Two workshops were recently held providing an opportunity for members of the 91亚色 community to share their thoughts on the development of the new plan with vice-president research & innovation Robert Hach茅 and the Strategic Research Plan facilitators, Celia Haig-Brown, professor, Faculty of Education and Gary Miller, instructor,听Schulich School of Business MBA program and the Schulich Executive Education Centre.

鈥淚 am pleased that the 91亚色 community is taking an active role in participating in the discussion about the development of the new Strategic Research Plan,鈥� said Robert Hach茅 (left), vice-president research & innovation.听 鈥淭heir feedback is being heard and will be valuable in informing the plan. We are very much encouraging all community members to take part in the SRP consultations and conversations as we work towards the development of a new institutional plan, one that best supports and integrates the core research values and priorities of the entire 91亚色 community.鈥�

During the workshops, participants were asked to discuss the value that research brings to 91亚色 and explore 91亚色鈥檚 competencies in key areas of research.

Among the comments resulting from the workshops were: the hope that the new Strategic Research Plan be inclusive, recognizing and capturing the wide variety of research being conducted and balancing both specific and overarching research focus areas, a desire for the plan to have some impact on hiring, resourcing, budget听 and decision making, a recommendation to ensure graduate students and post-doctoral fellows research is encouraged, ensuring the plan addresses ways to better enable research at 91亚色, a suggestion that the plan encourage a more interest in research at all administrative levels at 91亚色, and an emphasis placed on collaborative research initiatives.

Meeting notes are accessible to the 91亚色 community and can found on the 听website by clicking on Meeting Notes and using a Passport 91亚色 login. The next workshops will be held Oct. 16, 26 and Nov. 1. To register, click .

搁别辫耻产濒颈蝉丑别诲听courtesy of听YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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Vice-presidents of research from across Canada converged in Ottawa on April 13 to meet with the presidents of the Social Sciences听& Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), Natural Sciences听& Engineering Council (NSERC), Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), regarding the impact of the 2012 budget on their funding programs.

While the complete details of the consequences of budget 2012 remain to be fully worked out, the overall tone of the message emphasized the efforts being made by Tri-Council to protect and promote fundamental research, to describe where the new investments in the budget will be rolled out, and to give a first look at where the mandated cuts in programming and operations will occur.

Initial discussion emphasized new investments being made and the expression of support for basic research in the budget language (if not directly in the dollars being distributed). Not only was the overall budget to Tri-Council preserved in a budget cycle where听five to听ten per cent听cuts in overall budgets were the norm, but new investments were committed to support a number of new and existing programs. Thus CANARIE, Genome Canada and the CFI all received major infusions of funding that were accompanied by focused investments (in mental health etc.). While there is no explicit new funding for basic research in this budget, the lack of an overall funding reduction place Tri-Council in rare company around the federal budget table this year.

Over the last number of years, Tri-Council agencies were asked to undertake a strategic review of their expenditures, a process which required a review of all program spending and assessment of savings. The review process identified areas where savings could be achieved in order to redirect funding within the organization for new initiatives or to other government priorities.

While these are clearly no longer the heady times of the early 2000s, when Tri-Council budgets grew rapidly in a largely unrestricted manner, overall support for university-led research by the federal government remains comparatively strong and researchers should be encouraged by this. However, it is clear that at all levels, the funders of university research continue to move towards an emphasis on how the results of university-led research translates into tangible benefits for Canadian society and the Canadian economy. Here it is important for researchers to continue their efforts to explain and educate government and other funders on the need to support fundamental research as the bedrock on which university-led research is built.

It is also crucial to emphasize the need for programing that provides funding for making connections amongst researchers and sustaining the basic infrastructure needed for individual research programs.听We can all, in following up on the steps presently been taken by Tri-Council, encourage the continued protection and development of core people and basic research programing within Tri-Council, and emphasize at every opportunity that the development of Canada鈥檚 Innovation Agenda can only be successful if done in partnership with development of our discovery agenda.

For the full commentary, which includes specific details of anticipated programming changes, please click here.

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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