Univ of Ottawa rakes in corporate dollars

The Univ of Ottawa posted a remarkable 106.8% increase in corporate sponsored research income, according to data contained in the recently released Canada’s Top Research Universities Report: 2001. Ranked Number 8 overall in terms of sponsored research income, the institution ranks number 2 in corporate research funding, behind the Univ of Toronto, Canada’s largest university.

The U of O attracted $40.1 million in corporate sponsored research, accounting for 35.0% of its sponsored research income from all sources. Total corporate research income for all 67 universities covered in the report accounts for $451 million or 16% of the 2000 total of $2.77 billion.

University officials say the lion’s share of corporate research income is medicine and health-related due to U of O’s affiliation with the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. It includes the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario and the former Loeb Research Institute and Ottawa General Health Research Institute.

Those institutes have spawned a number of spin-off firms and several have signed large research contracts with the university.

Ottawa’s strong telecommunications sector has also contributed to U of O’s good fortunes, particularly Nortel Networks Corp which has several collaborative research agreements.

The year-over-year increase in corporate research income also dramatically improved U of O’s research intensity (funding per full-time faculty) from $89,600 in 1999 to $121,700 in 2000, an increase of nearly 36%. It now ranks number 7 nationally.

In terms of sponsored research income from non-government organizations, granting councils and governments, U of O ranks 4th, 11th and 13th respectively.

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