CLS big plus for U of S, benefits entire country

By Steven Franklin, U of S Vice-President Research, and Bill Thomlinson, CLS Executive Director

Published in The StarPhoenix on Thursday, Oct. 11th

In a recent letter to the editor, local businessman Clifford Wiegers is concerned, as others might be, about opinions recently expressed by Michael Hayden (The People’s University, SP, Part 3, Sept. 15) that the synchrotron is not contributing significantly to the local economy, is a drain on the U of S, and is robbing other areas of the university of much-needed resources.

Wiegers can rest assured these unsubstantiated claims are false. They are rooted in misinformation about the project and a misunderstanding of how its operations are funded.

The CLS is a national research facility that is a key player in keeping Canada academically and industrially competitive internationally. Scientists from eight provinces and five countries have used the CLS, and though most research will be carried out by out-of-province scientists, the largest group will be from Saskatchewan.

As a national facility benefitting all Canadians, its operations are funded primarily from federal sources. This is fitting since the main beneficiary of public investment in the CLS is the public sector, not private industry. The Saskatchewan government has supported the CLS by matching Canada Foundation for Innovation awards for capital infrastructure and providing operating funds for industrial access programs – initiatives which significantly leverage federal investment.

Most CLS researchers will never pay user fees because, like all synchrotrons, the CLS is primarily used by academics whose access is funded through peer-reviewed federal grants. Industrial users pay a cost recovery rate for experimental time and also contract for staff assistance. The CLS’s proactive industrial user programs generate revenue for the CLS, which will in future be sufficient to cover the operating costs of those programs.

The U of S makes a relatively small contribution towards CLS operating costs, an amount equivalent to what the university formerly paid annually to support the Saskatchewan Accelerator Laboratory, precursor to the CLS. To put this in perspective, over the next five years the U of S will support about three per cent of the CLS budget – yet our students and faculty will use far more than three per cent of the research time.

The CLS operates apart from the U of S budget and does not use resources that would be used elsewhere on campus. The synchrotron facility is operated by CLS Inc. through an operating contract in which the CLS reimburses the U of S at full cost for services provided.

In fact, the CLS has made the funding pie bigger for the U of S as a whole. That’s because the CLS brings increased funding to the U of S through new research grants obtained by successful peer-reviewed proposals, additional Canada Research Chairs which also bring millions of dollars in associated funding, greater investment earnings for the U of S, and increased provincial operating funding due to the impact of increased federally sponsored research on the provincial funding formula. All this enhances research and student learning throughout the campus.

The CLS attracts outstanding faculty and students, and has begun to spark innovative new programs such as a new bachelor’s degree in biomolecular structures. Professors use the CLS as a classroom for teaching physics, chemistry and life sciences. A program to provide hands-on experience to high school students has been nationally recognized.

The CLS has attracted world-class Canada Research Chairs, many of whom would not have come here were it not for the synchrotron and all of whom enrich student learning. The U of S allocation of these nationally funded chairs has increased by 30 per cent since 1999.

More than a dozen Chairs are active synchrotron users who provide unique training opportunities for young people – currently 125 undergraduates, graduate students and post-doctoral fellows are, or will soon be, conducting research at the CLS. This provides another reason for some of Saskatchewan’s brightest to stay in Saskatchewan.

The CLS is not going to transform the city and its economy by itself but rather as part of Saskatoon’s robust science cluster. Still, the CLS employs more than 150 people and pumps into the local economy more than $22 million a year (projected to be $35 million by 2012). This is in addition to on-going construction benefits and provincial sales tax revenue on construction and services.

More than 2,000 academic, industrial and government researchers a year, from across Canada and from other countries, are expected to use the facility by 2014. While some will move here and build houses, many more visiting scientists will spend money in our local economy and contribute to our highly synergistic research environment that will lead to discoveries in areas such as environmental science, health, pharmaceuticals and advanced materials.

The CLS is an excellent fit with both the national science and technology strategy and the U of S focus on international standards, pre-eminence and sense of place. As the CLS continues to enhance our national and international reputation, the city, the province, the country and the U of S as a whole will benefit.

For more information, please contact U of S Research Communications.