ORF competitions cancelled as government launches new regional development funds

In a sign of the worsening fiscal environment, the Ontario government has cancelled the next two rounds of its flagship Ontario Research Funds - Research Excellence (ORF-RE) program competition and transferred the money to two recently created regional development funds. One of the competitions was already in the field and provincial universities had submitted letters of intent prior to the October 14 deadline with round seven originally set for launch in early 2012. The two competitions were worth $42 million.

The Ministry of Economic Development and Innovation (MEDI) also cut funds to the Life Sciences Commercialization Strategy ($5 million) and the Strategic Jobs and Investment Fund ($19 million) for a total cut to the research and innovation budget of $66 million. The two new regional development funds require $160 million over four years to implement, meaning the government must find an additional $114 million. In the recent election campaign, the McGuinty Liberals pledged to find funds from existing sources for any new initiatives.

"We're disappointed but we understand given the current financial climate," says Dr Peter Lewis, associate VP research at the Univ of Toronto. "The impact on the U of T is fairly substantial. Out of the $65 million available in round five, we won $8.2 million and that's operating dollars which is important to our scientists to run their labs."

Of the nearly $1 billion in sponsored research income secured by the U of T each year, approximately $200 million is classified as operating funds, meaning U of T's potential loss due to the cancellation is about 5% of that envelope.

Lewis says he can't recall a competition for research funding under the ORF or any other program being cancelled in mid stream with such short notice. U of T has begun a process of seeking replacement funding from other sources from industry and internationally.

"Our strategy whenever we run into situations where we have less fuel for our research enterprise is to look for other sources," he says. "We're hoping that the funds will be replaced (by the province) by another funding mechanism."

The new Southwestern Ontario Development Fund (SWODF) and the Eastern Ontario Development Fund (EODF) have an innovation component which may help to bridge at least some of the gap. The details and timing of the SWODF have not been announced while the EODF has already been launched. Legislation was introduced in the Ontario legislature on December 5th authorizing the new spending and making the funds permanent.

"We had committed to the two regional development funds and we think they're important. Innovation is part of these funds," says Andrew Block, a spokesperson for MEDI minister Brad Duguid. "With any commitments going forward, we're not adding to funding. There needs to be an offset for the costs of the development funds."

Tabled the same day as the legislation for the two funds was the annual report of the Ontario Auditor General's office which contained an update on its 2009 report on the ORF program, including its research infrastructure program. Of the $1.1 billion committed between FY04-05 and FY10-11, $569 million has actually been spent. The Auditor General has been critical of the ORF in the past for its emphasis on basic theoretical research although the fund's mandate says its support for research would include a focus on commercial potential.

This year, the government began evaluating a revised annual progress report for funded projects under the ORF intended to capture more information on commercialization achievement, including company spin-offs and job creation. It has also begun collecting baseline data.

"As more data becomes (sic) available, the Ministry plans to perform more in-depth analysis of research projects to compare actual commercialization activity with intended goals", states the Auditor General's report.

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