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Estimates of Research and Development Expenditures in the Higher Education Sector, 2006/2007

Spending on research and development in the higher education sector amounted to $9.6 billion in 2006/2007 (table 1-1).

Spending on research and development by higher education institutions which includes all affiliated research hospitals, experimental stations and clinics is distributed by three science types: social sciences and humanities; health sciences; and natural sciences and engineering excluding health sciences (or other natural sciences).

In 2006/2007 spending on research and development by the higher education sector in the social sciences and humanities amounted to $1.9 billion; health sciences stood at $3.8 billion and other natural sciences at $3.9 billion (table 1-2).

There are six funding sectors for spending on research and development in the higher education sector: the federal government; the provincial government; the business enterprise; the higher education; private non-profit organizations and foreign.

The higher education institutions themselves continued as the largest contributors to research and development done by this sector, spending $4.4 billion (46%) in 2006/2007 up by 2.1% over 2005/2006 (table 1-1).

In 2006/2007, the second largest funding sector for higher education expenditures on research and development remained the federal government at $2.5 billion, or 26% of total higher education expenditures on research and development (table 1-1).

The provincial government sector contributed 10% of the funding for spending on higher education research and development in 2006/2007 while business enterprises and private non-profit organizations each contributed 8%. Foreign organizations continued to fund 1% of higher education expenditures on research and development in 2006/2007 (table 1-1).

There is a strong regional pattern in the higher education sector’s research and development expenditures, due to the heavy concentration of institutions in Quebec and Ontario. These two provinces accounted for two-thirds or $6.6 billion of the $9.6 billion expenditures in 2006/2007 (table 1-3).

Spending on research and development in higher education institutions in Saskatchewan has been declining since fiscal year 2002/2003 to $215 million in 2006/2007 (table 1-4).