Perspectives (Volume 2, number 6) - Federal Budget offers modest relief for humanities and social sciences (fwd)

[Richard Plant]

Hello everyone:

This is the latest edition of "Perspectives," a publication prepared under
the intiatives of HSSFC. You will see a lot about funding, but may be less
than cheered by the science-directed nautre of it. You will likely be
cheered by the strong interventions by the HSSFC led by President Louise
Forsyth on behalf of humanities and social sciences. You will also be
cheered, I expect as I am, by the emphasis being placed on support for
students.

Maybe it's time to be writing letters to various offices to express your
views on any of these matters. If our discipline is silent, it will be
seen to be inactive and unimportant.

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

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 26 Feb 1999 10:54:02 -0500
From: Fedcan <fedcan at hssfc.ca>
To: @hssfc.ca
Subject: Perspectives (Volume 2, number 6) - Federal Budget offers  modest relief for humanities and social sciences

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 2, Number 6)

Editor: Wayne Kondro

Table of contents:
1)      Highlights
2)      Canadian Institutes of Health Research
3)      Health Research Rollovers
4)      The Structure
5)      In the interval
6)      SSHRC gets unconditional $5 million
7)      NSERC gets unconditional $25 million
8)      CFI windfall
9)      Networks of Centres of Excellence
10)     Canadian Health Services Research Foundation (CHSRF)
11)     Other Research measures


FEDERAL BUDGET OFFERS MODEST RELIEF FOR HUMANITIES & SOCIAL SCIENCES
Cabinet stamps imprimatur on Canadian Institutes of Health Research initiative

HIGHLIGHTS
Flush with a budgetary surplus, Ottawa has unveiled an array of research
goodies in its 1999-2000 federal budget, including developmental monies for
10 to 15 Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). The Medical Research
Council (MRC) will disappear when the CIHR is created next year and the
health components of the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council
(SSHRC) and the Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council's (NSERC)
budgets may be rolled into the new agency's budget.

SSHRC will this year receive an additional $7.5-million to promote health
research and $5-million in unconditional monies, which are likely to be
invested in training programs or the creation of more Canadian University
Research Alliances (CURAs).

Other highlights include a 65% hike in the Networks of Centres-of-Excellence
(NCE) budget, which should result in the creation of eight new networks, and
a $200-million boost in the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) budget to
offset skyrocketing demand.

CANADIAN INSTITUTES OF HEALTH RESEARCH
It's being billed as the most significant re-organization of Canadian
research in decades.

"Historic" and "unprecedented" were among terms being tossed around in the
wake of Ottawa's decision to stamp its imprimatur on the creation of 10-15
CIHR "which would draw together investigators and institutions to coordinate
and provide national focus to Canada's research efforts, and to better
integrate research into Canada's health care system."

Humanities & Social Sciences Federation of Canada president Louise Forsyth
called it "an encouraging step to see the opportunity for complementing
bio-medical research by research in the humanities and social sciences,
areas where scholars are able to study the social and cultural determinants
of health."

But details regarding the Institutes governance; structure; location;
operations and programming remain extremely sketchy. They'll be worked out
by a task force headed by MRC president Dr. Henry Friesen over the course of
the coming year.

Only slightly less murky is the financial picture of the new institutes,
which are scheduled to become operational in the fiscal year 2000-01.

MRC, established in 1960, will be dissolved and its operational budget
rolled over to the new CIHR. This year, MRC's core budget (exclusive of NCE
monies) of roughly $250-million will be topped-up by $27.5-million to
bolster health research. Once all MRC monies are transferred to the CIHR
when once it becomes operational next year, some $65-million will be added
to new agency's budget, resulting in an overall allocation of about
$337-million. Another $110-million will be added in the fiscal year 2001-02,
creating a global CIHR budget in the range of $457-million.

Although that falls well below the amount proponents had been seeking over
and above the MRC base, Friesen said this "first phase" of the CIHR
indicates government is receptive to providing more funding if the research
community demonstrates the validity of the initiative.

"Huge confidence has been shown by the government in the idea and the
vision. But it's also clear and very prudent to say: 'let's see if you can
deliver. Let's ensure that you really can walk before we give you sufficient
funds to run at top speed'."

HEALTH RESEARCH ROLLOVERS
The global CIHR budget could also rise significantly because of further
restructuring within the granting councils. Federal Health minister Allan
Rock says Friesen's task force will have to determine whether or not to roll
the health components of SSHRC; NSERC; and Health Canada's National Health
Research Development Program (NHRDP) under the umbrella of the new CIHR.

But Friesen says the press isn't necessarily on to incorporate the health
components of the other council budgets. "My view is, in today's world,
collaboration is more productive that coercion. I think it may be more a
portfolio management approach ..., while it might be a nice administrative
convenience, I believe over time that those arrangements will have to be
discussed, negotiated. I think CIHR has enough on its plate in the first
phase, and I think it's so important to get it right."

