Thank you very much.
Good evening, Madam Chair and honourable members. I appreciate the opportunity to address you as part of this important study on how best to attract and retain science and research talent in Canada's post-secondary institutions.
I'm the CEO at Polytechnics Canada, a not-for-profit association representing 13 research-intensive, publicly funded polytechnics and institutes of technology. Collectively, our members provide education and training to more than 370,000 learners each year. Polytechnic institutions across Canada mobilize state-of-the-art facilities, equipment and expertise to deliver solutions to partners across industrial and social sectors, always in partnership and often with the help of student talent. As a result, institutions have a flexible and agile applied research infrastructure that adapts to the unique requirements of a partner and their project.
To give you some context, last year, polytechnics conducted more than 3,700 applied research projects with 2,600 industry partners. More than 23,000 students contributed to these projects, which included the development of more than 3,300 prototypes. Member institutions deployed nearly $39 million in federal funding and leveraged another $61.9 million from other sources. This essentially means they were able to secure $1.58 for every $1.00 that was invested by the federal government.
When it comes to attracting and retaining research talent, it is important to understand how polytechnics and colleges differ from their university colleagues. Research is largely undertaken by expert faculty who bring industry experience to their teaching careers. Research is not built into the formula of an instructor's time; it is absolutely extracurricular. This can pose real challenges, because academics who participate in applied research need to be backfilled in the classroom.
Attracting and retaining research talent comes with some fundamental challenges. Less than 5% of all federal investments in post-secondary research are allocated to this sector. If you're a researcher, this balance of funding sends a pretty clear message that you should go elsewhere, yet the type of research required by Canada's private sector—projects that support prototype development, commercialization, productivity improvements and job creation—is desperately needed. This calls for a rebalancing of funding formulas.
Applied research projects take a special kind of talent. They're people who understand industry challenges and develop pragmatic solutions in partnership, yet polytechnics do this work in a funding environment that's stacked against them. For example, while the college sector is technically eligible under the Canadian research chair program, allocations are based on funding received from tri-councils in the previous year. The college and community innovation program, which is the major and often only source of federal research funding, is excluded from this calculation.
The evaluation of Canada research chair applications is built around a history of publications and participation in peer review committees, but neither is an outcome associated with college applied research. Further, the peer review process inherently favours university researchers. When we've looked at why our members are successful in competitions, we've found that at least one member of the application review committee had a college affiliation, so populating those research review committees with individuals with knowledge of the polytechnic and college sector space is essential to ensuring equitable participation.
With challenges like that in mind, I have three broad recommendations for your consideration.
The first is appropriate funding that needs to be available to support polytechnic applied research. The ecosystem is under dire financial pressure. For example, the COVID rapid response grant for colleges was unable to support 71% of eligible projects, leaving 164 partners behind. While the number of partners on applications under the college and community innovation program has steadily increased since 2016, it hasn't kept up. In 2020, 715 partners could not be accommodated due to grant constraints.
Second, the peer review process must be adjusted to ensure the inclusion of people who have a solid understanding of polytechnic and college applied research.
Finally, it's time to end the exemption across tri-council funding formulas of the college and community innovation program. Now well past its pilot phase, this program has become integral to delivering private sector innovation, and its exclusion has pushed polytechnics and colleges to the periphery of the research ecosystem. I would say that's not a great place from which to attract top talent—