Building university research capacity

By Claire Morris

As the federal government develops its science and technology strategy, the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC) commends its commitment to maintaining our country's G7 leadership in public sector R&D investment, a significant portion of which is university-based. This promise is found in Advantage Canada, the federal government's economic plan, which places a great emphasis on creating a "knowledge advantage" for Canada.

In a brief submitted to Finance minister Jim Flaherty and Industry minister Maxime Bernier, AUCC outlines two fundamental realities that should inform the design and implementation of the S&T strategy.

First, Canada's university research community and its diverse talent play a critical role in ensuring our country's long-term economic stability and future competitiveness. A second fact is equally clear: Canada cannot afford to rest on its laurels as international competitors set very ambitious targets and continue to invest heavily in postsecondary education and university research.

While Canada's mature and dynamic university research community offers tremendous strengths and considerable benefits, the demands for a highly-educated and skilled workforce with the capacity for innovation will only continue to increase in today's globally competitive world.

Simply put, standing still as our competitors accelerate is not an option. With this in mind, AUCC examined S&T policies in Australia, Ireland, US, and UK. Based on this investigation and our analysis of Canada's R&D strengths and weaknesses, AUCC recommends action in three areas as the government shapes its S&T strategy.

First, there's no question that research and a highly-educated, skilled workforce remain the cornerstones of Canada's competitiveness and its capacity to nurture innovation. Because world-leading R&D drives sustainable economic growth, the federal S&T strategy must ensure Canada remains competitive by taking its research effort — including university research — to another level.

This will be achieved by a two-pronged approach that both funds areas of research excellence where Canada can be a world leader and continues to nurture the country's broad base of research strength, which provides critical training for the next generation of innovators and fosters potential new areas of excellence.

Australia took this approach five years ago by identifying four broadly defined, thematic, and multidisciplinary national research priority areas. Drawing on the experience of Australia, AUCC recommends against excessively narrow targets which can discourage new, dynamic and multidisciplinary or cross-disciplinary approaches to issues. As well, the Australian experience shows the importance of including the social sciences and humanities in any priority setting exercise from the beginning.

In addition to defining broad priority areas, Canada also needs to ensure the conditions exist for research excellence, which includes: investments in the direct costs of research through the three granting councils; in the indirect costs of research at a minimum rate of 40%; and, in the building and operation of research infrastructure.

We must also recognize the increasing importance of knowledge transfer and strengthening the links between universities and the private sector through mechanisms such as business-led Networks of Centres of Excellence.

Taking Canada's research effort to another level leads directly to the second major set of recommendations — developing new talent imbued with the research and analytical skills that today's knowledge economy demands.

With the number of graduate degrees awarded to Canadian students lagging behind labour market demands, Canada continues to be increasingly reliant on immigration to meet its needs for knowledge workers. But growing international competition means Canada cannot continue to expect to attract the number of highly-qualified people needed to fill the gap.

Canada must move quickly to improve the number of people who pursue master's and PhD degrees. The first step involves promoting a strong culture of S&T and innovation, especially among young people.

This requires building on the ongoing outreach efforts that universities already undertake in this area. At the same time, the government must move decisively to create an environment in which Canada has the capacity to fulfill its need for highly skilled graduates.

This may be achieved through policies and initiatives to extend research experiences to the undergraduate level, through encouraging talented students to pursue graduate studies, and through providing more opportunities for young researchers.

For example, government should increase opportunities for research internships or co-op experiences in university, private sector or government research facilities over the course of an undergraduate degree, while developing incentives to make similar opportunities available to recent graduates.

A third element would be expanding the opportunities available to Canadians to access and complete graduate programs in Canada through substantial increases in scholarship support for graduate students.

The government must also ensure that Canadians get full value from these investments. The impact of investments in university research can be maximized through a variety of measures. These include increased coordination across and between the four principal funding agencies — Canada Foundation for Innovation, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council; effective outcome and accountability measures using multiple evaluation tools that include both quantitative indicators and qualitative information; and, improved links between research in universities and federal government facilities.

Canada's broad strength in university research places it among the world's leaders, despite fierce international competition, and we must build on this invaluable asset. Creating a knowledge advantage for Canada will require that the country's S&T strategy recognizes and builds on this broad base of research strength to create the conditions for excellence. This, in turn, will help to guarantee that Canada's universities and the important research they perform continue to play a key role ensuring this country's prosperity and high quality of life.

Claire Morris is president of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada.