Measuring the return on investment in research in universities

Since the mandate of the university system in BC is post-secondary education, a measure of the success of its research funding programs should be the level of investment in people’s knowledge and skills essential to innovation. [...] This deficiency in the study of research impact is despite the obvious observation that graduates are a (or the) major output of the system and they have the potential to impact a wide range of economic sectors. [...] The input is the value of the investment in R&D in universities in terms of the investments made by the province and the federal government to support grad students specifically for R&D – typically salaries paid to RAs. [...] In general, the more training and the more relevant the experiences of students, the higher the expected benefit. [...] By contrast, in the UK, the lower level of manpower skills was found to affect negatively labour productivity, the types of machinery chosen, the ways in which machinery was modified for the firm’s particular needs, the smooth running of machinery and the introduction of new technology.