Analysis

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Estimates of Research and Development Expenditures in the Higher Education Sector, 2007/2008

Spending on research and development performed by higher education institutions which includes universities, all affiliated research hospitals, experimental stations and clinics was $10.2 billion (current dollars) in 2007/2008, a 5.8% increase over 2006/2007. In 2002 constant dollars this amounted to $8.8 billion, a 2.7% increase over the previous year and an 85% rise from 1998/1999 (table 1).

There are six sectors funding research and development expenditures 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 $4.6 billion (current dollars), a 3.1% increase over 2006/2007. The higher education sector's presence at 45% of 2007/2008 total expenditures, has fallen from 1994/1995 when its share was 52% (table 1).

In 2007/2008, the second largest funding sector for higher education expenditures on research and development remained the federal government at $2.7 billion, up 9.4% from the previous year. The federal government contributed 27% of total funding in 2007/2008, an increase from a decade earlier when federal funding comprised one-fifth of total spending on R&D in the higher education sector (table 1).

The provincial government sector contributed $1.0 billion towards spending on higher education research and development in 2007/2008 an increase of 4.2% over the previous year. The provincial government's share increased from 8.5% of total higher education R&D expenditures in 1998/1999 to 10% in 2007/2008 (table 1).

Funding from the business enterprise and the private non-profit sectors rose, with both contributing near 9% of total higher education expenditures on R&D. Foreign sector funding remained at 1%. The business enterprise and private non-profit sector's share of total R&D funding to the higher education sector was basically unchanged from 1998/1999 (table 1).

Estimates of R&D expenditures in the higher education sector are allocated by three science types: social sciences and humanities; health sciences; and natural sciences and engineering excluding health sciences (or other natural sciences).

In 2007/2008 spending on research and development by the higher education sector in the social sciences and humanities amounted to $2.1 billion, a 7.9% increase from 2006/2007. Health sciences stood at $4.0 billion, up 6.2% from the previous year. Other natural sciences and engineering increased 4.5% to $4.1 billion in 2007/2008 (tables 2, 5, 6, 7)

Just over two thirds of total R&D spending in the higher education sector occurred in Ontario (42%) and Quebec (26%) in 2007/2008. Comparatively, about one-quarter of total R&D expenditures in the higher education sector was performed in the Prairies (15%) and British Columbia (11%), with the remainder in the Atlantic Provinces (6%) (table 3).