The University of Western Ontario landed in 10th place overall on the Canada Top 50 Research Universities List 2009, released by Research Infosource Inc.
But as with any ranking based on dollar amounts, a school’s rise or fall on the list can reflect chance – such as the arrival of a big cheque before (or after) the official ‘counting’ day – as much as success in winning grant competitions.
The list measures the total research income in the 2008 fiscal year at universities across the country. In last year’s survey Western reported $238 million in research income, but experienced a 6.6-per-cent dip this year to $222.3 million, slipping from ninth place.
The top three universities were Toronto, Alberta and British Columbia.
Ted Hewitt, Vice-President (Research and International Relations), says the fluctuation has more to do with construction projects and timing on cash from major funding sources than success in securing funds.
“If you look at Western’s performance over the past several years on this index, you will see that we have fluctuated between ninth and 10th position, suggesting that we are firmly a ‘top’ ten institution in Canada in terms of research,” says Hewitt. “If you go back further than five years, you would see that we were in 11th spot, so there has been consistent improvement overall.”
Hewitt notes virtually all of the G-13 institutions fluctuate year to year, depending on the amount of funding received for major projects and infrastructure from organizations like the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) and the Ontario Research Fund (ORF).
Looking at individual funding sources, Western’s rankings improve.
Western is second in the province – by a wide margin – for ORF and related provincial competitions and ranks seventh in Canada for CFI grants, he says. The timing of funding from these competitions influences rankings because they are largely tied to the pace of construction for major projects, such as the Biotron or the McKay-Lassonde Pavilion.
“When we have lots of construction and cash flowing from CFI, ORF and related sources, our cash flow increases and our rank goes up. As projects finish and new competitions have yet to be announced, our funding flow can go down.”
As well, Robarts was integrated into Western during the 2007-2008 fiscal year. Through harmonizing of accounting practices, double counting of research funds was detected and eliminated, which lowered Western’s overall total.
When it comes to Western’s so-called ‘bread and butter programs’ that researchers rely on to fund daily operations, Hewitt notes the university is steadily improving its success with Tri-Council agencies (SSHRC, NSERC and CIHR). Western’s success in securing these funds is important to recruitment of new faculty members.
Western ranks seventh or eighth in the country – second in Ontario – for Tri-Council funding. When looking at the funding per eligible researcher, Western takes second place in Canada for SSRCH funding and for NSERC Discovery awards.
“So overall, our researchers are competing well, with success rates well above the national average and this is reflected in growing Tri-Council income, especially on a per-researcher basis,” he adds.
Hewitt says early calculations show an increase from last year’s numbers in the Research Infosource report.
“I have every expectation that we will re-assume the ninth place spot next year, or perhaps do even better,” says Hewitt.
Check www.researchinfosource.com/top50.shtml.
