Perspectives (Volume 1, number 11) (fwd)

[Richard Plant]

Hello everyone on Candrama

Here is a copy of "Perspectives," published by the HSSFC. This issue
outlines the state of funding and some programmes at HSSFC following the
federal budget. 

Richard Plant
Dept of Drama, Queen's University
and
Graduate Centre for Study of Drama, 
University of Toronto

Subject: Perspectives (Volume 1, number 11)

An electronic newsletter on research and science policy.  A pilot project of
the Humanities and Social Sciences Federation of Canada.

PERSPECTIVES will appear at regular intervals throughout the year and will
be posted on the Federation web site:
http://www.hssfc.ca/Pub/PublicationsEng.html.  Please address your comments
and suggestions to Jacqueline Wright, Executive Assistant, at:
jawright at hssfc.ca.

PERSPECTIVES (Volume I, Number 11)

Editor: Wayne Kondro

Table of contents:
i)	Introduction
ii)	Making the case
iii)	Breaking down the numbers
iv)	Reviewing the Councils' relative shares
v)	The view on SSHRC
vi)	SSHRC priorities
vii)	Other Budgetary measures
         
SSHRC SAYS BUDGET INCREASE LEAVES ENOUGH ROOM TO FUND CRICS
But lower increases than sister councils demonstrates need to 'make the case'.

Despite receiving only a modest increase in its 1998-99 budget, the Social
Sciences & Humanities Research Council will push ahead with plans to launch
between four and twelve Community Research & Innovation Crossroads (CRICs)
innovation centres during the fiscal year.

There's enough latitude in the books to at least "pilot" the initiative,
SSHRC president Dr. Marc Renaud said in an interview following last week's
announcement that SSHRC's budget will rise 7.4% to $101-million in fiscal
1998-99.

Moreover, he argues it's critical that SSHRC proceed with such initiatives
as quickly as possible to raise the profile of the humanities and social
sciences — and establish better links with the broader community — if it's
to receive more favorable treatment in future federal budgets.

Renaud says SSHRC will shortly appoint a committee headed by council member
and former head of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research Dr. Fraser
Mustard to refine the operational parameters of the CRICs proposal within
the agency's budget limitations. "I'm extremely convinced of the idea and I
think that's the way to go. But we still have figure out the details."

The committee will "lay out the rules" regarding CRICs by this fall, Renaud
adds. A competition will hopefully be held "in the current fiscal year."

While SSHRC will likely be unable to provide funds for more than a pilot of
about seven or eight CRICs once a competition is held, Renaud is hopeful the
innovation centers ensuing success will soon persuade Ottawa to open its
coffers to expand the program exponentially. 

The Humanities & Social Sciences Federation of Canada proposal to establish
a series of 15 community-based centres across the nation had been pegged to
have an annual cost of $4.2-million.

MAKING THE CASE
Finance minister Paul Martin's federal budget demonstrated the need to move
with CRICs to help put a face on the contribution humanists and social
scientists make to society, Renaud argued. The budget "showed that the
reputation of the humanists and social scientists is not high here (in
Ottawa) and we still have to make the case about the usefulness of our
research."

With SSHRC having received a smaller percentage increase than its sister
councils — the Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council and the
Medical Research Council — it's become "quite evident" the community must
become far more pro-active in demonstrating the value of its work to
politicians and the community at-large, adds HSSFC president Dr. Chad Gaffield.

"There's an onus on humanists and social scientists to take the research out
of the campus and connect it to policy-making and the public, where it's
appropriate."The community will never be able to generate the same degree of
political support as its biomedical and natural science counterparts unless
it moves to dispel the myths that its research isn't connected to social and
economic needs; that it has no infrastructure needs; and that a humanities
and social sciences education somehow has less economic value, Gaffield argues.

It is such myths that readily allow Ottawa to operate on the premise that
innovation invariably leads to economic growth and in turn to social
cohesion, he adds. "Yet economic growth in and of itself does not ensure
social cohesion. If you look at our society, just because some families and
neighbourhoods are richer than others does not mean they're all functioning
wonderfully."

In that context, the humanities and social sciences must aggressively pursue
a strategy which makes it patently obvious that the disciplines "are part of
the solution."

BREAKING DOWN THE NUMBERS
Ottawa's view over the disparate values of the councils was nowhere apparent
more than in the budget itself, which saw each council receive a separate
rate of increase.

Under the rubric of 'restoring' council budgets to 1995 levels, Ottawa
provided a gross $71-million increase (16.3%) to NSERC, a $40-million
increase (16.8%) to MRC and a $9-million increase (9.5%) to SSHRC.

But Finance department officials explained during the budget lock-up that
the gross figures are altered by a series of factors in calculating the net
increase for each council, including the offsetting impact of a three per
cent cut ticketed for 1998-99 as a result of last year's federal budget, as
well as the impact of council researchers having received funding under the
National Centres-of-Excellence program.

For example, SSHRC's 1994-95 budget was roughly $101-million. After the past
three years of budget cuts, that declined to about $90-million. But SSHRC
researchers received about $4-million for NCEs this year, resulting in a
total agency budget of $94-million. As explained by Finance officials, the
$94-million total was then subject to a 3% reduction, bringing the base down
to $92-million. A $9-million increase was then applied to restore SSHRC's
budget to its '94-95 level. But the net effect is a 7.4 per cent (or
$7-million) increase. The corresponding net effect for NSERC is 13.8 per
cent ($60-million), and for MRC is 12.1 per cent ($29-million).

In essence, SSHRC is punished in the current fiscal year for successes by
members of its research community in NCE competitions. 

But Finance officials argued it only appears as if SSHRC was shortchanged in
the calculation because of the way in which NCE monies are shifting between
councils as existing networks lapse and new ones are born. In theory, the
officials said, council budgets can rise or fall in the future depending
upon how successful their respective communities are in forthcoming NCE
competitions.

