University research income up marginally; golden era of research funds appears over

The Univ of Toronto is inching towards becoming the first Canadian university to break the $1 billion mark for sponsored R&D, although it may take several years to reach that milestone given the slowing pace of increases in university research funding. The perennial number one-ranked R&D performing institution received $858.2 million in FY09 - a year which saw a modest overall increase by the Top 50 research universities of 3% to $6.24 billion.

The U of T also retains its top-ranked position as Canada's most research intensive university, attracting $351,000 per full-time faculty. That compares to an average of $167,200, up 1.4% from 2008.

Within the Top 50, 35 institutions posted gains (28 exceeding the 3% average gain) while 15 experienced declines, some of a significant size (see chart). Research income would almost certainly have increased more had it not been for the absence of a major competition by the Canada Foundation for Innovation in 2009. Institutions were also impacted by weakness in income from endowments (-6.6%) and flat support from corporations (+0.3%). Funding from individuals also dropped significantly (-27.7%) for the second consecutive year after three years of impressive gains.

"2009 was a very good year under the circumstances and given what's happened to federal and provincial budgets," says Ron Freedman, Research Infosource CEO and co-publisher of RE$EARCH MONEY. "The rates of growth during the golden age of research funding during the early part of the decade are over but spending remains at relatively high levels. We're now in a period of retrenchment and the system will be lucky to maintain its level of activity"

There was little change in the ranking of the Top 10 universities. The Univs of Western Ontario and the Univ of Calgary both moved up a notch while the Univ of Ottawa dropped from 8th to 10th, the latter being the only Top 10 institution to register a decline. Perennial rivals for the #2 spot - the Univ of British Columbia and Univ of Alberta - once again shifting positions between #2 and #3.

Alberta and British Columbia both increased their share of Top 50 sponsored research income to 13% and 12% respectively, while New Brunswick posted the largest percentage increase (10.8%). Ontario and Quebec continue to dominate the ranking with 31 of the Top 50 institutions commanding 65% of sponsored research income.

Research Infosource has been collecting detail information on university research funding for 10 years and has 11 years of data. This year, the analysis also included highlighting institutions that fared best over that period (1999-2009) in their respective specific tiers - Medical/Doctoral (M/D), Comprehensive (C) and Undergraduate (U).

The institutions with the greatest income growth in the three tiers are: McMaster Univ (M/D) (339.7%), the Univ of Victoria (C) (364.6%), and the Univ of Prince Edward Island (U) (432.0%).

Tops for growth in research intensity between 1999 and 2009 are: Laval Univ (M/D) (219.6%), Univ of Victoria (C) (287.9%) and Univ of PEI (U) (324.2%).

Those achieving the greatest growth in research publications (1999-2008) are: the Univ of Calgary (M/D) (90.6%), Simon Fraser Univ (C) (104.9%) and Ryerson Univ (U) (379.4%)

FMI: www.researchinfosource.com

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