I have mentioned before that my very first co-op work term during university was doing research.
I spent the better part of a year working out the details of a synthetic route to anthraquinone. This is a substance that is still produced by the process that we developed and used by the pulp and paper industry, among others.
I also spent time working with other companies, including Ballard Research, now Ballard Power Systems a world leader in hydrogen fuel cell technology. At that time, we were researching lithium batteries - the sort now used in modern electronic devices.
It was a fascinating experience and a chance to do cutting-edge industrial and intellectual research. I was offered a chance to stay with the company after I finished my B.Sc. but chose to go back to university to pursue a Ph.D. in electron transfer kinetics.
Why mention all of this? Because I hope that it establishes, to some extent, my credentials to talk about both university and industrial-based research. Research is something that I have lived for a long time.
Research, particularly at universities, is sometimes viewed as being "a luxury," "unnecessary," "pie in the sky" or "only useful within the ivory tower."
There is an impression that researchers spend their time talking about esoteric subjects with little value to the "real world."
Indeed, I can't count the number of times that I have been told that I don't understand the "real world" - mostly by people with little understanding of the role that research, in all its forms, plays in their life.
So a simple example: the superconducting magnets that were invented for the atom smashing Fermilab where they investigate sub-atomic physics allowed for the development of Magnetic Resonance Imaging spectroscopy or MRI. Yes, if you or a loved one has ever had an MRI, you can thank a bunch of stuffy physicists interested in muon decay.
The federal government wants to appear as if they understand this. Consider the following passage from the recent throne speech:
"In order to improve Canada's productivity, enhance our economic competitiveness and increase our standard of living, our government will continue to make targeted investments to promote and encourage research and development in Canada's private sector and in our universities, colleges and polytechnics. It will look for ways to support innovation while ensuring that federal investment in research and development is effective and maximizes results for Canadians."
Or this passage earlier in the same text: "Our government's plan builds on five years of hard work to create the right conditions for growth and job creation: a stable, predictable, low-tax environment; a highly-skilled and flexible workforce; support for innovation and new technologies; and wider access to markets abroad. This approach has allowed Canada to meet the challenges of the global recession. The next phase of our government's plan is designed to help us stay on track during the recovery."
It is the inclusion a "highly-skilled and flexible workforce" and "support for innovation" that I want to emphasize. These both critically depend on a higher education system, and on universities that have the ability to employ the best researchers to pursue knowledge that will lead to technological development - to new technologies.
Research lies at the heart of remaining a developed nation - whether a better way to utilize wood waste or to make blocked co-polymers or design LED displays.
So, it is disappointing when we look at the federal budget and realize that research has, again, been given the short end of the stick. Despite the rhetoric, the Conservatives are not putting their money where their mouth is.
If anything, quite the opposite. One of the major funding agencies in this country for research is the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council or NSERC. This year, NSERC is scheduled to get a $15 million dollar increase in its budget.
Don't get me wrong - that is a lot of money.
But over the past five years this level of funding has meant that NSERC has only had an increase of about 7 per cent in its budget - despite more researchers, higher costs, more students and costly targeted programs.
All of this might seem a little irrelevant but to bring it home, 46 per cent of those researchers applying for renewal of their funding at UNBC this year were not successful. That means programs of research terminated and students unable to finish their graduate work. And just to put things in perspective, the average grant at UNBC was around $30,000 per year. This is not saving millions of dollars - not even close.
If the government is sincerely interested in an innovation economy, then it is time to put its money where its mouth is and start funding research properly again.
