Federal expenditures remain flat despite greater support for higher education sector

Federal expenditures remain flat despite greater support for higher education sector

Federal expenditures on S&T will remain flat in FY05-06, according to Statistics Canada. Increased funding performed by the higher education sector was offset by fewer dollars being spent intramurally or through funding to business and non-profit institutions. Federal S&T is projected to be $9.1 billion this year, the same as FY04-05. However, more funding is being devoted to R&D, reaching $5.75 billion in FY05-06, up 2.2% from the previous year. R&D now comprises 63.1 cents of every $1 spent on S&T.

Intramural R&D expenditures are expected to decrease 5.3% this year to $2.14 billion, with particularly steep year-over-year declines at National Defence ($185 million/-24.7%) and the Canadian Space Agency ($122 million/-16.4%). Federal R&D expenditures performed by the higher education sector continue to display healthy growth, increasing $359 million or 16.4% in FY05-06 to $2.55 billion. The bulk of the increase ($331 million) flowed to higher education R&D in the natural sciences

Funding performed by the business sector was down 6.4% for the year to $705 million, while funding performed by Canadian non-profit institutions declined 38.7% to $111 million. Foreign performance of federal R&D dollars was up 9.1% to $168 million.

When broken down by activity, the vast majority of $5.75 billion in federal spending is categorized as current expenditures ($5.3 billion), followed by administration ($281 million) and capital ($170 million). The largest expenditure for related scientific activity is devoted to data collection ($1.6 billion), followed by information services ($728 million), special services and studies ($606 million), education support ($260 million), capital spending ($99 million) and administration of extramural programs ($61 million).

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