Life sciences fuelling unprecedented increases in university research funding

Canadian university research is in the midst of an unprecedented renaissance and much of it is being fuelled by the revolution in the life sciences, according to compelling new data contained in a report on the sponsored research income of 67 post-secondary institutions. Sponsored research funding from all sources grew 24% in 2000 to $2.8 billion, government sources increasing 31% while non-government sources rose 12.8%.

All of the top 15 universities except one have a medical school and/or affiliated hospitals, as medicine, biotechnology, chemistry and gemonics dominated research activity. Universities with medical schools account for 81% of total research income in 2000, and posted a 25.5% increase from the year before compared to a 17.8% increase for institutions without medical schools.

“The biotechnology revolution is driving huge investments in the corporate sector and that is reflected in the university sector as well. The life sciences are beginning to dominate the funding and that is demonstrated by the phenomenal performance of the medical schools,” says Ron Freedman, president of Research Infosource Inc, the report’s publisher.

The report — entitled Canada’s Top Research Universities Report: 2001 — categorizes Canada’s universities into three tiers and demonstrates that the rate of increase is dramatic regardless of the size of the institution’s research income. For Tier I universities ($100 million or more in research income), the year-over-year increase is 24.4%. That compares to 23.1% for Tier II universities ($5-99 million), and 25.6% for Tier III universities (less than $5 million).

But the top 10 universities still account for the lion’s share of research income, capturing 67% of the 2000 total, although they account for just 15% of the sample.

“The growth of spending in universities is almost the same which means that the largesse is flowing to all institutions and not just the large ones,” say Freedman. “There’s also a renaissance of research activity at the smaller institutions and the concern that research stars are getting poached by the larger universities doesn’t appear to be happening.”

The report also shows that the university performance in some provinces is far better than others with Alberta the top performer in terms of research income per capita ($115), per full-time faculty ($112,300) and average per institution ($69 million) (see chart).

When analyzed by source, the largest single source of research funding is claimed by the federal government, which is also driving increases from provincial government through matching programs such as the Canada Foundation for Innovation. Federal support in 2000 was $1.2 billion, up 31%. from1999 and representing 44% of the total. Provincial funding was $527 million, up 35.2% from the previous year. Foreign governments provided $61 million, up 18.8%.

Corporate funding of university research was $451.8 million in 2000, up 20.4% from 1999, while non-corporate funding was $385.4 million, up just 5.8%. Investments, endowments and other sources accounted for $135.5 million, up 11.4%

The Top Research Universities report is published by Research Infosource, a division of The Impact Group. FMI on the report, call (416) 481-7070 or go to www.researchinfosource.com.

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