Data quality, concepts and methodology: Estimates of research and development personnel in Canada

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Canada's economic growth and competitiveness, like that of every other industrialized country, is tied to the development of its scientific and technological base. Of all the factors needed for a country's scientific and industrial development, the supply of suitable human resources is unquestionably one of the most vital. Thus, the formulation of science and technology policy requires reliable information on these human resources, especially those engaged in research and development (R&D). "... unless people with certain training and qualifications are available, organized R&D is almost impossible. Education and training are lengthy processes; personnel data are, therefore, essential to realistic science policy planning". ¹ 

The number of R&D personnel is also considered a supplementary measure to intramural expenditures on R&D. The Frascati Manual states that "... personnel provide concrete measurements for international comparisons of resources devoted to R&D".  ² 

It is important to determine the status of these resources on a regular basis. In this report, we present some statistical estimates and definitions concerning R&D personnel. Data on R&D personnel are derived from surveys conducted by the Science and Technology Surveys Section, Business Special Surveys and Technology Statistics Division (BSSTSD) and from estimates based on various data sources.

Classification by occupation

R&D personnel are drawn from a wide variety of occupations "… from the Nobel prize-winner to the winner's secretary, from the designer of space experiments to the breeder of laboratory animals". ³  In order to assist analysis on needs and supplies of highly qualified S&T personnel, R&D personnel are classified into three categories. The International Standard Classification of Occupation (ISCO) distinguishes three occupational levels: researchers, technicians and equivalent staff, and other support staff.

1. Researchers (scientists and engineers) are engaged in the conception or creation of new knowledge, products, processes, methods and systems. This level also includes managers and administrators engaged in the planning and management of the scientific and technical aspects of a researcher's work. They are usually equal in rank to the researchers and are often former or part-time researchers themselves. Post-graduate students, in particular those performing significant amounts of R&D, are included in this category.
2. Technicians and equivalent staff are persons whose main tasks require technical knowledge and experience in one or more fields of engineering, physical and life sciences, or social sciences and humanities. They participate in R&D by performing scientific and technical tasks involving the application of concepts and operational methods, normally under the supervision of researchers. Equivalent staff performs the corresponding R&D tasks under the supervision of researchers in the social sciences and humanities.
3. Support staff includes skilled and unskilled craftsmen, secretarial and clerical staff participating in R&D projects or directly associated with such projects. Also included are all managers and administrators dealing mainly with financial and personnel matters and general administration given that their activities are directly supporting R&D. Those providing an indirect service, such as canteen and cleaning staff, should be excluded.

Institutional classification

R&D data are classified into five sectors of performance. This method facilitates the collection of data and also provides information that can be cross referenced between sectors.

The sectors are:

1. federal government
2. provincial governments (includes provincial research organizations)
3. business enterprise
4. higher education
5. private non-profit organizations

Measurement and data collection

Scientific research and experimental development (R&D): comprise creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of man, culture and society and the use of this stock of knowledge to devise new applications.

Whenever possible, the data are also classified by major field of science; natural sciences and engineering (NSE) or social sciences and humanities (SSH).

Natural Sciences and Engineering (NSE): The NSE consists of disciplines concerned with understanding, exploring, developing or utilizing the natural world. Included are engineering, mathematical, life and physical sciences.

Social Sciences and Humanities: (SSH): The SSH embraces all disciplines involving the study of human actions and conditions and the social, economic and institutional mechanisms affecting humans. Included are such disciplines as anthropology, business administration and commerce, information and knowledge management, criminology, demography, economics, geography, history, languages, literature and linguistics, law, library science, philosophy, political science, psychology, religious studies, social work, sociology, and urban and regional studies.

Since most workers do not all spend the same amount of time on R&D, it is necessary to express the number of persons performing R&D in terms of full-time equivalents (FTE). If only those persons employed in pure R&D are counted, the number of R&D personnel will be understated, just as counting every person who spends part of his/her time on R&D will result in an overstatement. On a full-time equivalence basis then, a person devoting a third of his/her time to R&D will be counted as 0.3 of a full-time equivalent.

In Canada with the exception of the higher education sector, each of the sectors mentioned above are surveyed on an annual basis in order to collect R&D data (both expenditures and personnel). Questionnaires used to collect R&D data can be viewed on the Statistics Canada website (http://www.statcan.ca/english/concepts/index.htm).

