By Carys Mills
Ryerson could miss out on funding because it doesn’t have a medical school.
The federal government’s budget, which was released last week, set aside an extra $32 million each year for research granting councils in Canada. It’s up to the councils to distribute funding to faculty at Canadian universities.
“The largest increase in funding is in the health sciences, so it will disproportionately go to universities that have medical schools,” said Sheldon Levy, president of Ryerson.
Funding is divvied up by three councils: engineering and science, health sciences and social sciences. Engineering and science receives the most money and social sciences gets the least.
Levy said faculty members will get the money, not Ryerson.
Ryerson will compete against 10 major research universities in Ontario for research funding, according to Tas Venetsanopoulos, vice-president research and innovation. He said the funding mainly benefits graduate students.
“Ryerson is not a huge player in this area,” said Venetsanopoulos.
Brock University’s president, Jack Lightstone, doesn’t think research funding should go to the typical research leaders.
“History has already taught us the painful lesson of what happens when students have their potential restricted by discriminatory or exclusionary approaches to research opportunities,” he wrote in the Globe and Mail on Mar. 9.
Ryerson’s research activity will increase by 10 to 15 per cent next year, Venetsanopoulos said.
Leave a Reply