University research income sees 1.1% growth

Toronto, ON – Total research income at the 50 leading universities expanded by only 1.1% in fiscal 2013, mirroring last year’s slow pace of growth, according to the annual ranking of Canada’s Top 50 Research Universities, released last week by Research Infosource. Total research income in fiscal 2013 reached $6.78 billion from $6.70 billion in Fiscal 2012.

University of Toronto, Canada’s leading research university, posted $1.11 billion of research income in fiscal 2013, followed by University of British Columbia ($566.8 million), and Université de Montréal ($528.0 million).  Several institutions recorded strong year-over-year research income growth: in particular; University of Waterloo (21.8%), University of Victoria (21.1%) and Memorial University of Newfoundland (19.4%).  Overall, in fiscal 2013, 29 universities posted research income growth versus 21 where income dropped – an improvement over fiscal 2012.  Total research intensity – research income per full-time faculty position – expanded by 1.3% to $175,900 from $173,600 the previous year.

“Universities derived 69% of their research income from government sources in fiscal 2013 – primarily from federal and provincial governments”, said Ron Freedman, CEO of Research Infosource.  “If anything dependency on government is increasing.  Whereas federal government sources increased funding by 2.8%, versus the overall 1.1% increase, provincial government funding rose by only 1.3%.  Foreign government, corporate and not-for-profit/foundation sources were all down.  Slow economic growth leaves governments with little spare capacity to increase research funding, so this year’s results should come as no great surprise.” 

Research Infosource has designated 3 institutions as Research Universities of the Year 2014 in their respective categories: University of Toronto (Medical/Doctoral), University of Waterloo (Comprehensive) and Ryerson University (Undergraduate).  These institutions stood out on a balanced scorecard of research input and output/impact measures.

International research was also considered this year, as measured by research collaboration – the proportion of total publications at each institution during the period 2008-2012 that were co-authored with researchers outside of Canada.  The top university winner in each tier group was: McGill University (49.9%), University of Regina (51.3%) and Saint Mary’s University (53.8%).

The full list is available at http://www.researchinfosource.com/top50_univ.php.