Research Support Fund

Public Acknowledgment

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Every year, the Government of Canada invests in research excellence in the areas of health sciences, engineering, natural sciences, social sciences and humanities through its three granting agencies: Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. The Research Support Fund (RSF) reinforces this research investment by helping institutions ensure that their federally funded research projects are conducted in world-class facilities with the best equipment and administrative support available.

Eligible institutions receive an annual grant through the RSF to help pay for a portion of the central and departmental administrative costs related to federally funded research, also known as the indirect costs of research. These are the operational costs that underpin the university's research activities which are not attributable to specific research projects. Examples of such costs include, but are not limited to, heating, lighting, ethics reviews, facilities for animals used in research, management of intellectual property, environmental assessment and safety compliance ¹.

Grant Allocation in 2022-2023

Institutions have flexibility in deciding how to use their grant, provided that the funds are used for the payment of current expenditures of indirect costs attributed to federally sponsored research that falls within the following five categories:

Research facilities;
Research resources;
Management and administration of an institution's research enterprise;
Regulatory requirements and accreditation; and
Intellectual property and Knowledge mobilization.

The amount of Laurentian University’s grant is calculated using an algorithm based on the amount of funding awarded in the previous fiscal year by federal granting agencies to Laurentian University and affiliated researchers. According to this calculation, in 2022-2023, Laurentian will receive a grant of $1,887,604 which will be allocated in the five categories as explained below.

Expenditure Categories	Amounts ($)	Overall % of Investment
Facilities	$632,347	33.5 %
Intellectual Property & Knowledge Mobilization	$35,865	1.9 %
Management & Administration	$600,258	31.8 %
Resources	$462,463	24.5 %
Regulatory Requirement and Accreditation	$156,671	8.3 %

Laurentian invests funds in facilities to support and maintain laboratories and other research spaces across campus. These funds help ensure that researchers can rely on a research space where they can discover and innovate.

A significant portion of the grant is allocated to research resources to ensure that up to date, relevant materials are available to support research and training at the undergraduate, graduate, and faculty levels. Maintaining a library is at the very core of an institution as it is a repository of knowledge and an academic foundation for the research enterprise.

Management and administration funds support salaries and benefits of staff in the Office of Research Services and in the Financial Services Office. These teams are central services that facilitate and administer, pre- and post-award functions supporting research initiatives.

Regulatory requirements and accreditation funds support Animal Care Certification and Research Ethics staff to proactively meet compliance issues. These efforts help minimize risk to researchers and to the University, and help ensure that research funds are used only on projects that meet regulatory and other compliance guidelines.

Funds expended on the management of intellectual property allow for the successful execution of contracts and agreements when working with sponsored research and industry.

