Federal indirect costs of research

The federal indirect costs of research program continues to provide funding essential to enhancing and sustaining the research environment at the University of Victoria.  Since we use a centralized funding distribution process that is strategically focused on our priorities, researchers across the institution benefit from a broad range of support such as enhanced library services, research support services and common computing facilities. Certain specialized laboratories and other research infrastructure facilities also benefit from the funding. The indirect costs of research program is a significant factor in supporting the culture of international research excellence at the University of Victoria and is also a contributor to the national and international recognition of the quality and impact of our diverse research activities. During the past year, we have implemented organizational changes to enhance support of research partnerships, both with the community and industry, and also to further enhance our support of knowledge mobilization. We continue to have very good success in hiring our top candidates for faculty positions and our faculty attrition remains quite low.

The enhancements the program makes to our research environment clearly contributes to our continuing success at attracting excellent faculty, students and postdoctoral fellows. As our research success continues to increase, keeping up with the related indirect costs is a significant challenge and funds from the program are vital to ensure continued appropriate support. In addition, the indirect funding Uvic receives accounts for around $6M that would otherwise have to be taken from our general operating funds provided by the province. This mitigates the impact the required support of research activity could have on supporting academic programs.

Better research services (e.g. grants facilitation) increase the success our researchers have in peer review grant competitions. As in past years, indirect funding assists us to leverage additional support from other funders in government and industry. One example is the way UVic Research Partnerships has succeeded in helping us to increase the value of industry contracts by using the indirect funds to support a contract officer.

Support of indirect costs of research is central to the success for our research-intensive university. The University of Victoria’s research activity and impact has risen sharply since 2000 as demonstrated by a quadrupling in external research support.  In 2012-13, the total exceeded $120M for the first time. The funding support from the indirect costs of research program has allowed us to enhance the many services and facilities required to maintain this trajectory. Knowing that tri-agency funding provides indirect support has helped us negotiate increased indirect support from other funders.  In particular, with the indirect costs program as a demonstration of government support, we revised our “overhead” policies and procedures in 2010 to strengthen the degree to which external funders contribute to covering the indirect costs of research.  As a consequence, we now have another funding stream that even further enhances our research environment.

This funding has enabled other sources of funds such as tuition and provincial operating grants to be mainly utilized to support academic programs and services. Without federal indirect funds a larger portion of these funding sources would be required to support research overhead costs resulting directly in reduced support to students in the classroom.

The ICR funding provides essential support toward enhancing and sustaining UVic’s research environment. We use a strategically focused centralized funding distribution process so researchers benefit from a broad range of enhanced support such as library services, research support services, common computing facilities and certain area specific enhancements.  The ICR program is a major factor in supporting the culture of research excellence at UVic and contributes to the national and international recognition of our diverse research activities. The support from the ICR program clearly contributes to our continuing success at recruiting and retaining excellent faculty, and to attracting students and postdoc fellows.

As total research income has quadrupled since 2000, exceeding $120M (including ICR) in 2012-13, indirect costs have also increased. The ~$6M ICR funding that we receive reduces the amount required from our general operating funds, to the benefit of our academic programs.

Better research services, e.g. grants facilitation, increase our researchers’ success in grant competitions. The funding assists us to leverage additional support from other funders, e.g. ICR funds support a contracts management position. We have planned changes to enhance support of community and industry research partnerships and to further enhance our support of knowledge mobilization. These changes will be implemented in 2013-14 with the support of ICR.

Based on the support received from the tri-agencies, we have revised our ICR policies and procedures to strengthen the contribution of other external funders which further enhances our research environment.

In order for faculty to produce high quality research, they require the right tools and facilities in which to perform their research. It is vital that laboratories are up to date and that there is adequate space for the experiments, researcher and graduate students. For the University of Victoria, access to federal indirect funds has since inception enabled the institution to update and support its research laboratories and facilities in ways that would never have been possible without the program.

Over the last number of years these funds have been utilized to support the renewal and renovation of research space across campus. Significant amounts were spent in prior years when the University had vacated space as a result of its expansion program. Over the last years while the amount allocated to renovations was more modest it was still vital in addressing the needs of faculty and graduate students. Without such funding faculty laboratories could not be renewed to address evolving research needs.

Renovations in 2012/13 were completed in science to support the requirements of a new faculty member that were agreed to as part of the recruitment process.

Federal indirect funds are also used to cover a portion of the operating costs that result from research (utilities and maintenance). Research spaces typically have large power draws (e.g. fume hoods or significant computing resources) and often have specialized needs (i.e. cleanliness within animal care).

Funds were used again in 2012/13 to purchase equipment for the central animal care facility. This equipment was infrastructure equipment needed to house and support the animals and not for research purposes.

Without federal indirect funds, the University would either be required to fund these additional costs from the operating budget thereby impacting educational quality and the student experience or alternately reduce laboratory capacity and/or availability on campus.

