Strangway offers parting views on state of research and commercialization in Canada

For nearly six years, Dr David Strangway has enjoyed a unique perspective on the recent evolution — some would argue revolution — of Canadian science and technology. As head of the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), the veteran administrator has overseen the largest infusion of money into institutional research infrastructure in Canadian history.

Since 1998 when the first awards were announced, CFI has distributed or committed $2.7 billion to more than 3,200 projects, indelibly transforming the research environment and putting Canada back in competition with the leading players of the industrialized world. CFI has also spearheaded a remarkable cultural change in Canada’s academic research institutions, requiring institutions to develop a strategic research focus and helping to erase a pervasive mood of pessimism that coincided with years of financial cuts and stagnation.

Not surprisingly, Strangway has developed strong views on the impact of CFI funding and what may be required for the future. As he prepares to step down as CFI president and CEO to pursue his dream of establishing Canada’s first private, secular university, he agreed to speak with RESEARCH MONEY about the state — past, present and beyond — of Canada’s research enterprise.

“The 1980s and early 1990s were really grim. There was nothing out there. Not only were core (university) budgets being cut, but the granting agencies were being cut as well,” says Strangway, who served as president of the Univ of British Columbia from 1985 to 1996. “Once the dam broke with CFI being created and funded, things seemed to happen after that, a whole sequence of events. It’s been a really phenomenal time.”

Strangway says credit for the political resolve to create and fund the CFI with portions of year-end budgetary surpluses should go to then Finance minister Paul Martin, former prime minister Jean Chrétien and former Industry minister John Manley. Throughout the late 90s and early 00s, every federal Budget seemingly had another funding tranche devoted to the CFI. The most recent contribution was made last year, when $500 million for research hospitals was quietly added to the First Ministers Accord on Health Renewal and fleshed out in the February/03 Budget.

As parting gift to the research community, Strangway has produced a 104-page report covering his six-year term at CFI. Entitled An Appreciation of Accomplishments, Issues and Opportunities for CFI and for Research in Canada, it’s an informative and pointed document intended to inform and influence the ongoing debate over the direction of S&T policy and future research expenditures. It will be circulated to all university presidents by the end of the month. The report elaborates on Strangway’s compartmentalizing of the impact of CFI into three words: empower, decentralize and compete.

But it also contains many guarded observations and prescriptions for the challenges facing Canada as an emerging innovative nation. In particular, it weighs in on big science and commercialization.

Strangway contends that the recent discussion on Canada’s participation in big science projects is outdated and fails to reflect emerging trends. He says that in other industrialized nations, big science includes high-performance computing, networks and databases as well as the traditional physics-based projects.

“The networked big science is something that has crept up on Canada and places like NRC and NSERC haven’t twigged to it yet,” he says, adding that there are also problems with some of the big science projects now being considered for Canada. A case in point is the Canadian Neutron Facility (CNF). Strangway questions the wisdom of pushing for such a facility when Canadian researchers have access to neutron spallation sources such as the facility being built in Oak Ride TN by the US Department of Energy.

“The world has come to the conclusion that fundamentally neutron spallation is the way to go. We funded the neutron community here with $17 million to build a beamline at the Oak Ridge facility and in return they get five per cent of all time on all the beamlines at Oak Ridge,” says Strangway. “Does that change the picture of what we need in terms of a nuclear reactor source. I don’t know ... but when these guys talk about it, it’s as though we weren’t in the neutron spallation business.”

NEW THINKING NEEDED ON COMMERCIALIZATION

For several years running, CFI has commissioned reports on the commercialization of university research, compiling data on trends that underscore the biggest challenge to Canada’s quest to stimulate and accelerate economic development through R&D — lack of receptor capacity. The solution Strangway proposes would require a major re-direction of the way in which policy makers have approached the issue to date.

“You don’t really need a whole lot of fundamental science being done in government labs. That is Canada’s tradition and maybe we’ll never change. But if you look at the US and where the research is performed in the private sector, the bulk of it is performed through contracting out and smart procurement,” he says. “Our government labs are trying to contract stuff in and my thesis is that every contract that comes into government steals from the capacity of the private sector to build its R&D capacity. Why do they (the private sector) love IRAP? Because the money goes out. Why do they dislike contracting in to the National Research Council by and large? … They don’t like it because they want to be masters in their own house and they would like to compete for a contract … Build the private sector and it will take care of itself … Stop trying to create big structures in between.”

NEXT STOP SEA TO SKY

Remarkably, throughout his tenure at CFI, Strangway still found time to lay the groundwork for his next project — Canada’s first secular, private university,. Sea To Sky Univ (R$, August 27/03 & January 28/04). Conceived as an alternative to Canada’s chronically underfunded public universities, the not-for-profit institution will likely be Strangway’s swan song. When he returns to British Columbia at the end of the month, he’ll be able to oversee the initial construction on the Squamish campus and the sale of housing lots that will finance the project.

“This is not a business for the sake of making business. It’s a matter of an important principle,” he says. “The real idea behind it is survival in a time of ever decreasing core funds ... This is an opportunity to take a really strong stand with small classes, intensive instruction and intensive learning.”

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