the process before there was any crisis, carried on with it through that crisis - the downturn - and we're continuing because it's the right thing to do," says AET assistant DM Dr Ron Dyck. "All of us have had to tighten our belts a bit but the base budgets (of the organizations within Alberta Innovates) are generally not affected."

AI is the umbrella organization for four corporations that replace 11 previously separate organizations devoted to research, innovation and technology commercialization. Of these, Technology Futures spans the gamut from university-based research to commercialization and encompasses the Alberta Research Council (ARC), Alberta Ingenuity, iCORE and nanoAlberta.

The decrease in funding to these organizations is largely accounted for by the sunsetting of two programs including the Energy Innovation Fund and contract research revenue previously allocated to ARC but now incorporated into the Technology Futures budget.

The total AET budget for FY10-11 is $253 million, which includes $25 million for technology commercialization initiatives, $23 million for research equipment grants handled by AET, $10 million for program delivery support and $6 million in capital spending.

While the Budget provides little detail on specific spending initiatives, other ministries received funding which will inevitably find its way into research and innovation. These include carbon capture and storage ($500 million over three years), health facilities and equipment ($2.5 billion), renewable energy ($43 million) climate change and clean energy ($141 million) and the province's Water for Life strategy ($88 million).

"There are a number of departments that have research dollars for policy and regulatory initiatives. We are hoping that when there is a clear case and they watch the Alberta Innovates system emerge, they will take advantage of its expertise to assist in their research activities," says Dyck. "Alberta Innovates is supposed to be the answer to research and innovation challenges for the whole of government. There's very strong goodwill to make this happen."

In the area of advanced education, the Budget makes an allocation of $974 million to create 15,000 additional spaces in post-secondary facilities. For the Univ of Alberta, however, the Budget prompted AET to reduce funding for new and growing programs by $20 million, prompting the institution to consider layoffs. The Univ of Calgary also suffered a $17.5 million shortfall while Grant McEwan Univ also received a budget cut of $5.6 million. It's unknown at this point whether the post-secondary cuts will find their way into allocations for research.

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