Research Support Fund: Accountability and Public Acknowledgement 2023 - 2024

About the Research Support Fund Program (RSF)

Individual research awards cover the direct costs of research, including certain salaries, equipment, and supplies directly contributing to a project, but research institutions must bear the increasing costs of supporting their overall research activity with appropriate facilities, research resources, researcher salaries, management and administrative personnel, oversight of regulatory compliance and accreditation, and intellectual property management.

The Research Support Fund assists Canadian postsecondary institutions and their affiliated research hospitals and institutes with the expenses associated with managing the research funded by the three federal research granting agencies:

Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR);
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC); and
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).

Every year, the federal government invests in research excellence in the areas of health sciences, engineering, natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities through its three granting agencies. The Research Support Fund reinforces this research investment by helping institutions ensure that their federally funded research projects are conducted in world-class facilities with the best equipment and administrative support available.

Eligible institutions receive an annual grant through the fund to help pay for a portion of the central and departmental administrative costs related to federally funded research.

What costs does the program support?

Examples of costs supported by the program are:

salaries for staff or students who provide administrative support for researchers and their projects;
training costs for workplace health and safety;
costs related to the maintenance of libraries and laboratories; and
Administrative costs associated with getting a patent for an invention.

About the RSF Program

Affiliated Organizations: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives- Manitoba

AREAS OF INVESTMENT

The Research Support Fund grant is critical to the success of the University’s research undertakings. Major areas of past and present investment include:

Research Software Solutions: Web-based software for data collection and management, teambuilding and collaborations has become indispensable to research and its importance has never been more pronounced than during the COVID-19 pandemic. By licensing and managing these tools centrally with the help of the Research Support Fund, the University of Winnipeg is building cutting edge and resilient research programs, while ensuring data security.

Vivarium: The University of Winnipeg Vivarium is a 7500 square foot facility housing traditional model organisms and wildlife for research. The complex includes living spaces, a surgery suite and biocontainment zone adapted to studies of behavior, physiology and infectious disease. The Vivarium’s residents are monitored daily by animal care technicians who also support research initiatives, including nutritional studies to aquatic ecology and physiology, evolutionary biology and endangered species conservation. As new research projects emerge, it is important to continually invest in this research facility to ensure that researchers have the equipment required to safely and humanely conduct their research.

Library: The Library has focused on sustaining resources responsibly through assessment and increased dialogue with faculty about their needs in the short and long term. The Library continues to work toward sustainable access to resources through supporting Open Access practices and investing in Open Access infrastructure, including Erudit/Coalition Publi.ca, Scoap3 and our Institutional Repository, WinnSpace. These investments benefit the UW community by promoting trustworthy and respected open access resources to our faculty and students, and supporting the infrastructure that sustains them. In addition, in order to be compliant with emerging requirements on research data management and storage, the capacity of the Library continues to grow to support researchers in their data planning needs.

Financial Services Upgrades: The University continues to offer online and personal training for users of the financial system, Microsoft Dynamics NAV and reporting software, Prophix. Award functionality includes multi-year reporting with enhanced non-financial information attached. Through NAV, researchers have instant access to their award balances and reporting tools designed to improve analytical abilities. Continual upgrades are resulting in faster, more accurate, and more efficient services for researchers and research administration staff. Research accounting personnel are able to handle the increasing volume of research grants awarded with enhanced ability for financial analysis and reporting. Research Accounting has created a research accounting website with training videos and documents, research related forms and policies, etc. Research Accounting also provided multiple webinars for the University research community to equip people with the knowledge and skills to effectively manage grant funds and continues to work with the Research Office to develop more resources to support research fund oversight.

Research Support: As the University’s research funding in the past decade has tripled, the University of Winnipeg’s goal is to strengthen our capacity to provide relevant research support to faculty members. This included hiring new staff to support research-related infrastructure projects, a research-focused lawyer and legal assistant, and staff dedicated to providing research program development specifically focused on equity, diversity, inclusion, and decolonization practices. The Research Office continually seeks ways in which it can better support researchers while maintaining its capacity to develop and administer increasing numbers of successful grant and ethics applications.

UNIVERSITY OF WINNIPEG 2023 -2024 ALLOCATION OF RSF FUNDS

Expenditure Categories	Dollar Amount
Research Facilities 23% Renovation & maintenance of research facilities, upgrades and maintenance of research equipment and other devices, operating costs, and technical support for labs, offices and other facilities.	$442,651
Research Resources 30.5% Acquisition of library holdings, improved information resources, library operating costs and administration, and insurance on research equipment and vehicles.	$586,993
Management and administration of the institution's research enterprise 39.5% Support for the completion of grant applications/research proposals, acquisition, maintenance and/or upgrade of information systems to track grant applications, certificates and awards, training of faculty and research personnel, human resources and payroll, financial and audit costs, contracts and legal, research planning and promotion, and public relations.	$760,205
Regulatory Requirements & Accreditation 5% Support of regulatory bodies, relevant training of research community, international accreditation costs, upgrades and maintenance of research facilities to meet regulatory requirements, technical support for animal care and handling of hazardous substances, and the purchase of animals exclusively for training purposes (not research).	$96,228
Intellectual Property 2% Creation, expansion or sustenance of a technology transfer office or similar function, administration of invention patent applications, support for technology licensing, administration of agreements and partnerships with industry, development of incubators, support for the creation of spin-off companies, certain public outreach activities, and marketing of teaching materials, scientific photo libraries, data sets, and other tools for knowledge transfer.	$38,491
TOTAL:	$1,924,568
Research Security Enhance the University of Winnipeg’s ability to identify, assess and mitigate the potential risks to research security by: Uncover existing strengths, including conducting an environmental scan to determine what resources (people, departments, infrastructure, technology, etc.) currently support research security at the University of Winnipeg and other similar institutions. Enhance supportive services, using the information from the environmental scan. Create guidance and learning opportunities about research security best practices for the research community at the University. Invest in security-related technology and infrastructure	$33,065