My name is Robert Poulin, and I'm an administrator for the same association.
Our second recommendation has to do with indirect costs. For colleges, that means expenditures that were not associated with one project in particular. Such expenditures include the cost of managing and administering research activities, research facilities, research resources, and the regulatory requirements and standards that colleges must meet in order to be eligible for the various programs offered by the three councils. They also include the cost of managing and administering intellectual property and knowledge mobilization.
If the institutions were to receive money to cover their indirect research costs, they would be in a better position to help businesses at every stage, including research, technology transfer to businesses, training on how the new technology works, and the marketing and production of goods. This would make Canadian businesses more competitive on international markets.
We are finding that some of the research funding programs administered by the three councils cover some of the indirect costs, but the amounts that are currently being allocated are not nearly sufficient. Take, for example, the research support fund, which was included in the last budget. The amounts granted to institutions in 2016-17 varied from $402 to $38,827 for a total of $203,487.
According to the work done by Colleges and Institutes Canada, the indirect research needs of all colleges and institutes across Canada amount to $40 million. The $203 million that Quebec colleges received in 2016-17 is far cry from the $10 million that they usually get.