U of O researcher experiences clash of research funding and politics first hand

CFI New Opportunities awards

The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) has made another major investment in new researchers under its New Opportunities Fund (NOF). The CFI awarded $18.2 million to support the work of 160 researchers in 135 projects in 32 institutions. Many of these researchers who reside in Ontario-based universities were likely breathing a collective sigh of relief following the recent decision by the provincial government to resume its matching of NOF awards (R$, October 12/04).

Dr Colin Rennie is among the latest group of Ontario-based CFI award recipients who can breathe a little easier. The researcher/professor with the Univ of Ottawa’s engineering faculty will receive approximately $100,000 to acquire equipment to acoustically measure flow and sediment in rivers. But only $41,000 comes from the CFI, and the matching funds that typically flow from provincial coffers were not as automatic as they once appeared. Although he had only been a faculty member at U of O for only one year, he was about to get a crash course in the politics underlying Canada’s research funding system.

Just one week after applying to the CFI earlier this year, he discovered that the Ontario government had suspended its matching of NOF grants through the Ontario Innovation Trust (OIT). Ontario had joined a growing number of provinces that were re-evaluating their practice of matching every award made by the CFI. Jurisdictions such as British Columbia and Alberta had already suspended their automatic matching policy, opting instead to fund only those that matched provincial priorities. Others, like Quebec, established a pre-screening process involving their provincial granting agencies before the final decisions are made at the political level.

“I was a bit flabbergasted that no one knew it might be coming … The Ontario government didn’t give warning to anybody,” he says. “From a planning perspective it’s very difficult. I already have students that have projects that require the instruments I wanted to buy so if I wasn’t successful I would be scrambling right now ... When you’re planning things with students in mind, it’s important that the programs are available as they are stated.”

FUNDING ENVIRONMENT CHALLENGING

As a young researcher, Rennie was attracted to U of O partly because it has a large hydrology laboratory — one of the biggest in Canada. The facility was large enough to allow him to conduct realistic physical modelling of river flow and sediment transport. After applying for a research grant from Science and Engineering Canada (NSERC), he turned to the CFI to purchase acoustic transducers to measure fluid velocities and sediment transport velocities in river systems .

“The equipment is cutting edge and the applications I’m interested in are certainly cutting edge,” says Rennie. “The CFI application is fairly long and ends up being a 15- to 25-page proposal. It’s a big process which is why it takes about a month to complete.”

When the Ontario government suspended its matching of CFI awards, the plans of dozens of researchers and the recruiting plans of provincial universities were thrown into jeopardy. Rennie says the uncertainty surrounding the Ontario portion of his funding created a dilemma over whether to pursue the award.

“To get CFI funding you need this combination of partners. If there was a very good chance that the Ontario portion might not be available, it might not have been worth my time to make the application.”

The funding crisis sparked action by several organizations, including the Ontario Council of Graduate Studies and the Council of Ontario Universities (COU) to pressure Queen’s Park to reverse its decision. Their action resulted in an October 6 announcement by premier Dalton McGuinty of $300 million in funding for research equipment and other infrastructure.

For young researchers like Rennie who are focussed on establishing a research path and teaching students, the intervention of organizations like the COU is welcome.

“I don’t have a great interest in the administration of funds at this point in my career. I’m fairly new at this and my goals right now are to conduct research with funds that I can win,” says Rennie. “The amount of time I’ve had to spend on these kinds of political issues has been unnecessary. This is my first year as a researcher and I have to be getting my teaching and research capacity up rather than learning how to balance all these political decisions.”

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