SSHRC set to transform and strengthen Canada’s human sciences research

Piper’s Killam lecture issues clarion call

The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) is preparing to embark on a major process of renewal that could transform the granting agency into a funding body modelled at least in part on the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). The new entity would be structured around issues or themes rather than research disciplines, possibly with a series of thematic institutes and centres across Canada.

SSHRC is now trying to determine whether there is sufficient political will to support a transformation of this magnitude and whether undertaking such an exercise will result in the significant funding increase that SSHRC and its supporters contend is long overdue.

SSHRC president Dr Marc Renaud emphasizes that an overhaul of the granting agency is not a money grab. He asserts that the primary objective is to improve on the way in which social sciences and humanities research is conducted, but adds that additional funding is a necessary part of the equation given their historical neglect.

Although SSHRC has made considerable headway in adapting to the new reality of research in Canada, it was a speech by Dr Martha Piper late last year that accelerated the determination to move beyond the status quo and mount a major campaign for change (see page 2). Shortly after her speech, Renaud met with Industry minister Alan Rock at the Innovation Summit in Toronto to discuss SSHRC’s transformation. He says the minister was open to the concept.

“Rock asked us to think about process, about mechanics and what measures of success we can accomplish,” says Renaud. “Piper galvanized attention within the political class and the scientific community. The Innovation Strategy also ties into this so it represents a window of opportunity like I’ve never seen before… There are things we can’t do now because of finances but also because of structure.”

Renaud is hopeful that a positive reaction from government within two months will allow a consultative process to begin this spring, with the launch of a new body by the middle of 2004. That would give about one year to follow a process similar to the one that led to the transformation of the Medical Research Council (MRC) into the CIHR. Renaud was an executive member of the 33-person CIHR task force and gained valuable insight into the necessity of engaging all stakeholders in the CIHR’s formative stages. CIHR is now recognized as a groundbreaking step forward in Canadian health research and has garnered international attention and acclaim. Its funding has exploded from just $234 million in FY96-97 to $580 million in FY02-03, while SSHRC has increased from $64 million to $151 million during the same period (Statistics Canada data).

Renaud says the process of transformation can begin as soon as the government provides the go-ahead and the funding required to drive the process. He hopes that will occur within two months, but at least one observer says there’s no need to wait for political buy-in.

“With MRC-CIHR, we moved it pretty far along before we engaged the political side,” says Marc Lepage, former MRC VP business development and now executive VP corporate development at Genome Canada. “I find it’s easier for government to say ‘no’ than ‘yes’, so it’s better to go further along and make it harder to say ‘no’. But the SSHRC community is a more diverse community and a tough one to manage, so it may be difficult for them.”

TRANSFORMATION PROCESS IN PLACE

SSHRC already has a list of potential candidates for a transformation task force that would engage the academic community as well as government officials, voluntary organizations and the private sector. A secretariat would be assembled to drive the process, crunch the responses and draft recommendations.

“We need to re-think how to structure ourselves to deliver research funding by taking on the attributes of the new world: networking, knowledge mobilization and creating a transformed environment of training people through research,” says SSHRC senior VP Dr Janet Halliwell. “The status quo is not an option for us. We have to have a public debate and the engagement of researchers and the public of what human sciences can bring to Canada.”

Halliwell says SSHRC has already taken considerable strides to evolve into a granting agency that meets the requirements of a research community in rapid transition. She points to programs such as Community-University Research Alliances (CURA), Major Collaborative Research Initiatives (MCRI), Initiative on the New Economy (INE), and the new Knowledge Mobilization Initiative (KMI) of which the INE is a test bed.

“The KMI would be one of the underpinnings of a transformed or evolved SSHRC,” she says “It overlaps all three existing modes of research funding by shaping and informing their research direction.”

UBC’s Piper says that for SSHRC to be successful in its objective of transforming itself, it must first overcome widespread misperception that Canada’s social issues can be dealt with once an Innovation Strategy is put into place and begins to yield results.

“People have this view that if you become innovative and turn the economy around, then you can support social sciences and humanities programs. I’m uncomfortable with that,” she says. “The problem is that people assume the solutions to difficult questions are common sensical. Put money into it and it will go away. That’s too late but these views are entrenched. We can build on the a US model because much of it is useful but the other piece (human sciences) would give us a Made-in-Canada solution.”

Taking her cue from the CIHR model, Piper has suggested that human sciences research receive funding to the tune of 1% of what Canada spends on so-called civil society programs (social welfare, the corrections system, national defence, heritage and culture, foreign affairs and Indian and Northern Affairs).

Renaud says the sentiment behind the figure is laudable but ultimately discounts it.

“It’s unrealistic but it provides a target,” he says, adding that SSHRC currently receives less than 12% of the total granting council budget while accounting for 54% of all university faculty.

COMMUNITY RALLYING TO THE CAUSE

Evidence is mounting that the human sciences research community is increasingly eager for change and open to discussing new approaches. The mindset is partly driven by the changing nature of the research enterprise but the larger impetus is the widespread believe that the transition to the knowledge economy is leaving the human sciences behind.

The imbalance in federal and provincial research funding over the past several years has prompted the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences (CFHSS) to throw is resources behind the SSHRC campaign. Over the past few months it mounted several lobbying efforts, including a post card campaign in which hundreds of researchers wrote to Industry minister Rock urging government to address the woefully low level of support for the human sciences.

Like SSHRC, the CFHSS’s efforts were energized by Piper’s Killam address, viewing it as the genesis of an unprecedented opportunity for action.

“All these forces have come together and developed a momentum for change that I haven’t seen for a long time. The opportunity is unprecedented at least since the 1960s,” says Dr Doug Owram, CFHSS president and provost and VP academic at the Univ of Alberta. “We’ll be looking for something in the Budget or immediately thereafter. The humanities community in particular is demoralized and a sign of support would be a tremendous impetus for change.”

Owram says that another reason for optimism is the pending retirement of prime minister Jean Chrétien and his attempt to build a legacy that’s underpinned by fiscal stability and social compassion. Chrétien has already displayed an understanding of the role of post-secondary universities in the system of innovation and there may be receptiveness to finishing the job.

“I believe the feds have rescued universities, particularly research-intensive universities, during a period of provincial cutbacks,” he says. “After a long period of attention on technological areas there has been a growing realization that there has to be a balance.”

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