Affiliated Hospitals or Health Research Institutes

Outcomes for 2021-2022

Eligible Expenditure Category	Output	Institutional Performance Objective	Performance Indicator	Target Outcome	Anticipated Outcomes Reported at Year-End	Outcomes
1. Facilities	Invest a portion of the RSF grant to maintain research laboratories to support new and ongoing research.	Maintain current research laboratory space by maintaining laboratories to support new and ongoing research.	Number of laboratories maintained in Fiscal Year (FY) 2021-2022.	No decrease in usable laboratory space due to lack of maintenance.	Number of laboratories maintained in FY 2021-2022, compared to 2020-2021.	No decrease in usable laboratory space due to lack of maintenance.
2. Resources	Invest a portion of the RSF to support library resources.	Continue to support library research holdings and subscriptions.	Same proportion of the RSF funding contributed to library resources as in FY 2020-2021.	Same level of support to the library from the RSF compared to FY 2020-2021.	Number of library research holdings and subscriptions in FY 2021-2022 compared to 2020-2021.	Same level of support to the library from the RSF in FY 2021-2022 compared to FY 2020-2021.
3. Management and administration of an institution’s research enterprise	Invest a portion of the RSF grant to improve research administration support by enhancement to the ROMEO system and additional training for research services staff	Improve service supports for researchers uploading applications to ROMEO	Improved user experience with the ROMEO system.	Decreased number of concerns with ROMEO reported to the Office of Research Services (ORS) and Vice-President Research	Improved user experience with ROMEO in FY 2021-2022 compared to FY 2020-2021.	Staff in ORS have improved training and are able to provide improved ROMEO services for researchers.
4. Regulatory Requirements	Invest a portion of the RSF funding to support the operation of the Research Ethics Board (REB) and the Animal Care Committee (ACC).	Continued support of the REB and the ACC compliance activities.	Same proportion of the RSF funding contributed to maintenance of support to the REB and the ACC as in FY 2020-2021.	No decrease in support to the REB and ACC compared to FY 2020-2021.	Level of support for the REB and the ACC in FY 2021-2022 compared to FY 2020-2021.	No decrease in support to the REB and ACC in FY 2021-20212 compared to FY 2020-2021.
5. Intellectual Property and Knowledge Mobilization	Invest a portion of the RSF funding to support intellectual property (IP) management and partnership development.	Sustain capacity to provide IP management and partnership development.	Number of private and public sector partnered projects and partnerships.	Increase in private and public sector partnered projects and partnerships over FY 2020-2021.	Number of private and public sector partnered projects and partnerships in FY 2021-2022 compared to FY 2020-2021.	Resources maintained to support IP management and partnership development.

Performance Goals 2022–2023

Eligible Expenditure Category	Output	Institutional Performance Objective	Performance Indicator	Target Outcome	Anticipated Outcomes Reported at Year-End
1. Facilities	Invest a portion of the RSF grant to maintain research facilities that support new and ongoing research.	Maintaining research facilities to support new and ongoing research.	Number of research facilities maintained in Fiscal Year (FY) 2022-2023.	No decrease in usable research facility space due to lack of maintenance.	Number of research facilities maintained in FY 2022-2023, compared to FY 2021-2022.
2. Resources	Invest a portion of the RSF to support library resources.	Continue to support library research holdings and subscriptions.	Same proportion of the RSF funding contributed to library resources as in FY 2021-2022.	Same level of support to the library from the RSF compared to FY 2021-2022.	Same proportion of the RSF funding contributed to library resources in FY 2022-2023 as in FY 2021-2022.
3. Management and administration of an institution’s research enterprise	Invest a portion of the RSF grant to improve research administration support, to enhance training of administrative staff and to maintain the ROMEO cloud system.	Improve the user experience with the ROMEO system.	Improved service levels of staff in the Office of Research Services (ORS) stemming from additional training on the Romeo system.	Fewer user complaints with the ROMEO system due to system improvement and service from ORS staff due to additional ROMEO training.	Fewer user complaints from users of ROMEO in FY 2022-2023 compared to FY 2021-2022.
4. Regulatory Requirements	Invest a portion of the RSF funding to support the operation of the Research Ethics Board (REB) and the Animal Care Committee (ACC).	Continued support of the REB and the ACC compliance activities.	Same proportion of the RSF funding contributed to maintenance and support for the REB and the ACC as in FY 2021-2022.	No decrease in support to the REB and ACC compared to FY 2021-2022.	Level of support for the REB and the ACC in FY 2022-2023 maintained compared to FY 2021-2022.
5. Intellectual Property and Knowledge Mobilization	Invest a portion of the RSF funding to support intellectual property (IP) management, partnership development and knowledge mobilization activities.	Sustain capacity to provide IP management and partnership development support. Maintain support for knowledge mobilization activities.	Same proportion of RSF funding to support IP management, partnership development and mobilization activities.	Maintain support for IP management, partnership development and mobilization activities compared to FY 2021-2022.	Level of support maintained in FY 2022-2023 compared to FY 2021-2022 with an increase in the number of knowledge mobilization activities (including education activities and industry outreach).

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