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University of Regina receives 1.42 million dollar grant
by Holly McKenzie
the Carillon
The University of Regina recently received a 1.42 million dollar grant for an Indirect Costs grant from the federal government.
In 2002, the university received the same grant worth 1,393,885. According to Dr. Allen Cahoon, the Vice President of Research, the fact that that the U of R’s Indirect Costs grant has increased compared with the amount of direct research grants other Canadian universities have received, means that “the University of Regina increased its success rate in receiving research grants for direct costs.”
The University of Regina receives money for the direct costs of research from the Natural Science and Engineering Council (NSERC), Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and Canadian Institute of Health and Research (CIHR).
The federal government awarded each university a percentage of money for their indirect costs based on the amount they received for direct costs and the size of the university. The smaller universities receive a larger percentage of money.
The Indirect Costs program was launched originally as a one-time initiative, but now is a permanent program.
Indirect costs for research involve everything which comes with research and the research facility, from lighting to administration.
According to Janet Campbell, research administrator at the University of Regina, this will benefit the students because, “If we get money from the federal government for indirect costs of our research, we do not have to use as much of the money we receive from the provincial government.”
The amount of research that the University of Regina does has increased four-fold over the last three years.
According to Cahoon, this benefits students at the University of Regina because “the professors get excited about research and this energy transfers into their teaching.”
He continues, “When I was an undergrad student I remember beginning to consider attending graduate school because of one of my professor’s excitement about their research.”
Although the university has increased the amount of research it does, Cahoon says “[The University of Regina] has always had a reputation as a good liberal arts education facility. Now, we have a reputation as a good-quality targeted research facility.” He continues, “However, we don’t want to give up one for another.”
Due to the fact that education is a provincial jurisdiction, the only way the federal government can contribute to post-secondary education is through research grants.
According to Cahoon, there are more acknowledgements for the university on the horizon.
Campbell says, “[The University of Regina] is a very exciting place to be right now.”
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