ARCHIVED - Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council - Report

As part of a commitment to continuous improvement, in 2010-11 SSHRC continued its program architecture renewal (launched in 2009), reviewing its suite of funding programs, peer review processes and methods of program delivery, as well as revising its suite of funding opportunities. The outcomes sought included greater overall program coherence, with an improved and simplified interface for applicants and a greater emphasis on impacts and results achieved. Aspects of the new program architecture introduced in 2010-11 include the following:

• Descriptions were developed for the three umbrella programs (Talent, Insight and Connection) and related funding opportunities, specifically the new Partnership Development Grants, Partnership Grants, Insight Development Grants and Insight Grants.
• A risk assessment for SSHRC’s program activity renewal was completed, and a risk mitigation strategy developed. A follow-up exercise to determine whether risks were adequately addressed and to identify additional risks was completed in February 2011.

As was noted in the Science, Technology and Innovation Council’s State of the Nation 2008 report, there is growing evidence that the innovation system depends on linkages created between different researchers and research-performing institutions and sectors. These linkages intensify the research process and lead to better outcomes. To enhance its contribution to the innovation system and fulfill commitments stemming from the S&T strategy, SSHRC continued to align and harmonize its funding opportunities, procedures and policies with those of the other federal research granting agencies (CIHR and NSERC) and the Canada Foundation for Innovation.

• In consultation with the other granting agencies, and in light of the implementation of the new Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships Program announced in Budget 2010, the harmonization of the Canada Graduate Scholarships tri-agency program was postponed to next fiscal year and will be carried out as part of SSHRC’s review of the overall suite of “Talent” funding opportunities.
• The harmonized Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships Program was launched in August 2010 with the first round of awards announced in April 2011. The program was run in close collaboration with the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships program, with a single selection board making final funding recommendations for both funding opportunities.
• Priority areas have been integrated across the new program architecture. The priority areas supported in 2010-11 were:
  • Aboriginal Research
  • Canadian Environmental Issues
  • Digital Media
  • Innovation, Leadership and Prosperity
  • Northern Communities: Towards Social and Economic Prosperity
• Through Knowledge Synthesis Grants on the Digital Economy, SSHRC offered opportunities for collaboration between federal government agencies, as well as funded 25 papers on critical economic, social and cultural dimensions of Canada’s digital economy.

As was noted in the Science, Technology and Innovation Council’s State of the Nation 2008 report, there is growing evidence that the innovation system depends on linkages created between different researchers and research-performing institutions and sectors. These linkages intensify the research process and lead to better outcomes. To enhance its contribution to the innovation system and fulfill commitments stemming from the S&T strategy, SSHRC continued to align and harmonize its funding opportunities, procedures and policies with those of the other federal research granting agencies (CIHR and NSERC) and the Canada Foundation for Innovation.

• In consultation with the other granting agencies, and in light of the implementation of the new Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships Program announced in Budget 2010, the harmonization of the Canada Graduate Scholarships tri-agency program was postponed to next fiscal year and will be carried out as part of SSHRC’s review of the overall suite of “Talent” funding opportunities.
• The harmonized Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships Program was launched in August 2010 with the first round of awards announced in April 2011. The program was run in close collaboration with the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships program, with a single selection board making final funding recommendations for both funding opportunities.
• Priority areas have been integrated across the new program architecture. The priority areas supported in 2010-11 were:
  • Aboriginal Research
  • Canadian Environmental Issues
  • Digital Media
  • Innovation, Leadership and Prosperity
  • Northern Communities: Towards Social and Economic Prosperity
• Through Knowledge Synthesis Grants on the Digital Economy, SSHRC offered opportunities for collaboration between federal government agencies, as well as funded 25 papers on critical economic, social and cultural dimensions of Canada’s digital economy.

SSHRC contributes to Canada’s Entrepreneurial Advantage by helping to make the knowledge resulting from funded research available to those who can benefit from it. By facilitating knowledge mobilization, SSHRC creates connections and intensifies the intellectual, social and economic impact of research and research training.

