CFI's big Budget win will maintain and grow nation's research infrastructure for years to come

The federal budget's $1.33-billion allocation to the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) represents the single largest disbursement in the organization's 18-year-old history. Beginning in FY17-18 and spread over six years, the funding goes a long way to capitalizing many of the CFI's existing funds while allowing ample time to consult, plan and hold future competitions.

"We're delighted in many ways," says Dr Giles Patry, CFI's president and CEO. "The announcement provides assurance that the government understands that infrastructure is critically important. But it doesn't mean we won't go back to government in a few years ... In 2017 or 2018 we will expect another announcement. The $1.33 billion will not be able to sustain the full spectrum of funds we have."

In the coming weeks and months, CFI and government officials will discuss the funding envelopes to be capitalized with the new money, likely to include competitions for the Major Science Initiatives fund, the Innovation Fund and cyberinfrastructure.

The Budget announcement marks the eleventh time the government has provided the CFI with funding for a total of $6.74 billion since its inception in 1997 (R$, March 12/97). More than half of that funding was allocated in large, year-end lump sums, meaning the CFI was able to generate hundreds of millions more in interest.

Unlike the granting councils, the CFI does not provide grants but pays institutions in installments once the infrastructure is built and delivered. Given the length of time between a project's inception and completion, funds from several Budget awards are being disbursed at any one time.

The overlapping nature of the CFI's funding stream has been lost on some observers and media. They have reported that the latest six-year allocation will result in lower annual disbursements than the CFI has made in the past. Patry says such assertions are incorrect.

"We're disbursing funds from three, four or even five funding agreements in any one year," says Patry. "It's a mistake to say we will not disburse funds at previous levels. CFI disburses between $400 million and $450 million at steady state."

Digital research Infrastructure

The latest CFI funding announcement is also good news for Compute Canada and digital research infrastructure (DRI) in Canada. The Budget announced that $100 million in CFI funds will target DRI, including hardware and data management. The CFI's unallocated interest income will provide $25 million, with $65 million coming from the latest funding announcement. With another $50 million already in the field, DRI will receive $140 million in CFI funds, which covers 40% of successful projects.

"That works out to $320 million in cyberinfrastructure and data management. It's very exciting," says Patry. "Compute Canada has $30 million already labelled for them and up to $20 million more for data management. Then we'll launched the next $100 million in the next year or two."

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CFI Funding Process.pdf

Budget announcements 1997-2015.pdf