Either way, the upshot of all the mathematics is that SSHRC's budget is
projected to be $101-million this year, $101-million next year, and
$103-million in the year 2000-01. NSERC budgets over the three-year period
will be $494-million, $495-million and $501-million. MRC budgets will be
$267-million, $270-million and $276-million. (Currently unallocated NCE
monies total $11-million, $21-million, and $23-million for the three fiscal
years).

The projections, argued Industry minister John Manley, steadfastly maintain
the 11.7 per cent "proportional" stake which SSHRC received in the 1994-95
federal budget. 

It's an important distinction. Rather than restoring council budgets by the
amount they were cut, Manley said Ottawa's intention was to "restore to the
1995 level."

REVIEWING THE COUNCILS' RELATIVE SHARES
Equally problematic for the humanities and social sciences is Ottawa's
failure to account for historical disparities in the treatment of SSHRC, a
condition which is very likely to be further exacerbated in the distribution
of awards under the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), whose parameters
essentially favour the biomedical and natural sciences.

In making the so-called restoration, Ottawa blithely ignored pre-budget
submissions from groups like the HSSFC, the Association of University &
Colleges of Canada, the National Graduate Council, the Canadian Association
of University Teachers and the Canadian Consortium for Research to the
effect that SSHRC has been historically underfunded and merited a higher
increase than its sister councils so as to prevent perpetuating the
traditional inequities.

But Science minister Ron Duhamel noted during the budget post-mortem that
perhaps the time has come to review the relative share each council receives
of the overall pie. Duhamel told reporters that his office will launch such
an examination this year. "That will clearly be done. Whether or not that
will result in any changes, it's a fundamental question that needs to be
examined, studied and, in fact, recommendations need to be made and they
will be."

Asked whether there'll be an external element to that review which will
provide the academic community with an opportunity for input, Duhamel
replied: "I will pursue that question. Whether or not, some time down the
line, that needs to become more formal, I don't know that."

THE VIEW ON SSHRC
Despite the apparent uncertainty within federal circles about whether SSHRC
has been historically shortchanged, there appears to be a consensus within
the academic community that such an outcome was certainly evident in the budget.

AUCC president Dr. Robert Giroux noted that the association has "argued all
along that the SSHRC budget should increase more than the others because
there's a lot of catching up to do." 

University of Toronto president Dr. Rob Prichard added "there's no good
reason" for the relative discrepancy in SSHRC funding. Given the agency's
budget level, "a small amount of money goes a very long way at SSHRC."

"SSHRC needed a special shot in the arm this time, for historical reasons,"
added Western Ontario president Dr. Paul Davenport. "So we hope that we can
work with the federal government to see that SSHRC gets the support it
deserves."

Concordia University president Dr. Frederick Lowy speculated SSHRC was
treated differently because the government is "very clearly focused on
applied science and being able to use the products very quickly" and there's
a perception there's "more payoff" in the natural and biomedical sciences.

"It's too easy to say that (SSHRC research) doesn't mesh with the technology
imperative and we're not going to put as much there," added University of
Winnipeg president Dr. Marsha Hanen.

St. Francis Xavier president Dr. Sean Riley surmised the variant increases
may have been the product of a perception that NSERC and MRC need additional
resources to offset increased grants demand which will likely accrue as a
result of research infrastructure grants awarded by the CFI.

SSHRC PRIORITIES  
Along with jumpstarting the CRICS initiative, SSHRC hopes to use a portion
of its increase to significantly bolster support for graduate students, both
in terms of the number supported and the value of the stipends, which Renaud
noted now fall roughly $3,000 below those offered by NSERC.

SSHRC will also use a portion of the monies to support new partnerships,
such as Clerk of the Privy Council Jocelyne Bourgon's request for
departmental initiatives aimed at identifying knowledge gaps in such areas
as social cohesion, Renaud added. SSHRC hopes to issue a call for proposals
this fall asking the community to design research projects in response to
such pressing social issues.

OTHER BUDGETARY MEASURES
-The newly-minted $2.5-billion Millennium Scholarship Fund will offer $3,000
scholarships annually to an estimated 100,000 students, commencing in the
year 2000 for a period of 10 years. Duhamel says it will be within the
governing board's purview to hive off a portion of the fund strictly for
science scholarships. The board will be headed by Chrysler Canada chairman
Yves Landry.

-Among a host of tax measures designed to provide debt relief for students
are tax credits to help cover interest costs, as well as interest-rate
reductions in hardship cases. Other educational measures including allowing
RRSP holders to withdraw a portion of their savings to finance continuing
education.

-The Canada Council receives a $25-million budget hike. 

-A combined $205-million will be spent on expanding Internet access under
the SchoolNet and Community Access programs.  

-The Canadian Network for the Advancement of Research, Industry and
Education will receive an additional $55-million this year for work related
to the development of the next-generation high speed network.

-The National Research Council receives $34-million for its Industrial
Research Program to promote the development of environmental technologies.
Manley says $15-million from his department's Technology Partnerships Canada
program will also be handed-off to IRAP for development of small businesses
in the environmental technology sector. 


Editor:
Wayne Kondro is a freelance writer based in Ottawa.  The former Editor of
the "Science Bulletin", an independent newsletter on national S&T policy, he
is currently a regular contributor to such publications as "Science" and
"The Lancet".



Humanities and Social Sciences Federation of Canada
Federation canadienne des sciences humaines et sociales
151 Slater Street, Suite 415, Ottawa, Ontario K1P 5H3
Tel:  (613) 238-6112; Fax:  (613) 238-6114
Email/Courrier electronique:  fedcan at hssfc.ca