RESEARCH
U of S to get at least 39 Canada Research Chairs
First 10 chairs should be established during 2000-2001 academic year
By Kathryn Warden
The University of Saskatchewan will get at least 39 of the 2,000 chairs to be created across Canada over the next five years under the $900-million Canada Research Chairs Program.
Of the 39 U of S chairs, 26 (67 per cent) are allocated for natural sciences and engineering, eight (20 per cent) to health, and five (almost 13 per cent) in social sciences and humanities.
Nationally over the five years, 45 per cent (846 chairs) will go for natural sciences and engineering, 35 per cent (658) for health, and 20 per cent (376) for social sciences and humanities.
Chair allocation is based on the institution’s relative share of granting council funding over the previous three years. The number of chairs allocated will be adjusted annually to account for changes in grant performance.
Run by the three federal granting councils in partnership with the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) and Industry Canada, the new program aims to build a critical mass of world-class Canadian researchers and encourage today’s leading researchers to remain in Canada.
The program offers research and salary support for researchers nominated by their universities. While nominees from different universities won’t be competing against one another, national peer review committees will only approve candidates who are "truly outstanding."
U of S will get 10 chairs in 2000-2001 – four in NSERC-related areas, three in MRC/CIHR (Canadian Institutes for Health Research) research, and three in SSHRC-related fields.
Current projections are that U of S will be allocated a total of 10 chairs in 2001-2002, eight in 2002-2003, five in 2003-2004, and six in 2004-2005.
The University of Regina will receive a total of eight chairs over the five years. Information on chair numbers at other universities across Canada was not available at press time.
Universities cannot nominate candidates until they’ve submitted a strategic research plan supported by the university’s most senior planning body. Universities that submit plans by Sept. 1 will be able to to apply for chair for 2000-2001.
Chair nominations for 2000-2001 should be submitted by Sept. 1. The first funding decision is expected in mid-December of 2000.
There will be two types or "tiers" of chairs:
Tier 1 chairs, which bring $200,000 per year to the university for seven years, are for research "stars", acknowledged as world leaders in their fields. These chairs, appointed at the full professor level, are renewable.
Tier 2 chairs, which bring $100,000 per year for five years, are for future research stars – faculty with peer-acknowledged potential to lead their research fields. These chairs, appointed at the assistant or associate levels, are renewable once.
The program guide states that chair holders "must have the same employment security conditions as other faculty members at comparable levels within the same institution."
For 2000-2001, half the 10 U of S chairs have been designated as Tier 1 and half as Tier 2. These chairs would together bring in $1.5 million to U of S for this year alone.
Universities can include in their nominations a request for CFI infrastructure support. The maximum CFI allocation for each university is based on the total number of allocated chairs times $125,000. For U of S, this works out to almost $4.9 million over five years. The usual CFI matching requirements apply.
The 39 chairs will potentially be a great boon to the U of S. The university will be able to build on its strengths and create clusters of researchers in leading-edge areas. This will in turn attract more top faculty and graduate students. With a rejuvenated research climate, teaching will also be enhanced. As well, there’ll also be greater potential for economic spin-offs from U of S research.
Several universities, including U of S, had urged program organizers not to base the chair allocation solely on past track record in obtaining granting council dollars, but their bid failed.
They argued that tying the chairs to past performance in this narrowly defined way would simply reinforce the current pattern of research funding across Canada, increasing the gap between ‘have’ and ‘have-not’ universities. They argued, for instance, that CFI funding awards should be included. This would have greatly boosted the number of chairs for the U of S, given the $56.4 million in CFI funding for the Canadian Light Source synchrotron project.
Program organizers did decide that of the 2,000 chairs to be allocated nationally, 120 will be reserved for a special allocation to smaller institutions that get less than one per cent of granting council funding. This, however, does not apply to U of S.
For more program details, visit the web sites of the granting councils and CFI.
BACK TO TOP
Plan aims to maximize CLS benefit to Saskatoon
With more than $26 million in contracts awarded to Saskatchewan companies so far, the Canadian Light Source (CLS) synchrotron project at the U of S is well on its way to becoming an engine for local economic growth.
More than 250 purchase orders totalling $37 million have been issued since the project was launched a year ago – everything from hotel accommodation for visiting experts, to major construction and supply contracts.
But with almost $141 million in new construction underway or planned, there’s still more than $100 million worth of contracts to be awarded before the facility opens in January of 2004.
"It’s important that local companies know about these opportunities well in advance so they can compete for these contracts," CLS Director Michael Bancroft told an April 27 downtown news conference organized by the Saskatoon Regional Economic Development Authority (SREDA) Inc.
At the news conference, SREDA announced a new plan to maximize synchrotron benefits to the Saskatoon region. It’s estimated that eventually more than 2,000 academic and industrial researchers a year will use the CLS synchrotron.
"We will work closely with the University of Saskatchewan, CLS Inc., and all levels of government as we advance this co-ordinated leadership agenda," said SREDA CEO Dale Botting.
A broadly based committee that includes U of S representatives will soon be struck to co-ordinate issues such as airport access, accommodation, spin-off business and tourism opportunities, personnel training needs, and recruitment of company offices to Saskatoon.
Starting in June, there’ll be workshops and training seminars to educate potential suppliers about procurement opportunities and to develop the skills required to design, build, and maintain components of synchrotron facilities.
As well, leading business people – dubbed Saskatoon Ambassadors – will receive training within the next month on promoting the CLS synchrotron to potential industrial users, suppliers and investors around the world. At present, there are 50 ambassadors and more will be recruited.
"Their job is to sell and spread the good news" that the CLS, which can be used for everything from the development of new vaccines to analysis of environmental samples, means business opportunities, said Botting.
SREDA envisions that with the CLS, Saskatoon will become "Science City", potentially home to new export-based businesses that service the needs not just of the CLS, but synchrotrons around the world.
He noted that synchrotrons associated with complementary research facilities have a competitive advantage. U of S is developing such facilities, including the new structural sciences centre and specialized high-tech microscopes.
Bancroft called the new plan "another important step in linking the CLS with the city."
He stressed the national research facility will "bring a large number of high-tech people to the campus and to the city."
Some will be permanent CLS staff . Already 12 new employees have been hired in the last six months and another eight will be hired in the near future.
Others will be visiting scientists in a wide range of fields who’ll spend money while in the province. He pointed out that Louis Delbaere of the U of S department of biochemistry heads up a national team of protein crystallographers – 26 senior scientists and 175 co-workers – who’ll all be coming to use the CLS.
But Bancroft stressed that the CLS "is not just being built for academics – it will have a heavy industrial focus."
Of the more than 50 synchrotrons in the world (five of which are comparable to the CLS), the CLS is the first to aggressively go after industrial users. While typically synchrotrons have less than 10 per cent industrial usage, the CLS’s long-term target is 25 per cent.
"This should lead to large numbers of new companies such as you find at Innovation Place now," he said.
One example of an interested industrial user is the Saskatchewan uranium industry, which is exploring the CLS’s potential to help solve waste management problems, he said.
Recently, a group of five Japanese government and university scientists visited the CLS to discuss investment options. They were here because there’s a five-year wait to use Japanese synchrotrons.
Botting said Saskatoon’s community-based commitment to synchrotron-related industrial development is "unlike any other facility in the world."
– Warden
|
|
Work continues April 28 on the building that will house the synchrotron.
|
|
Photo by John Swirsky, CLS Mechanical Technologist
|
BACK TO TOP
On Campus News is published by the Office of
Communications, University of Saskatchewan.
For further information,
visit the web site or contact communications@usask.ca
|
May 5, 2000