However, officials in the lock-up seemed far more convinced that a rollover
is all but a fait accompli. One noted the only remaining question to be
asked is whether "to keep two granting councils" or merge SSHRC and NSERC
into one because of their diminished size.

Although the latter has been on the Finance wish list for a decade, it's
difficult to assess how much political impetus there might actually be for
such a merger. Asked whether it's really on the table, Industry minister
John Manley, who oversees both councils, replied: "not to my knowledge."

But the notion of rolling the health components of SSHRC and NSERC is
definitely under consideration and officials forecast an enormous battle
over the issue in the forthcoming year of "intense negotiations."

For their part, SSHRC president Dr. Marc Renaud and NSERC president Dr.
Thomas Brzustowski did not appear entirely adverse to the notion.

Renaud says only a small portion SSHRC's existing budget could be classified
as health research. "If, at the end of the day ...we have to roll over,
we'll roll over. But the real question is, let's not focus on the means.
Let's focus on the objectives. What's most likely, given the small amount of
money already in SSHRC, rather than strip it of 5 or 10 per cent of its
funds, would be to have Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs), agreements, so
that SSHRC's investments would be focussed on certain areas that CIHR would
not focus on."

Brzustowski, who says about $90-$100-million of NSERC's budget falls in the
domain of health research, noted "there may be merit" in such a move but
it's too early to make that determination. "There's a whole year to be spent
designing the structure, how this thing would actually operate. It may prove
that they're absolutely right. It may prove that it takes much more time
than anybody thinks. But I certainly don't rule it out as a possibility."

THE STRUCTURE
Despite the fact that the CIHR proposal has been around for a year, it still
remains very much an embryonic notion in terms of structure or operations.
Proponents have suggested there would be 10- 15 institutes encompassing the
broad domains of basic science; applied clinical; health services & health
systems; and society, culture and the health of populations.

Friesen envisions each institute as having an advisory board and a
secretariat reporting their funding recommendations to a central CIHR
governing board. Within a certain range, each institute would have the
latitude to determine how much monies should be allocated to the basic
sciences or to things like the social determinants of health, Friesen added.
"But I don't think every institute should be or will be a clone of each
other. There should be some room for flexibility."

There's also a "capacity building challenge" in segments of health research.
"Not all domains are at the same state of readiness," Friesen noted, adding
that the various institutes will likely have differing social science
dimensions once they become established. Friesen also indicated the
Institutes will seek to redress regional disparities in scientific capacity
and capability.

Similarly ambiguous is the degree to which each Institute will provide
funding for the networking component of operations. Although envisioned as
"virtual" institutes, it's entirely unclear the extent to which CIHR's
framers are proposing to invest in electronic linkages between Institute
members.

IN THE INTERVAL
While final details are being ironed out in preparation for the tabling of
CIHR's enabling legislation, likely next fall, Ottawa provided a $50-million
budget boost to five departments and agencies to bolster their health
research efforts in preparation for the advent of the CIHR.

To that end, the MRC receives $27.5-million this year; SSHRC and NSERC
$7.5-million apiece; the National Research Council (NRC) $5-million and
NHRDP $2.5-million.

At SSHRC, Renaud says the monies will be "targetted at mobilizing the human
science community on the health front in such a way that they could actually
create institutes, link up with one another in ways that could become
institutes or team up with people in biomedicine in fields that are relevant."

Renaud also indicated SSHRC will convene a panel of academics and external
experts to help "conceptualize" the approach it should take towards
bolstering its health research effort. "Should we go the chair way? Should
we create research centres? Should we put a bunch of money on training? How
exactly should we go, we don't know yet."

SSHRC GETS UNCONDITIONAL $5-MILLION
SSHRC must also make a determination as to how exactly it should spend the
$5-million in unconditional monies which it'll receive in the forthcoming
fiscal year to top up its base budget to a level of about $106-million. That
base will rise to roughly $108-million in 2000-01.

Under its innovation plan, SSHRC proposed priority be given to improving
support for students (in terms the number and level of doctoral and
postdoctoral fellowships, as well as the possible creation of 'master's
scholarships'); strengthening the research grants program; and providing
additional support to targetted initiatives.

Renaud says council will decide in May whether to sink the $5-million
increase into programs for students and/or increase funding for the CURAs,
"because we expect the demand for this to be mind- boggling and we only have
money for eight. So we may decide to put some of this money aside to create
a few more. We'll see."

While welcome, the $5-million increase isn't enough to redress the
"historical under-funding" of the humanities and social sciences, Forsyth
noted. "In our knowledge-based economy, it will be increasingly important to
place government support for Canadian research in the humanities and social
sciences on an equal footing with the natural and medical sciences."

NSERC GETS UNCONDITIONAL $25-MILLION
The so-called principle of proportional equity, under which each council's
relative share of the overall pie is maintained at historical levels for
reasons entirely unknown, yielded a $25-million increase in NSERC's budget
even though the agency didn't ask for the top-up in its budget submission to
cabinet.

