Post-secondary institutions fare well as Budget delivers modest package of research and innovation measures

The ability of Canada's largest universities to enhance core research competencies, attract top-flight talent and burnish their global brand received a major boost in the 2014 Budget with a $1.5 billion, 10-year commitment for a Canada First Research Excellence Fund (CFREF). The initiative was one of the Budget's few substantive investments in S&T — or anything else for that matter — as the Conservative government delivered a classic holding-pattern economic roadmap for the year prior to a national election.

The CFREF represents a major victory for university presidents, particularly those heading larger institutions, by addressing a gap in the current funding envelopes. The new funds will go towards boosting research excellence in select areas where institutions already possess world-leading expertise, thereby attracting more industry collaboration and talent.

While details are being worked out, funding will likely be allocated based on a university's track record in receiving peer reviewed and adjudicated awards from the three granting councils. Two associations representing university presidents submitted a joint proposal last November for an Advantage Canada Research Excellence (ACRE) fund starting at $100 million and ramping up to $400 million annually.

The CFREF cuts that request in half. The new fund will start in FY15-16 at $50 million, increasing to $100 million in FY16-17 and $150 million in FY17-18 before plateauing at $200 million in FY 18-19. It will be administered by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, which already performs similar duties for the tri-Council Canada Research Chairs and Indirect Costs programs.

"Our country needs to be the best in the world in certain select areas or we can't compete. This is a confirmation of the government's desire for Canada to have top-notch research and programs in select areas … We're delighted that we can now talk more boldly about research excellence," says Western Univ president Dr Amit Chakma, who credits former McGill Univ principal and vice-chancellor, Dr Heather Munroe-Blum, for championing the initiative. "From a long-term point-of-view, this is what Canada needs … funding for where we are among the best or very close."

Reaction to the CFREF outside of university president circles has been positive, although not uniformly so. One person singing its praises is Dr Nassif Ghoussoub, a mathematics professor at the Univ of British Columbia and a prolific blogger on science policy and funding. He describes the CFREF and the Budget's other research initiatives as a "bombshell" and "a paradigm shift for Canada's research and innovation".

Reaction from Canada's smaller universities has been noticeably muted. Colleges are also waiting to see whether the fund's criteria will provide opportunities for participation. Although the CFREF is technically open to all post-secondary institutions, Budget wording gives an indication of its intent: "Canada's ability to attract top research talent, innovators and enterprises requires its world-class institutions to be able to seize emerging opportunities and strategically advance their greatest strengths on the global stage."

Another major Budget beneficiary is Mitacs, a not-for-profit organization the supports academic internships and fellowships with industry that spun out of the Networks of Centres of Excellence program. Mitacs received $8 million over two years to fund its Elevate program and was given sole responsibility for delivering "federal support for postdoctoral industrial R&D fellowships" (see page 3).

Granting council increases

The three granting councils also received an annual boost to their budgets. In a departure from recent practice, the money was not clawed back as part of the government's deficit elimination efforts. And with the exception of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the funding is not targeted to government-selected priority areas — suggesting the government is responding to ongoing concerns over the shrinkage of funding envelopes intended for discovery-based research.

Both CIHR and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) received a $15-million increase to their base budgets while SSHRC received $7 million. The NSERC and SSHRC increases are not -directed, while the Budget specifies that CIHR's allocation be used for "the expansion of the Strategy for Patient-Oriented Research, the creation of the Canadian Consortium for Neurodegeneration in Aging and other health research priorities".

The Budget also added $9 million to the Indirect Costs Program, boosting it to $341 million annually. The Budget indicated that the review of the program, announced last year, is ongoing with the objectives of improving "results, awareness and performance measurement".

The Budget also addressed several renewal items and added in a sprinkling of new initiatives. TRIUMF received its standard $222 million over five years, giving the Univ of British Columbia-based physics facility a year's advance notice for the first time. The National Research Council is responsible for providing $96 million from existing resources, augmented by $126 million in new money.

The Automotive Innovation Fund was replenished with $500 million over two years — a considerable ramp-up from the initial $250 million over five years it received in 2008 (R$, March 11/08). Since the first tranche was awarded, the automotive sector has shed thousands of jobs as production and assembly plants shift to other jurisdictions.

The funding is likely to be employed to address requests from Chrysler LLC which is seeking a total of between $700 million and $920 million in repayable loans from the federal and Ontario government to assist in $2.3 billion worth of facility upgrades in Windsor and Brampton.

Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd (AECL) is receiving $117 million over two years to help the Crown corporation prepare for its transition to a government-owned, contractor-operated facility, maintain its Chalk River Laboratory operations and ensure continued production of medical isotopes until 2016 when the government plans to secure them from other sources.

Waterloo does well

The Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) received $15 million over three years, extending federal support to FY16-17. The new money builds on an initial federal investment of $50 million in 2009, which was matched by the Ontario government and augmented with $100 million from Research in Motion co-founder Mike Lazaridis.

The Budget's announcement of an Open Data Institute (ODI) in Waterloo provides a welcome indication that the government's long-promised Digital Economy Strategy (DES) still has a pulse. Announced nearly four years ago by then Industry minister Tony Clement, the strategy has never emerged although elements have been introduced over the intervening years.

The ODI will be spearheaded by the highly successful Canadian Digital Media Network in Waterloo with $3 million over three years, sourced from the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario. Budget documents state that it will "play a role in aggregating large datasets, informing the development of interoperability standards, and catalyzing the development and commercialization of new data-driven apps." ODI will also leverage resources from partnering organizations — Desire2Learn, OpenText Corp, Communitech and the Univ of Waterloo.

"Waterloo has done very well in the Budget with funding for the IQC and the Open Data Institute. It shows that the Jenkins report is still very influential," says S&T policy veteran Paul Dufour. "If I was a scientist, I would want to move to Waterloo."

Colleges receive social innovation funding

Canada's colleges and polytechnics extended their run of funding breakthroughs with the announcement of a $10-million, two-year pilot to be administered by SSHRC. Funding will be used to connect to local community organizations — not-for-profits with which colleges and polytechnics have strong existing ties.

"We're delighted to see SSHRC putting their own skin in the game to show they believe the college applied research model can have a significant impact on Canada's social economy," says Nobina Robinson, CEO of Polytechnics Canada. "It's the first time we've been able to break out of the college sandbox."

The Budget also enhanced the Canada Accelerator and Incubator Program (CAIP), part of its $400-million Venture Capital Action Plan initiative. Last year's Budget announced $60 million for CAIP to be delivered by the Industrial Research Assistance Program. This year's Budget adds $40 million to the total to accommodate the "significant number of high-quality applications" received in last fall's inaugural competition.

R$