Seventy-five percent of the funding allocated under this category is spent on library acquisitions. As research is driven by information, the expenditures in this area have allowed us to improve the capacity of the university to make available information critical to the success of many research programs. For many disciplines, these expenditures are critical to providing the research environment needed by faculty, students and post-doctoral researchers. Currency fluctuation and annual increases to continuing resources costs continuously erode purchasing power placing even more importance on the allocation of indirect costs funding to the library.

Adequacy of library resources is also a significant faculty retention issue. The library is frequently asked by Deans and/or Chairs to purchase research materials that are critical to the research programs in their units. If these needs are not met, many faculty members research would be impacted in a negative way which could prompt them to seek opportunities elsewhere. Federal indirect funds are essential for these types of purchases.

In addition, the library continues to be able to purchase new forms of digital research sources, both historical and current, spanning a multitude of formats (e-books, texts, newspapers, statistical information, historical materials, and journals) which would not have been possible without this funding.

Funds in this category are also used to purchase insurance for research vehicles. Most research grants do not allow for the costs of insurance.  Hence, Indirect Costs of Research funding is the only source aside from scarce University operating funds. Additionally, some of the funding is allocated to the information resources in the form of databases, telecommunications, information technology and research tools.

Indirect costs of research funds provide support for key management and administration positions in the Office of Research Services.

The Manager, Research Agreements provides vital services in review and negotiation of research funding agreements between the University of Victoria and our funding partners and collaborators. Timely review and effective negotiation are required in order to respond to the significant growth in the numbers and increasing complexity of research agreements. Partnerships with government, industry and other partners are pre-requisites for the University of Victoria to take advantage of a number of Tri-Council programs and these collaborations are supported by this position. Without the funding provided by the ICR program for the Manager position, there would be a substantial reduction in the effectiveness of the support provided by the Office of Research Services for the agreement review process, the management of external partnerships and the benefits of these partnerships in support of other funding opportunities.

The External Awards Officer supports the development of applications for awards, prestigious fellowships and other significant academic awards. This support ensures the detailed processes required to meet competition requirements are met, collaborating with faculty and administration staff. The University of Victoria has had significant success in winning awards and our faculty members continue to be inducted into prestigious societies in significant numbers across all disciplines. This success is due in large part to the dedicated work of the External Awards Officer. Diminishing this support for the award process would reduce the success and recognition of the faculty members and other researcher personnel at the University of Victoria.

Indirect Costs of Research funding also supports personnel in Research Accounting and Purchasing dedicated to assisting researchers with budget submissions, reporting and purchases. Many reports and submissions are complex and the dedication of support to this area is crucial to the effective administration of research funding at the University. Without the Indirect Costs of Research, this support would not be possible.

Researchers at the University of Victoria submit well over 800 applications for research ethics approvals for new projects and renewals and modifications each year. The Indirect Costs of Research funding supports the Human Research Ethics (HRE) Coordinator and the HRE Assistant, two full time positions critical to the effective review and administration of human research ethics protocols. These positions also provide administrative support to the HRE Chair and Co-Chair and the HRE Board. The sustained high number of applications has made the effective management of the ethics review process critically important. In the absence of these positions, the response time for protocol review would increase, with the potential impact on the researchers’ timely engagement of human participants in their studies.

The University of Victoria supports significant infrastructure related to research with animal models. The costs of supporting the animal care facilities include the support for infrastructure, staff and operations. The Indirect Costs program provides substantial support for animal care staffing at the University of Victoria, including the two positions in our Outdoor Aquatic Unit, the Aquatics System Technician and Aquatic Husbandry Technician support positions.

These positions are critical to the ability to effectively manage the aquatic unit and ensure that the regulatory requirements of the Canada Council on Animal Care (CCAC) are met.

The University had a regular CCAC monitoring visit in December 2011 in order to renew the CCAC certificate of Good Animal Practice (GAP), a requirement for an institution to conduct animal research. The CCAC report commended the university’s level of administrative and management support to the program as critical for the successful provision of high quality animal care.

This funding is also used to fund the costs of handling and disposing of dangerous substances and biohazards.

In 2012/13 the Indirect Costs Program was used to support a portion of the costs associated with the following activities of UVic Industry Partnerships (UVic IP), our industry liaison office.

• Salaries of the UVicIP staff who provide a comprehensive package of technology transfer services and support to the entire UVic community (including faculty, staff and students);
• Costs of filing, prosecution and maintenance of new and existing patent applications based on UVic faculty or student research innovations;
• External legal costs to develop option to license and research agreements with industry partners;
• A portion of the in-house costs in support of UVic spin-off companies in the early-stages (1-2 years) post incorporation.

The Federal Indirect Costs Program support is critical in assisting UVic, through UVicIP, to protect, manage and transfer intellectual property to the private sector for the benefit of the Canadian economy. The provision of these services is essential for attracting and retaining faculty to UVic, and assisting them in the development of industry partnerships to support their research.