Canada’s university-based research engine continues to enjoy healthy funding growth

Sponsored research income (SRI) at Canada’s Top 50 universities cracked $5 billion for the first time. The sector continues to enjoy healthy increases from nearly all its funding partners, pushing the FY04 total up 17.7% from a year earlier. The stellar growth marks the fourth straight year that universities have enjoyed double digit increases in its SRI, although the pace of growth has slowed somewhat since the peaks of FY01 (22.7%) and FY00 (23.9%).

Perennial leader, the Univ of Toronto, maintained its lock on the top position with a remarkable $624.0 million, up 16.8% from the previous year. But for the first time, McGill Univ appears to be threatening, surging forward with a whopping 58.6% increase to $543.5 million, a one-year increase of $200.8 million (see chart below). The increase moves it from #4 to #2 on the annual ranking, produced by Research Infosource, a sister company to RE$EARCH MONEY. McGill’s performance is all the more remarkable considering that it has 946 fewer full-time staff, generating a research intensity (SRI per full-time faculty position) of $381 compared to U of T’s $263.

Alberta’s two largest universities also experienced rapid SRI growth. The Univ of Alberta moved up a single position to #5 with a 31.9% increase to $360 million, while the Univ of Calgary jumped two spots to #7. It secured $251.4 million in sponsored research income, up 51.8% from FY03.

In addition to increasing their total, Canada’s Top 50 universities also increased in research intensity, which grew by 14.6% on an annual basis to an average of $149,900. That compares to $130,700 for FY03.

“The funding levels continue to hit new records and $5 billion is a significant landmark. This is good news for the university sector but it raises the stakes,” says Ron Freedman, CEO of Research Infosource Inc and co-publisher of RE$EARCH MONEY. “There is going to be growing demand for results from that investment above and beyond the training component.”

Governments accounted for the single largest share of sponsored research income. The federal government accounted for $2.35 billion of the SRI total in FY04, up 21.1% from FY03. It was followed by provincial governments ($1 billion/up 24.7%), industry ($650 million/up 9.9%) and non-corporate sources ($616 million/down 3.2%). Foreign sources took a major dive, dropping 22% to $82.6 million.

All of the universities that generate more than $100 million in SRI have a medical and/or veterinary school), with one exception. The Univ of Waterloo, which moved up 10.8% to $110 million, has neither school. But VP research Dr Paul Guild says the increase reflects strength in all disciplines, particularly engineering.

“Our performance last year is the result of a deliberate, managed intervention to support faculty members seeking outside funding. We’ve had a focus on our research intensity for the past five years,” he says.

Guild says his research office has implemented a number of support measures to increase SRI. These include the use of facilitators to develop high quality submissions, encouraging multidisciplinary proposals, seed money and internal peer review.

“Research intensity is so central to a university like this. This is a healthy start but it’s not the end. We’d like to see research intensity become a clearly defining feature of the University of Waterloo.”

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