"It's kind of like winning the lottery without even buying a ticket,"
quipped one official.

But Finance and Industry officials in the media lock-up maintained that
equity had to be maintained so as not to skew allocations to SSHRC beyond
its traditional 12% stake.

In a curious twist, the French language version of the budget did just that
by errantly inverting the numbers for NSERC and SSHRC, awarding $5-million
to the natural sciences and $25-million to the humanities & social sciences.

Industry minister John Manley indicated the NSERC hike was at least
partially linked to the increased pressure for operating grant monies
resulting from infrastructure awards made by the CFI. "That's one of the
reasons we put a lot of additional money last year into the granting
councils and continued the process this year."

Brzustowski indicated the new NSERC monies will flow into general programming.

CFI WINDFALL
The humanities & social sciences were a notable omission as an additional
$200-million was ticketed for the national research infrastructure program.
The budget expressly stated that about half the monies would issue for
health-related infrastructure and the remainder for "environment, science
and engineering" infrastructure.

CFI president Dr. David Strangway indicated the $200-million won't be used
to hike approval rates in the ongoing competition for CFI funding, in which
about $400-million is available for more than $1.2-billion in applications.
Rather, the new monies will be saved for competitions over the next two years.

It's hoped that more humanities and social sciences infrastructure proposals
will surface in future CFI competitions, Strangway added. To that end,
universities will be provided with some "guidance" about the need to address
infrastructure shortfalls in the humanities and social sciences.

Universities "didn't put very many (humanities and social sciences
applications) on the table" in the first major CFI competition, Strangway
noted. "Whether that's because they didn't have the recognized need or
whether they hadn't done the homework or whether, in fact, they thought,
that we wouldn't be receptive to them, is an interesting question."

"But we want to ensure they understand that there's no barriers in those
areas," Strangway added.

The CFI will also be looking for pointers on how to fund humanities and
social sciences infrastructure during an Organization for Economic
Development & Co-operation convention to be held in Ottawa this September.

Co-sponsored by the CFI, SSHRC, the U.S. National Science Foundation and
Great Britain's Economic & Social Research Council, the convention will
examine innovative means of supporting humanities and social sciences
infrastructure needs. "It's our intention to be responsive to those needs,"
Strangway stressed.

NETWORKS OF CENTRES OF EXCELLENCE
The NCE program will receive a 60% budget increase of $30-million, raising
its annual allocation to $77-million, which Brzustowski says should allow
for the creation of eight or nine new networks, in addition to the 14
already being supported.

Brzustowski noted the federal monies will flow quicker than had been
requested, so it'll be a "challenge" to conduct a new competition by
November. "But as soon as we can arrange one, we'll hold one."

An untargeted competition open to all comers will likely be held this year,
followed by a targetted competition next year or the year after, Brzustowski
added. Targetted competitions around specific thematic areas take longer to
arrange because the areas must first receive cabinet's stamp of approval.

CANADIAN HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH FOUNDATION (CHSRF)
A $35-million endowment will be added to the CHSRF's existing $65-million
endowment to help link foundation-sponsored research with the new CIHR.
CHSRF also received a $25-million endowment to promote nursing research.
Executive-director Jonathan Lomas says the new endowments will generate
about $3-million annually in research grant monies. About $1-$2-million will
issue for health services research and the remainder for nursing research,
with the bulk of the latter devoted to "training."

OTHER RESEARCH MEASURES
-Six federal departments and agencies will share in a $55-million/3-year
allocation to bolster biotechnology research & development.

-The budget delivered a stiff jab to the throat of NRC's request for
$25-million per year so as to restore its base budget and roughly
$250-million to fund a series of six strategic initiatives in such areas as
fuel cells, aerospace and genomics. Although NRC spent the past year making
its case and building a constituency for an increase and garnered
significant external private sector and provincial contributions for the
strategic initiatives, Ottawa responded with a scant $5-million. In the wake
of the slight, Ottawa's science lobbying community catapulted NRC to
SSHRC-like status on the list of underfunded areas which must be addressed
as a priority in the next federal budget.

-The Canadian Space Agency's warning that Canada would have to withdraw from
participation in the International Space Station if the agency's budget
wasn't reprofiled received a receptive response as Ottawa announced an
additional $430-million/3-years will issue to the CSA and then its budget
will placed on a permanent A-base level of $300-million annually.

-Industry Canada's beloved Technology Partnerships Program, which primarily
supports development of the aerospace industry, received an additional
$50-million per year. "Every bit helps," Manley said.

-Some $60-million will be spent over three years to establish a 'Smart
Community Demonstration Project' in each province. Officials said the
intention is to create Internet sites at which residents of each city or
town can obtain information about community, social, cultural and sporting
events. Information releases by local government and police are also
expected to be posted.

-Some $60-million/5-years will be spent on the creation of a
"GeoConnections" initiative which officials said will make geographic
information about the country available on the Internet. It will feature an
ability to plot natural resources, environmental, health, economic and soils
data against a base map of the country.



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