The January 2009 Canadian Federal budget announcement has more than a few people up in arms. Core budgets for the three granting councils were cut based on a review of their processes. New funding is primarily for infrastructure and graduate students. And a lot of that new funding is targeted in controversial ways.
In the social sciences and humanities community, there has been an outcry over the targeting of new Canada Graduate Scholarships to those studying in Management, Business, and Finance. SSHRC has clarified that this only applies to the new money, and that scholarships are still available to graduate students across the full range of the humanities and social sciences.
While this might allay the fears of some young scholars that they will never secure funding to pursue their research, it does nothing to address the central criticism. Is it right to limit government funding of research to certain fields that are deemed relevant?
Targeted Funding
The targeting of new CGS scholarship money is but the latest manifestation of a longer term trend. The 2007 federal budget targeted approximately $10 million of research grant funding for the same area — Management, Business, and Finance. The 2008 federal budget targeted similar levels of new research grant funding to research on the Environment and Northern Communities. An earlier program provided about $10 million over 5 years to fund research on the New Economy.
SSHRC‘s core budget has not increased significantly in a long time. The Standard Research Grant program, which adjudicate applications based on peer review of the quality and likely significance of the proposed research, has not been able to increase funding to meet increased demand or the increased costs of research.
Increased demand
And demand is increasing. The number of applications to the Standard Research Grant program has been increasing steadily. Universities that have strong research reputations are expecting more of their faculty to secure external research funding, earlier in their careers. And universities that have traditionally focused on undergraduate teaching are trying to increase their research profile, including bringing in more external funding.
Core funding from provincial budgets for higher education is increasingly targeted to teaching activities, with additional funds targeted to specific areas including infrastructure and commercialization of research. Universities have fewer funds available to distribute internally to support research. One way they manage that scarcity is to use internal funds as seed money to leverage larger external research grants. The pressure to apply for grants increases.
The result of this is that success rates in the Standard Research Grant program have been dropping. Until 2006, SSHRC was able to maintain a success rate of around 40% although in the final year of that regime an across the board cut to proposed budgets had to be imposed. Since then success rates have been in the 33% range. Without an increase in core funding, this situation is only going to get worse.
Program death
The Standard Research Grant program is slowly starving to death. It could take years. And it is still funding a lot of excellent research in a full range of social science and humanities areas. But the value of this program needs to be argued to the people that make the decisions. That isn’t SSHRC. That is the federal Minister of Industry (to whom SSHRC and NSERC report) and your own MP.
And while everyone’s attention is focused on targeting and graduate scholarships, the cuts to the core budget based on Strategic Review have gone relatively unnoticed. MacLean’s blog reports on the responses to the budget. I’m surprised that I haven’t heard more about this detail:
SSHRC funding is eliminated for Research Time Stipends (RTS)-funds that help to provide adequate time for faculty to conduct research. SSHRC recognizes the central importance of time for research in the social sciences and humanities but also recognizes that universities have the responsibility to provide university grant award-holders with adequate time for research.
The Research Time Stipend program has been on death row for years. And the program is small. Only those in about the top 10% (or less) of the Standard Research Grant program ever received RTS funding.
The argument is solid. If research is part of the normal workload of university faculty, then their employers (the universities) should ensure that faculty have adequate time to undertake these duties. And yet universities do not have large pots of cash from which to fund a replacement. Small universities have been complaining about this situation, hoping that RTS could be used to level the playing field for them. It is now level in a way no one wanted.
What this means for you
Federal funding. SSHRC budget cuts. It all seems quite distant from your daily life of teaching, research and service.
And yet this is the context in which you have to secure the resources to achieve your research goals. Resources of money, time, and research assistants. This big picture makes your life more stressful.
You are likely to be under more pressure to apply for research grants that are harder to get. The one thing you want is time, and that is the one thing a SSHRC grant won’t fund. It is kind of hard to love your job when the part that drew you into it in the first place is getting squeezed into the margins. Or at least it feels like it’s getting squeezed into the margins.
Stress is caused by uncertainty and lack of control. Understanding this bigger picture, as well as how peer review committees evaluate your application, can reduce your uncertainty and focus your attention on the areas over which you do have control. You can’t do a lot to influence the federal budget (though writing to your MP about the importance of funding social science and humanities research couldn’t hurt) but you can make sure that any application you do submit is competitive.
My Research Grant Success webinar will reduce funding-induced stress. I will help you understand the big picture and focus on your own needs for research funding. We’ll talk about the main components of a successful grant application and I’ll provide a workbook so you can apply what you’ve learned to your own research program. Remove the stress and work towards achieving your research goals. Register now for only $50.
If those dates are not convenient, subscribe here to receive an e-mail when future dates for this presentation are announced. (You will only receive notifications of Research Grant Success webinar dates.)
