Funding of academic research is an investment in the future

This op-ed by Heather Munroe-Blum, chair of AUCC’s Standing Advisory Committee on University Research and principal of McGill University, was published in the Montreal Gazette.

Last fall, Prime Minister Stephen Harper put it about as directly as it could be said: “You can’t build a modern economy without investing in world-class research.”

World-class research, and the preparation of our citizens to succeed in a globally oriented and complex world, starts at Canada’s universities. It produces knowledge that transforms the ways we think, work and live. It connects us to fellow innovators near home and across the globe. It also pays tangible dividends.
 
Since 1999, more than 1,200 companies have been spun out of discoveries made at Canadian universities – and our graduates have used the knowledge gained over the course of their degrees to create thousands more. Each year, our universities conduct close to $1 billion in direct collaboration with the private sector and another billion with the not-for-profit sector. Overall, the annual economic impact of university research exceeds $60 billion. McGill University’s contribution toward the development and dissemination of knowledge in Quebec alone, for example, was estimated at $3.2 billion in 2008. And every year, more than 200,000 students graduate and go to work in Canadian organizations, large and small, helping them to prosper.
 
Over the past 10 years, and notwithstanding the clear need for real-time austerity measures, government investment in university research has increased by more than 80 per cent. In keeping pace with the growth rate of investment of other countries, the government signals a sustained national priority of achieving high-quality university research and an investment in educated, well-prepared people.
 
The longer-term perspective on research and innovation evident in Budget 2012 is encouraging. Notably, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s budget provides ongoing program funding for the federal granting agencies Genome Canada and the Canada Foundation for Innovation.
 
This funding is crucial to developing knowledge, global awareness, creativity and innovation, and will support research that is at the root of Canada’s health and successful growth, allowing our top university talent to create new ideas and breakthroughs that private and not-for-profit sectors can develop into products and services.
 
What is less known is the vital role that federal grants play in developing the highly qualified personnel at the core of our innovation society. Up to three-quarters of the budget of most grants fund salaries for graduate students and research technicians. Programs also provide students and organizations with opportunities to connect in the workplace, promoting knowledge exchange. The expansion of the Industrial Research and Development Internship program for master’s students will provide Canada’s small-and mediumsized enterprises with increased access to cutting-edge research skills and will serve to foster knowledge mobility and a stronger culture of innovation for companies that may not be able to otherwise afford this calibre of talent.
 
Through Canada’s firm commitment to research, we are bringing the energy and expertise of our universities to bear on problems that really matter – whether creating more effective biomedical devices, providing policy advice to regions transitioning to democracy or helping communities devise sustainable solutions to nutrition problems.

Research in the social sciences and humanities allows universities to provide Canadians with the tools necessary to navigate through an increasingly complex world, where intercultural fluency, understanding of the role of demographics and insight into human development are key to achieving and maintaining healthy communities and civil society.
 
Canada’s health and future growth and prosperity will depend on our ability to innovate – that much is certain. Gary Goodyear, Minister of State for Science and Technology, summed it up nicely in a speech last month: “We have what it takes to build a competitive advantage in the global economy that will result in jobs, growth and prosperity. We just have to be bold!”
 
Canada’s universities, our students and professors, are taking up that challenge and, with the sustained and growing commitment of government to high-quality research and scholarship, and Canada’s increasingly deep, international engagement, we will be bold indeed.