Mac secures spot as most research intensive university in Canada again

Research Infosource Inc. rankings look at each school’s number of faculty divided by the amount of money coming in

MCMASTER UNIVERSITY

has once again been recognized as the most research intensive university in Canada, having brought in an average of $434,700 per faculty member last year.

The figures by Research Infosource Inc. released Thursday show that what the university received per faculty member in 2017 was more than double the national average of $185,000.

“McMaster has for many decades actually been unusual in being a medium-sized university with a very, very serious commitment to research,” president Patrick Deane told The Spectator. “This is a remarkable achievement given our size.”

McMaster researchers garnered $380 million in research funding in 2017 — up more than $25 million from the year prior.

Mac also ranked No.1 on last year’s annual research intensity list by the Toronto-based company that tracks R&D spending, receiving an average of $405,300 per faculty member then.

While it’s normal for research dollars to fluctuate year-to-year, Deane called the jump from 2016 to 2017 “very significant,” noting it speaks to “an overall very significant improvement in the research productivity.”

The way Research Infosource Inc. arrives at its figures is by measuring the number of faculty at each institution divided by the amount of money coming in. That is to level the playing field between schools, said company CEO Ron Freedman.

To him, McMaster’s ranking is reflective of the university’s scholarship and research administration.

“The vast majority of the research money that comes into universities is based on competitive applications from faculty ... so for a university to be consistently at the head of their tier is a real testament to the scholarship and competitiveness of individual faculty members,” Freedman said.

“It’s also a testament to the research management of the university that has to organize all of these awards and competitions.”

While the bulk of its research money stems from health and life sciences, as well as science and engineering, that doesn’t mean other faculties like social sciences and humanities are not strong when it comes to research — they just don’t require the same levels of funding, Deane said.

The university ranked seventh overall, one position higher than its previous three years on the list of Canada’s Top 50 Research Universities, which is based on 2017 financial data obtained from Statistics Canada.

McMaster also ranked the most research intensive when looking at graduate students, who brought in an average of $82,800 each in 2017.

The university also held its first place position in receiving the largest amount of corporate research income — more than $498 million over a five-year period from 2013-17.

Overall, the combined research income of all of the schools included in Canada’s Top 50 Research Universities jumped by 6.8 per cent last year to $7.33 billion, from $6.87 billion in 2016, which was the strongest gain since 2007.

Much of that can be attributed to federal government funding, which saw a substantial increase in 2017, particularly from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Freedman noted.