SSHRC acted to ensure that results achieved by researchers, as well as the impacts of SSHRC investments, are documented and described in a way that is comprehensive, timely and fully informative. To those ends, SSHRC consolidated existing activities to facilitate, promote and report on results and impacts:

• SSHRC’s Knowledge Mobilization Strategy underscores the agency’s approach to policy and program design, including introducing a new knowledge mobilization module in the revised application interface.
• A “Framework for Increasing and Capturing Results and Impacts of SSHRC Investments” was presented to SSHRC’s governing council. Monitoring tools were developed to track actions and progress for the implementation of the framework.
• A diagnosis of SSHRC’s Final Research Report (FRR) was completed, including comparative analysis of research reporting practices at national and international granting agencies.
• Proposed changes stemming from the FRR diagnosis include a revised reporting tool to collect results throughout the grant period, rather than solely after the grant is completed.
• Revised 2010-11 application forms for grant funding required applicants to describe intended or anticipated outcomes. This approach is being incorporated into funding opportunities as they are rolled out under the program architecture renewal.
• At the December 2010 biannual meeting with university vice-presidents (SSHRC Leaders), there was a review of combined strategies for designing, monitoring and promoting research results and impacts. SSHRC Leaders promote SSHRC priorities at the highest institutional levels and assist in aligning institutional research activities with these priorities.
• A performance measurement strategy was developed for SSHRC’s program architecture renewal, and will provide the basis for SSHRC’s overall performance measurement framework.

Since 2006, SSHRC has been improving its corporate management, strengthening its governance structure, reconfiguring its council committees and aligning its internal governance with an integrated corporate management framework. These changes enable a more streamlined and rigorous approach to corporate planning, and enhance SSHRC’s effectiveness as an organization that serves the needs of Canadians. In 2010-11 SSHRC acted to ensure that its human resources and financial planning were integrated into the corporate management framework by:

• implementing a council performance survey and developing an action plan for the governing council;
• improving processes and tools related to the management of the Grants and Scholarships budget;
• as part of Human Resources’ People Strategy, developing a new Union-Management Consultation Framework (including terms of reference and a multi-year planning agenda); and implementing a leadership development stream with mandatory management training, along with tools for executive leadership competencies, performance management and executive succession planning;
• developing and implementing a corporate risk management framework that provides for the regular assessment, mitigation and monitoring of risks to operations; and
• developing and implementing processes for integrated planning and the production
  of an organizational business plan.

Two-thirds of Canada’s postsecondary student population (including 64,740 full-time graduate students) study in the humanities and social sciences. The provision of scholarships and fellowships to graduate-level students is a direct way to support the development of the best and brightest research talent. People with graduate degrees in the social sciences and humanities have research skills that provide Canada with a highly qualified workforce in academia and in the knowledge and service sectors that is fundamental to success in the 21st century.

In 2010-11, SSHRC awarded scholarships and fellowships to 1,500 full-time master’s students and 930 doctoral candidates, enabling them to receive research training in a variety of fields, and gain skills and experience that will help them build successful careers in all sectors of society.

SSHRC also administered the Canada Research Chairs Program on behalf of SSHRC, CIHR and NSERC. Through salary and research funding for university research professorships, the program attracted and retained the best and most productive researchers within Canadian postsecondary institutions. These researchers, in turn, attracted and supported the best and most promising new scholars and graduate students. By cultivating research excellence in Canadian universities and colleges, the program has branded Canada as a top destination for research.

Following on Budget 2008, SSHRC initiated planning and implementation of the Canada Excellence Research Chairs Program.

Together with CIHR and NSERC, SSHRC implemented the federal government’s flagship Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships program.

