Plans to boost programming have begun

The Alberta Ingenuity Fund (AIF) is a major beneficiary of Alberta’s escalating resource-based wealth with a proposed doubling of its endowment to more than $1 billion by FY07-08. AIF was singled out in Alberta’s Bill 1: Access to the Future Act, for a $500-million boost which will help to generate provide $50 million annually to targeted research programs when fully implemented. Tabled March 2 in the Alberta legislature, Bill 1 pledges an astonishing $4.5 billion in endowment and scholarship funding for research and post-secondary education.

The decision of the Alberta government to follow through on its original 2000 commitment to create a $1-billion endowment for science and engineering comes on the heels of an announcement that AIF will receive $38-million over seven years for prion research, effectively creating a fifth Alberta Ingenuity Centre managed by the AIF (see chart).

“It’s a great announcement and a great trend … This is all about growing the value-added economy by growing the supply of highly qualified people,” says AIF president Dr Peter Hackett. “At the political level there’s a lot of good will and appreciation of AIF … Alberta has a great atmosphere. It’s an environment where you can get the right people in the same room.”

News of AIF’s endowment increase comes less than two months after a similar boost for health research. In January, premier Ralph Klein announced that the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research (AHFMR) would receive an additional $500 million, bringing its endowment to about $1.4 billion (R$, January 24/05). The money is slated to flow over three years starting in FY05-06.

Bill 1 announced the $500 million for AIF in the context of accelerating innovation in the province but was vague on how and when the funding would is disbursed. A private member’s bill introduced March 21 in the Alberta legislature puts a timeframe on the money, to be disbursed over two years beginning in FY06-07 at the government’s discretion. Both pieces of legislation are awaiting final passage.

Although the AIF is still months away from receiving its new endowment funding, it has fairly specific plans for how the revenues it will generate should be spent. AIF’s endowment currently stands at about $560 million (up from $520 million in June/04), generating about $20 million to fund its various programs. Hackett says an additional $500 million plus the interest it will generate could result in an annual operating budget of as high as $50 million, allowing for new programs and an expansion of existing ones.

“In the context of the new money, we’ll be emphasizing three areas,” says Hackett, adding that there will be consultations with the relevant scientific communities for program design and funding levels. “We will be offering programs for attracting world-class people to the province in areas of the value-added economy we want to build here. We will expand the Ingenuity Centres and we will build our pre-competitive research program with industry.”

ADDING VALUE THROUGH HIGHLY QUALIFIED PERSONNEL

In the area of attracting highly qualified personnel (HQP), the AIF will be using its new funding to identify top international talent and to put together recruitment packages to attract them to the province. It’s an approach that has been used successfully by Alberta’s Information Circle of Research Excellence (iCORE). With AIF, the areas of expertise will align with those outlined in the province’s 20-year strategic plan, such as bio products.

New funding will allow AIF to expand its Ingenuity Centres and categorize them into two types — targeted and emerging —and provide each with its own governance and management framework. Additional funding will enhance the Centres’ objectives of building critical mass in select research areas that correspond to the government’s value-added economic development strategy. The alignment of industrial priorities and the role of S&T was spelled out in Securing Tomorrow’s Prosperity: Sustaining the Alberta Advantage, released last spring (R$, May 10/04).

The third area of emphasis is industry and AIF’s Ingenuity Industrial Associateship program. New funding will permit a doubling of industry associates from 40 to 80 and an increase of the industry program from $2 million to $10 million.

Another area that will see increased funding is Ingenuity Studentships for MSc and PhD students. AIF partners with Science and Engineering Research Canada (NSERC) and iCORE to support approximately 240 students by providing full-time research training experience in a natural science or engineering discipline. AIF will boost its share from $3.5 million to $5 million and increase the number of studentships to 320.

FUNDING ALIGNMENT

While it’s clear that Alberta has achieved some success in dovetailing its S&T and economic priorities, a more difficult challenge has been to align research funding for its growing stable of programs and support. Former AIF president Dr William Bridger cited funding alignment as a challenge for his successor, although Hackett says progress is being made. He sites the Alberta Prion Science Initiative as a case in point. Designed to advance understanding of the proteins linked to bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), the new Ingenuity Centre will bring together provincial, national and international expertise.

“Many folks in the province moved this forward. The strategy was developed communally and AIF seems to be ideal for delivering the initiative,” says Hackett. “We want to deal with the issue in an integrated way and the province wants the best people working on the problem.

Hackett recently joined the executive of iCORE. He is also a member of the Alberta Advisory Committee on the BioEconomy and sits as an observer on the Alberta Science and Research Authority, the central S&T coordinating body in the province.

R$