About the Research Support Fund
Indirect costs of research are departmental, faculty, and/or institutional costs that are not attributable to specific research projects, but that are incurred by Concordia University of Edmonton (CUE) as it supports research activities undertaken by faculty members and students.
The Research Support Fund (RSF) is a Tri-Agency initiative that assists Canadian postsecondary institutions with the costs associated with research enterprise management.
For example, the RSF can be used to:
- maintain labs and equipment;
- provide access to knowledge resources;
- provide research management and administrative support;
- meet regulatory and ethical standards; and/or
- transfer knowledge from academia to the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors.
Expenditure Areas
Institutions have flexibility in deciding how to use the RSF grant, provided that the funds are used for the payment of current expenditures attributed to federally-sponsored research that falls within the following five categories:
- Research facilities
- Research resources
- Management and administration of an institution’s research enterprise
- Regulatory requirements and accreditation
- Intellectual property and knowledge mobilization
CUE’s Research Support Fund Allocation
CUE’s annual RSF allocation is calculated via a formula which includes the amount of funding received by CUE and its researchers from the three federal research-granting agencies (CIHR, NSERC, and SSHRC) over the past three years.
At CUE, the funding from this program is currently used to cover expenditures in the Management and Administration category.
The RSF allocation assists primarily with funding salary and benefits costs incurred by the Office of Research and Innovation (ORI).
The RSF enables the ORI to:
- provide assistance and support to CUE researchers,
- promote individual and collaborative research proposals, and
- increase the number of grant applications processed by CUE.
| Fiscal Year | Allocation | Expenditure area | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-2024 | $74,217 | Management and administration of an institution’s research enterprise | Research Support Funds provide salary support and benefits for the Research Officer, and assist in delivering administrative support for researchers and their projects. |
| 2022-2023 | $81,589 | Management and administration of an institution’s research enterprise | Research Support Funds provide salary support and benefits for the Research Officer, and assist in delivering administrative support for researchers and their projects. |
| 2021-2022 | $71,918 | Management and administration of an institution’s research enterprise | Research Support Funds provide salary support and benefits for the Research Officer, and assist in delivering administrative support for researchers and their projects. |
| 2020-2021 | $53,599 | Management and administration of an institution’s research enterprise | Research Support Funds provide salary support and benefits for the Research Officer, and assist in delivering administrative support for researchers and their projects. |
| 2019-2020 | $48,959 | Management and administration of an institution’s research enterprise | Research Support Funds provide salary support and benefits for the Research Officer position in the Office of Research and Innovation. Funds also contributed to the administrative support for researchers and their projects. |
| 2018-2019 | $37,848 | Management and administration of an institution’s research enterprise | Research Support Funds provided salary support and benefits for the Research Officer position in the Office of Research and Innovation, to deliver administrative support for researchers and their projects. |
| 2017-2018 | $38,726 | Management and administration of an institution’s research enterprise | Research Support Funds assisted in providing the resources to the university for creating/adding a Research Officer position to the Office of Research and Innovation. |
CUE continues to use its RSF allocation to assist its researchers and support institutional research infrastructure.
The RSF has allowed CUE to allocate funds, which would otherwise be used to cover indirect research expenses, to other institutional initiatives and needs.
The Research Support Fund has been of great benefit to CUE.