Notable successes in 2010-11 included the following:

• In 2010-11, the provision of direct support of students and postdoctoral researchers increased to $117 million from $115 million in 2009-10.
• Since 2006-07, the number of postdoctoral fellowships and awards has increased 30 per cent, with a 38 per cent increase in demand over the same period.
• At the end of November 2010, there were 1,845 active Canada Research Chairs at 72 universities across Canada, in all discipline areas. Of these positions, 30 per cent were filled by researchers recruited from abroad, including 256 Canadian expatriates. At that time, 400 (22 per cent) of the active Canada Research Chairs were in the social sciences and humanities, and therefore funded by SSHRC. A total of 310 new or renewed Chairs in all disciplines were announced in 2010-11.
• In 2010-11, the second year of the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships program, the three federal research granting agencies finished harmonizing the resources and mechanisms for delivery of the program, achieved the full uptake of 500 awards by awarding 200 new Vanier scholarships (including SSHRC’s share of 58 awards), and established a common Vanier website.

SSHRC’s investments in research result in the creation of new knowledge. As Canada increasingly recognizes the importance of knowledge as a commodity, and as world economies become increasingly knowledge-based, SSHRC’s support of research achievements reflects the commitments in the federal government’s science, technology and innovation agenda.

SSHRC’s program activities support and advance postsecondary institution-based research. Grants awarded to top researchers build a store of knowledge that allows Canada to respond to the forces of change—social, political, cultural and economic.

In 2010-11:

• SSHRC awarded 1,276 research grants to scholars to perform world-class research at postsecondary institutions across Canada. Through a strategic focus on specific themes, SSHRC funding contributed to guiding Canada’s research capacity to address social and economic challenges and to maximize the country’s competitive advantage. SSHRC also indirectly invests in People through research grants where students and postdoctoral fellows are supported as part of research projects.
• SSHRC’s overall investment in the direct costs of research decreased marginally from the previous year, to nearly $133 million from $135 million.
• The competition for Standard Research Grants—SSHRC’s largest research grant funding opportunity—received 2,749 applications and awarded 984 grants, slightly more than last year.
• SSHRC’s efforts to encourage the work of emerging researchers continued, including through awarding 198 one-year grants to new scholars.

A knowledge-based society requires effective and productive interaction and collaboration between those who perform research and those who use it (i.e., knowledge mobilization). SSHRC’s support of knowledge exchange, dissemination, translation and outreach created connections between the research community and the larger community.

Grants enable the exchange of ideas and foster an entrepreneurial attitude towards research results, thereby supporting Canada’s transition to a knowledge-based society. SSHRC awarded 270 grants, totalling slightly more than $8.5 million, to researchers and institutions to carry out activities supporting direct and effective implementation of research and research results, including:

• 43 Public Outreach Grants to carry out research with and exchange results with audiences likely to benefit from research results (e.g., policy-makers, business leaders, community leaders, educators and members of the media); and
• more than 220 grants to support research workshops and conferences to disseminate and exchange research results to wider audiences.

Institutions funded by the Indirect Costs Program used their grants largely for management and administration, and for research facilities. Combined, these two categories have accounted for two-thirds of total spending since the program’s inception. The distribution of funds among the five expenditure areas has remained fairly stable since the program’s inception, with a gradual increase in the proportion of funds allotted to regulatory requirements and accreditation, as well as to management and administration, offset by a similar decline in the proportion spent on resources and facilities.

In 2010-11, SSHRC, on behalf of the three federal research funding agencies, allocated $329.4 million in Indirect Costs grants to more than 140 eligible Canadian postsecondary institutions.

SSHRC is small in terms of the number of employees and its salary and non-salary budget. Over the past 15 years, there has been a conscious effort to keep operating envelopes lean. This, in turn, has maximized the value and impact of the grants and scholarships programs for the social sciences and humanities community.

Operating expenditures were also greatly assisted by the involvement of external experts who voluntarily contributed their time in 2010-11 to the peer review process of grant and scholarship applications. These services alone were valued at approximately $5 million annually.

SSHRC’s lean operating budget has been assisted by the shared management services arrangement between NSERC and SSHRC. This year, SSHRC spent four per cent of its overall budget on operating costs, making 96 per cent of its budget available directly to researchers and institutions across Canada to support university- and college-based research and training in the humanities and social sciences.

Taken together, the focus remains on continuous improvement and finding further efficiencies and savings, where possible, through streamlining, standardizing and automating systems and processes, as well as managing within government-wide budget constraint measures.