New NSERC president to advocate for increased funding, boost research impacts

Dr Mario Pinto assumes position in early Fall

Dr Mario Pinto, whose appointment as president of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) ends a year-long vacancy, has a few ideas on how to bring a fresh perspective to the position. When Pinto arrives in Ottawa to take up his new duties in the early fall, he will bring with him a focus on research and innovation that he describes as "multidisciplinary and fluid, unfettered by tradition".

Pinto has spent his whole independent academic career at Simon Fraser Univ, joining the institution in 1983 and serving as VP research for the past 10 years.

In an interview with RE$EARCH MONEY, Pinto outlined the challenges he sees as head of Canada's largest granting council (by funding) and described his approach to achieving the all-important equilibrium between fundamental and applied research, the need for strategic investments and working with other key research funding agencies including the revamped National Research Council (NRC).

"Research at Simon Fraser is not bound by traditional walls and I have contributed to building this ethos. I will bring a similar perspective to my new position," says Pinto, an accomplished chemical biologist whose research has helped to advance the knowledge and methodology underpinning advances in drug and vaccine design. "I work very collaboratively, identifying the gaps in an innovation and developing a collective strategy to address those gaps. You must be aware of things outside of your own environment and I have a track record of doing this."

Pinto replaces Dr Suzanne Fortier, who left NSERC in March 2013 and became principal and vice-chancellor of McGill Univ several months later. Janet Walden has been the effective head of the council since that time as interim chief operating officer — a period which Pinto describes as "a long process. I've been engaged for one year".

Fundamental and applied research

Pinto arrives at a time of concern within the academic research community over the direction of the granting councils and stagnant funding levels. Pinto says he appreciates the concerns of his fellow researchers but also recognizes the need for Canada to focus on both the generation of new knowledge and its potential economic and social application.

"People are now preoccupied with this issue. Invention when it arrives needs added value to have a chance at successful translation," he says. "It's our duty to preserve both types of endeavour. Researchers pursue foundational research and when opportunities arise, we need to assess their potential (and) prepare for the possibility of future investment."

"I view our strategy as a Mobius strip (a surface with only one side and only one boundary component) with no beginning and no end. We need to fully explore the push-pull ecosystem of innovation and learn how to foster it. The business community must formally entrench and inform scholarly research at the foundational level. I see a more fluid system in which all the players are informed by each other." — Dr Mario Pinto

He adds that NSERC's Strategic Partnerships Program is a highly effective tool for adding value to inventions so that they have a fighting chance at commercialization. The restructured NRC also offers considerable potential.

"(The restructuring of NRC) is a significant move. I will want to learn more about how we engage the NRC better as a conduit between academics and the business community."

In addition to the re-focused NRC, Pinto credits the federal government for the creation or enhancing of several R&D funding programs including the expanded Mitacs program, the Business-Led Networks of Centres of Excellence and the Centres of Excellence in Commercialization and Research (CECR) programs.

The proliferation of programs is of some concern, however, and Pinto cites the Jenkins report which recommended the consolidation of business innovation programs as an example of seeking efficiencies through a reduced number of support and assistance mechanisms.

"I would like to explore a more efficient system that reduces duplication and redundancies and gives both types of research — fundamental and applied — increased opportunities," he says. "Research and innovation are not a linear path. I view our strategy as a Mobius strip with no beginning and no end that's needed to fully explore the push-pull ecosystem"

New strategic investments required

As for increased funding, Pinto sees advocacy for boosting support for the granting councils as a logical and necessary component of the president's mandate.

"Absolutely. Funding hasn't kept pace with inflation. Judicious investment of more funds would make us more competitive on an international scale," he says. "Academics feel they have been under-resourced. We need to make the case for increased funding — a strategy for selective investment and goals for being world class, so Canada can be more competitive. That's my professional goal."

Pinto will also bring to NSERC his enthusiastic support for increased multidisciplinarity. At SFU, he helped to hatch a strategy for funding major initiatives under the seven integrative research themes outlined in the university's 2010-2015 strategic plan. The idea was to advance research projects to the point where they would be competitive for major research awards.

"We brought together disciplines from the humanities to the applied sciences but it was not enough. We needed more funding so we became shameless land developers," he says. "We established the Community Trust Endowment Fund program and developed UniverCity (a sustainable residential community adjacent to the university campus) which was a roaring success. With $7 million we leveraged it to $40 million. It helped to change the culture and helped researchers become more mature and informed."

Prior to his career at SFU, Pinto completed his postdoctoral work at France's Le Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and the NRC in Ottawa. He received a BSc and PhD in chemistry from Queen's Univ. As SFUs VP research, Pinto was instrumental in strengthening national and international linkages in research, technology, and education and developing new models of innovation for technology transfer.

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