A: Building Research Capacity through Human Resources Training, Recruitment and Retention

• Although individual researchers in B.C. are highly competitive, B.C. does not have enough researchers to compete for a per capita share of the available federal funds. This makes programs to support recruitment and retention of scholars and trainees a top priority.
• More than a third of senior university faculty in B.C. will retire over the next 8-10 years. Existing budget constraints already limit the ability of universities to compete for new/replacement faculty.
• Many B.C. researchers who now hold external scholar awards from national and provincial granting or diseased organizations have no university or other confirmed salary support at the end of their non-renewable awards (terms are 4-5 years depending on source).

Human Resource Recommendations
Based on elements of the very successful model that has been developed in Alberta, these recommendations will fast track B.C.'s capacity to recruit and retain researchers and research trainees. The goal is to restore B.C.'s competitiveness for national funding within five years.

• Plan and fund a comprehensive research career path program that provides a continuum of support from trainee through junior and senior scholar to the senior scientist level. This will enable investigators who remain competitive (able to qualify for ongoing funding from external peer-review sources to support their research programs) to concentrate on a research career (have a minimum of 50 to 75 per cent of their time protected for research).
• Focus the career path program on the recruitment/development of new health researchers, not support for those already funded through universities, hospitals or research institutes.
• To address critical short term issues (e.g. market the need/value of increased support for health research and help provide solutions to issues of university retirements and scholar orphans) make it a priority over the next five years to recruit at the senior scholar and senior scientist level where the ability to leverage external funding is greatest. (Note: Average return on investment at the senior researcher/senior scholar level is four to one - four dollars raised from external sources for every dollar spent to retain the scholar).
• Over time (once critical short-term issues are resolved) adopt the Alberta start-up model as the preferred approach. Place the emphasis at the junior scholar and trainee level to attract and develop critical mass from the bottom up (grow senior scientists in the system rather than giving priority to recruiting from outside).
• Over the next five years, introduce a program of support for trainees, beginning with a focus at the level of fellows. (Fellows are the next generation of scholars and scientists - they significantly increase the productivity of research laboratories and the leveraging factor.) Extend and assign priority to recruiting for other trainee and studentship programs as critical short-term recruitment/retention issues are resolved.
• Make allocation decisions within and across the senior scientist, scholar and trainee/studentships programs according to a process of peer review based on the quality of the applications.
• Establish categories (strategic encouragement) not quotas for the allocation of funds across research sectors (basic, clinical, health services, population and community health); make allocation decisions according to a process of peer review based on the quality of the application, such that none, some, or all of the applications in a given category may be recommended for funding in a given year.
• Provide start-up funds for equipment and other program set-up requirements to strengthen recruitment packages so that B.C. can compete successfully with other jurisdictions for junior and senior researchers. Start-up funds also quicken the pace with which recruits set up their research programs and qualify for external funding, contributing to a faster return on investment.
• Provide incentives to encourage and reward scholars and scientists who compete successfully for external grant funding. For example, provide a matching grant (a percentage of the external award) to be split between the researcher/research team and the host department or institution.
• These percentages are an example of guidelines for allocating funds over the first five-year period of the program:
  20 per cent: senior scientist
  25 per cent: senior scholar
  25 per cent: junior scholar
  10 per cent: fellowship
  10 per cent: studentships
  10 per cent: start-up grants