Ontario plans to cut $42 million in post secondary research funding, ending grants to key support program
Kevin Brown and Stacey Dunn, both first-year general arts and science students at Humber, investigating fats in the chemistry lab. PHOTO BY LAURA BOOTH
Laura Booth
Political Reporter
After announcing that university and college students will get a 30 per cent reduction in tuition fees, the province has revealed that academic research funding will be cut by $42-million over the next four years.
“The reason why we’ve had to cut back on some research funding – and we’re not cutting back on all of our research funding, just a small part of it – is because we need to set priorities,” said Brad Duguid, MPP for Scarborough Centre and minister of economic development and innovation. “Ontario cannot exclude itself from the global economic challenges that exist around the world and our revenues have been hit by that.”
The Liberal government is ending grants to the Ontario Research Fund program.
Created by the Liberals in 2007, the program has consisted of five rounds of research monies being given to various academic projects. The sixth round – directed towards the arts and humanities – as well as a seventh round, have been cancelled.
The reduction can impact degree students who wish to pursue graduate school, as many research positions rely on government funding.
“As we have more and more degree students graduating, my hope is that a number of those students will continue on to graduate studies where their access to graduate research funds will be critical,” said Dr. James Watzke, dean of research at Humber. “In that scenario, I would hope that those funding programs stay healthy and well-funded.”
Dr. George Bragues, assistant vice-provost at Guelph-Humber, said cuts in government funding could force universities to seek capital from other sources. “It means that universities are more likely to have to tap corporate sources of funding and that raises issues of how independent they can be,” said Bragues.
According to Duguid, the McGuinty government has invested $3.6-billion in research and development since 2003 and will invest another $200-million this year.
But attracting private investment in university research projects remains an important part of the government’s agenda.
“We always are doing that – and, in fact, we have been very successful in Ontario in setting up a number of different clusters that involve researchers, private and public, universities and private sector businesses,” said Duguid.