Research Support Fund
The Research Support Fund (RSF) program assists Canadian post-secondary institutions and their affiliated research hospitals and Institutes with the expenses associated with managing the research funded by the three federal research granting agencies. The RSF program, formerly known as the Indirect Costs Program, is a Tri-agency initiative of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). The RSF program helps post-secondary institutions to manage the financial demands of the indirect costs of research. Indirect costs are defined as the central, faculty, departmental and/or institute cost that MRU incurs to support research but that is not attributable to specific research projects. Some examples of the costs supported by the RSF 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.
Mount Royal University applies annually to receive a grant through the RSF program to help pay for a portion of the administrative costs related to federally funded research. The amount of the grant is based on the average Tri-agency funding received by Mount Royal University in the previous three years. Mount Royal University received $82,297 in Research Support Funds in 2013-2014, $108,463 in 2014-2015, $161,183 in 2015-2016, $216,648 in 2016-2017, $223,112 in 2017-2018, $212,426 in 2018-2019, $213,289 in 2019-2020, $264,422 in 2020-2021, $331, 732 in 2021-2022 and $429,348 in 2022-2023.
For transparency, and to demonstrate the importance of the RSF program to our researchers, staff, students, community members and elected officials, this report is prepared and made public annually.
Mount Royal University's 2022-2023 Research Support Fund Report
In 2022-2023, Mount Royal University received $429,348.00 in Research Support Funds and allocated these funds to the following categories:
- Research Resources: $28,975.02
- Management and Administration: $399,165.74
- Regulatory Requirement and Accreditation: $1,207.24
2023-2024 Institutional Performance Objectives
|
Eligible Program Expenditure Category |
Output (investment or expense of RSF grant funds) |
Performance Objective |
Performance Indicator |
Target Outcome |
Reported Outcome |
|
$107,537 (20%) invested in research facilities |
Refurbishment of the Office of Research to accommodate growth and upgrades/maintenance of existing research facilities |
Faculty identification of research facility upgrade/maintenance needs |
Refurbishment complete and upgrades/maintenance complete in 2023/24 |
TBD |
|
|
$53,768.50 (10%) for research software and subscription for research resources |
Maintain and expand access to research resources for faculty |
Number of faculty accessing software and databases |
2% increase in faculty access to resources |
TBD |
|
|
Management and administration of an institution’s research enterprise |
$322,611 (60%) to enable grant-writing support, compliance, operational excellence, risk assessments, ROMEO support, training/workshops, promotion of research, research data security, EDI action plan and training. |
Continued high quality support for research, given increased research capacity and new initiatives.
|
Number of grant and award applications processed in fiscal year 2023-24 and increased success rate. Execution of EDI Action Plan and training as well as expanded research data management/security strategy. |
Increase in grant and award applications processed in 2023-24 compared to 2022-23 with slightly higher success rate. Completion of planned research strategic initiatives. |
TBD |
|
$26,884.25 (5%) for REB, Animal Care and Biosafety compliance |
Sustained regulatory compliance. |
Positive compliance record. |
Zero compliance infractions. |
TBD |
|
|
$26,884.25 (5%) for community engaged knowledge dissemination |
Increased general public awareness and engagement with MRU research and researchers |
Number of engagement and marketing activities |
1 large public event highlighting research and creation of faculty profiles for public dissemination. |
TBD |