STI community has plenty of ideas for new spending in the forthcoming Budget

Organizations advocating for increasing science, technology and innovation (STI) support are offering up a generous helping of advice and recommendations to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance. The submissions are part of the pre-Budget consultation process which ostensibly feeds into the March 22 Budget, although it's unclear whether the new Liberal government intends to deal with STI prior to completing a review of its innovation policies and programs.

RE$EARCH MONEY has compiled and analyzed the STI-heavy submissions and highlights the policies and initiatives being presented for consideration. From the ambitious funding proposals being forwarded for stem cell research to a groundswell of support for boosting the base funding of the granting councils and Genome Canada, the government will be hard pressed to satisfy the plethora of requests in the near term as it grapples with balancing deficit spending with targeted innovation initiatives.

Some requests such as that from the highly successful Stem Cell Network (see page 4) put pressure on government to re-examine funding limits imposed on programs funded through the Networks of Centres of Excellence. The highlights include:

Genome Canada's submission stands as this year's largest STI request for renewed funding, with a request for $513.5 million over five years. The new funding would allow the agency to launch programs designed to leverage its network of research teams to pursue applications-based R&D at the national and international level (R$, January 26/16). Genome Canada plans to implement a" harmonized set of strategies and three key program pillars" — funding large-scale science ($191 million), providing researchers access to leading-edge technologies ($157 million) and translation of genomics into applications ($105 million).

The U15 Group of Canadian Research Universities is one of several organizations advocating for increased funding to the granting councils. It calls for $210 million to eliminate the erosion in granting council funding between 2007-08 and 2015-16. U15 emphasizes that the funding should be "unfettered" (untargeted) to "to allow each agency to focus investments on programs or areas with particularly acute needs" such as early career researchers and international collaborations. That would be augmented by a 25% boost to the Research Support Fund to cover part of the indirect costs associated with the new funding. In future, granting council funding should be indexed to offset the impact of inflation. U15 also recommends the creation of an Innovative Campus Infrastructure Program to ensure that post-secondary institutions benefit from a portion of the Liberal government's planned infrastructure spending.

Universities Canada (UC) also supports the establishment of a dedicated university infrastructure fund as well as additional and untargeted support for the granting councils. Included in the UC submission is a request for a commitment of support for the Canada Foundation for Innovation which should be tasked to develop a roadmap for big science. UC also advocates for real-world experience for students in the form of "vouchers and tax credits to create more paid co-op placements, paid internships, and work integrated learning experiences for university students across all academic disciplines" and calls for a new program to support students studying abroad.

Indigenous students are the focus of four separate UC recommendations: increased funding for student financial assistance; new funds to scale up institutional programming to improve university outcomes for Indigenous students; enhanced support for existing programming through the Post-Secondary Partnership Program at Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada; and, new graduate scholarships.

The Canadian Association for Graduate Studies urges increased funding for the granting councils, Canada Foundation for Innovation and Mitacs — the latter to support non-profits and the social sciences. It also makes a non-specific request for the government to encourage the private sector to increase its R&D investment.

The Canadian Association of University Teachers is requesting increases to the base budgets of the granting councils by $250 million in 2016-17, $350 million in 2017-18 and $500 million in 2018-19. It also calls for a reinvestment in government science in key areas, such as environment and sustainable development, agriculture, food inspection, freshwater and oceans, the creation of a Parliamentary science officer as an "independent officer of the Library of Parliament" and lower tuition fees for students.

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce is requesting employer incentives for post-secondary co-op placements and internships and revives the concept of an "innovation box" similar to the patent box whereby intellectual property assets are afforded favourable tax treatment. The CCC also recommends investment in digital infrastructure, incentives for collaboration through technology clusters, incubators and centres of excellence, better incentives for venture capital and angel investors, increased government investment in VC, an exemption on capital gains from VC and the use of flow-through shares for firms financing innovative technologies with long development cycles.

The Canadian Climate Council is urging the government to establish an independent Canadian Climate Council "think and do tank" to develop, deliver and communicate policy recommendations designed to address Canada's climate obligations. The council would be modelled on the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions, a Univ of Victoria-based university consortium in British Columbia that received a $90-million endowment from the provincial government.

A submission by Fonds de solidarité FTQ wants the government to reverse course and retain the federal tax credit for labour-sponsored venture capital corporations. Without it, the FTQ says it "would have no choice but to stop supporting the venture capital industry". (The Liberal government pledged during the election campaign to restore the credit.)

The Council of Canadian Academies' submission asks the government to consider extending its current funding cycle of five years to avoid "strains on the capacity to plan and take on work" associated with its expert panel assessments for government and other clients. The CCA's original 10-year funding envelope was cut in half when it was renewed by the previous government last year (R$, April 30/15).

Click here for STI submissions to the Finance committee.

R$