Western University researchers won record $268M in funding last year

Article content

Western University broke its own research funding records in 2021, topping previous year’s total by 13 per cent, officials say.

Altogether, $267.6 million was awarded to disciplines across campus to study everything from the pandemic’s impact on education and climate risk sustainability to gender-based violence and infectious disease, said Lesley Rigg, Western’s vice-president of research.

“The success we have comes from the passion of the researchers, the support we have in place, and the energy on campus that leads to that creativity,” Rigg said. “The ideas and creativity of researchers and scholars on campus is what drives it.”

Much of the research money received is government-backed, she said, but there’s also money available from foundations, industry and individual donors.

“Research is always above and beyond the operating funds of a university,” Rigg said.

A team of 140 people spend their days working behind the scenes, writing proposals to drum up research dollars, among other things.

“People on our team do everything from filing for patents to evaluating research proposals to helping researchers and our scholars with how to translate what they have into something . . . understandable to others,” Rigg said. “We have a whole group that works on community and industry partnerships, visiting with companies who may want to work with researchers.”

Last year, Western scored its biggest federal funding award yet, winning $60 million from the government-backed Tri-Agency.

The school also received a record $7.6 million in citywide licensing income through WORLDiscoveries, a Western department that makes money from licensing and new company startups.

But filing a funding proposal doesn’t mean you’ll get it, Rigg said. “Success rates can be very low . . . Often less than 10 per cent of those who apply get the funds.”

Research funding also supports graduate students, cutting-edge facilities “and discovery in all its forms across campus,” she said.

“We have workshops for researchers looking to improve their writing and collaboration skills,” she said. “We are always evaluating equity, diversity and inclusion within the portfolio and decolonization, ensuring that excellence has a broad understanding and everyone can come to the table.

“Also up for consideration are ethics, national security and risk,” she said.

“There are so many different things researchers need – we are super busy.”

Western recently launched a strategic five-year research plan it calls Mobilize for Impact! intended to ensure Western’s research activities “have impact,” Rigg said.

HRivers@postmedia.com