posted on March 7: McMaster receives $7.2M one-time payment for indirect research costs

The topics aren't that snazzy: heat, lights, maintenance, computer network wiring, library archiving, managing hazardous materials.

Yet all of these areas are crucial to the day-to-day operations of a research-rich university. At a university like McMaster where $100 million worth of research was conducted last year, these indirect costs of research total millions of dollars.

The federal government recognized this cost Wednesday in awarding the University a one-time payment of $7.2 million to help pay the indirect costs associated with federally-sponsored research.

Mamdouh Shoukri, vice-president research & international affairs, thanked the federal government, including Heritage Minister Sheila Copps, who made the announcement at a campus ceremony.

“This funding will go a long way in increasing our competitiveness, not just in terms of research output, but also in terms of enhancing the quality of education and recruiting and retaining highly-qualified faculty and students in our community,” he said.

Shoukri said he was confident Copps would convince her “cabinet colleagues of the need for the on-going funding of indirect costs beyond this one-time payment.”

During a question period after the announcement, Copps said she was willing to “begin a dialogue” to ensure indirect research costs receive money annually.

“I consider this a downpayment,” she said, “and the University is certainly engaged in the process ensuring that this will be a long term commitment.”

Acting President Peter Sutherland said the money will help defray costs.

“This money couldn't have come at a better time,” he said. “We have just finished constructing a large amount of new space and this will help cover the basic costs. We're also hiring new faculty through the Canada Research Chairs program and this will help with some of the costs associated with that program.”

McMaster Students Union president Sam Minniti said student groups, such as the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations which includes the MSU as a member, had lobbied for the funding.

While undergraduate students derived benefits from the research conducted at the University, the “indirect costs of research have been offset by funds from the undergraduates,” he said. “We have felt the financial burden with respect to covering these indirect costs.”

Minniti added that he was “confident that the University will no longer need to re-route funding from the undergraduate pool” and will provide money to enhance student services.

The funding announcement was one of several made across the country this week, fulfilling a promise made by the federal government in the December 2001 budget to make a one-time $200 million investment to defray costs associated with research activities.

The distribution of funds to individual universities is based on their past federal research awards from the granting agencies – the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.