Canada drops research networks and unveils new “high-risk” fund

On December 6, the Government of Canada made an unexpected announcement: a new tri-agency research fund would supplant the Networks of Centres of Excellence (NCE) program, a flagship science and innovation policy initiative that has been emulated by several other countries.

The new fund, called the New Frontiers in Research Fund, wasn’t a surprise. The Canada Research Coordinating Committee (CRCC), created to coordinate among Canada's granting agencies and the Canada Foundation for Innovation, had launched a consultation last June on how to reinvigorate Canadian science and released a summary report based on those consultations in November. One of the CRCC’s key priorities was the creation of a fund to support international, interdisciplinary, fast-breaking and high-risk research.

But the government's pivot away from the NCEs, a model that has been a centrepiece of Canadian science for nearly 30 years, caught many people in the research community off guard.

“These are apples and oranges approaches to research funding,” said Cate Murray, executive director of the Stem Cell Network, in an interview with RE$EARCH MONEY. The Stem Cell Network was funded by the NCE program from 2001 to 2017.

On the day of the announcement, Kirsty Duncan, Minister of Science and Sport, told RE$EARCH MONEY, “This is really the start of a new way of funding.” It reflects the government's efforts to build a modern research system, she added.

“For years, we heard from the research community that funding multidisciplinary, multinational, risky research was hard. Part of the reason it was hard is that funding stagnated. Pots of money were small. The research community really thought that, as a result, what was getting funded were conservative projects, not the high-risk, high-reward research we want,” said Duncan.

In With the New Frontiers Fund

The budget for NFRF is $275 million over five years beginning in FY 2018-19, and $65 million per year after that. 

The new fund will support programs that are distinct from what is currently offered by the three federal funding agencies. It is composed of three parts: an Exploration stream for high-risk, high-reward and interdisciplinary research; a Transformation stream for large-scale interdisciplinary and transformative projects; and an International stream for research with international partners.

In keeping with the government's science vision, researchers applying to the NFRF will need to demonstrate how their proposal will support early-career researchers (ECRs) and support equity, diversity and inclusion.

The NFRF’s inaugural competition in the Exploration stream, which was also announced on December 6, will provide up to $18.75 million in new funding over the next two years to ECRs.  

Additional competitions in all three streams will be launched in 2019. The focus, timing and award amounts for future competitions will be determined by the CRCC with the research community, according to Alioune Camara, a spokesperson for the CRCC. (The NFRF will be administered by the Tri-agency Institutional Programs Secretariat, based at SSHRC.)

In a statement to RE$EARCH MONEY, Camara also said that NFRF is designed to respond to the changing dynamics of the research landscape both in Canada and around the world, and to “support research that will create new or challenge existing paradigms, develop broadly enabling technologies, or lead to major improvements through the creation of highly innovative research approaches and models.” 

Out with the Old NCE Program

When the NCE program was created in 1988, its emphasis on distributed networks of researchers and practical goals represented a dramatic policy change for Canada. Since then, it has funded more than 40 networks, including nine that are ongoing.

As the NCE program is transitioned over to the NFRF, successful applicants to this year’s NCE program will be awarded non-renewable grants for up to five years. Networks that were expecting a renewal competition in 2018-2019 will be able to apply for a final three-year grant. And, networks that were not eligible for renewal will be funded until the end date of their current grants.

READ MORE: Requiem for a National Network Program, by Paul Dufour

Duncan said the government recognized that the NCEs have made significant contributions to the research and innovation landscape and that it remains focused on promoting collaboration—among Canadian researchers and internationally.

Still, the word “network” is notably absent from descriptions of the new fund, and the CRCC confirmed that the NFRF is not focused on the creation or ongoing support of research networks as a primary goal. 

“We call [the NCE program] a nation-building tool,” said Murray from Stem Cell Network. “Without it, I don't think stem cell research would be as strong as it is today, because it allowed people to come out of their labs, to come out of their institutions, to work together. And it allowed us to bring together ethicists with clinicians, researchers and bioengineers to take on the challenges that exist within the field.”

The NCE program has its critics, but the "network model" of research funding is widely valued for bringing together researchers with diverse expertise, along with industry and non-profits, for training the next generation of Canadian scientists, and for supporting knowledge mobilization. 

Murray added that the NCE program’s focus on translational rather than discovery research has been transformative for research that is on its way to the clinic or the market. “In the health space, the NCE program helps de-risk research that would not otherwise be supported by biotech or by pharma,” she said. 

Those are roles that the NFRF doesn’t appear to be designed to fill.

R$