The higher education sector R&D activities are estimated by Statistics Canada. Modifications were made to the estimation procedures in 2005. Data were revised back to 1991. A description of the estimation procedure is found in the section on the higher education sector.

Related information available from Statistics Canada

Information derived from surveys on scientific activities in Canada is available from the Science and Technology Surveys Section, Science Innovation and Electronic Information Division. Catalogue no. 88-001-X presents highlights of each survey once the survey has been completed. Three annual publications, catalogue no. 88-202-X, Industrial Research and Development, catalogue no. 88-204-X, Federal Scientific Activities and catalogue no. 88-221-X , Gross Domestic Expenditures on Research and Development in Canada and the Provinces are also available. You may contact Michael Lynch at 613-951-2201; Michael.Lynch@statcan.gc.ca or Cindy Carter at 613-951-1856; Cindy.Carter@statcan.gc.ca to obtain more information or visit our website at www.statcan.gc.ca.

R&D personnel by sector

Federal government

This sector comprises all federal departments and organizations. All employees are included (indefinite, temporary and casual status). The data on persons engaged in R&D in the federal government are taken from the annual survey of the federal science expenditures and personnel. These data are classified into three occupational categories: researchers (scientists and engineers), technicians and support staff. The allocation of personnel to these classes is based on their public service classifications. Due to the nature of the work in the social sciences and humanities it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between technicians and other support staff; for convenience, these two categories have been combined and are shown as support staff up until 1990. From 1991 on, technicians involved in social science activities have been identified.

Provincial governments

The provincial government sector consists of all provincial government departments, ministries and agencies and provincial research organizations.

Government departments and agencies

Each year, Science and Technology Surveys Section, BSSTSD assists provincial governments to carry out surveys of resources devoted to their scientific and technological activities.

The statistics presented are aggregates of the provincial government science surveys conducted by Statistics Canada under contract with the provinces, and cover the period 1979-1980 to 2007-2008. The surveys currently cover six provinces: Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta and British Columbia. Scientific expenditures for Newfoundland and Labrador are based on last year's survey and therefore their data for 2007/2008 are indicated as preliminary. Quebec conducts their own survey and shares the information with Statistics Canada.

Provincial research organizations

Statistics on the R&D personnel of provincial research organizations are estimated on the basis of an annual survey of the resources of the provincial research foundations and councils.

R&D is only one of the activities of these provincial research organizations. In the survey conducted by BSSTSD, the organizations are asked to allocate their expenditures by a number of activities, including R&D. The total number of personnel for all organizations is multiplied by the ratio of R&D to total expenditures in order to produce an estimate of R&D personnel. Since the three occupational categories are already specified in the survey, their relative proportions are applied to the R&D full-time equivalence total.

It should be noted that provincial research organizations data pertain to activities in the natural sciences and engineering only.

Business enterprise

The term "business enterprise" encompasses all commercially oriented enterprises (privately or publicly owned), industrial non-profit organizations and industrial research institutes.

Until 1969, the survey was biennial. From 1970 to 1981, all known performers or funders of industrial R&D were surveyed for odd-numbered years and a sample, including the leading performers, were surveyed for even numbered years. Estimates for the 1980 R&D personnel were computed by averaging data for 1979 and 1981. From 1982 to 1991, a full survey was conducted annually.

Because of reductions in the science and technology program, in the even-years starting with the 1992 reference year, only the top 100 R&D performers (accounting for 64% of all industrial R&D), were surveyed. However, as a result of a cost-sharing agreement with the province of Quebec, the 1992 and 1994 surveys also include firms having R&D activities in the province of Quebec. In 1995 the industrial R&D survey was re-established annually under the new S&T project "An information system for science and technology".

The 1998 data reflects a new methodology for estimating R&D expenditure in the business sector in Canada. The essence of the new approach was the use of administrative data from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), in place of survey data, for any firm funding or performing less than $1 million worth of R&D. To relieve respondent burden, the survey threshold was raised from one million dollars to one and one half million dollars in the survey year 2006, thereby reducing the number of surveyed firms. These firms continue to be included in our tabulations as their R&D data is imputed using CRA administrative data from the SR&ED program.

Under the current regulations, firms have up to 18 months to submit a claim for R&D tax credits to CRA. This means that when survey data are ready for publication, not all of the CRA data for that year will have been received. At the time this bulletin is released, a portion of the R&D tax credit is still outstanding and their value is estimated. This bulletin provides preliminary estimates of R&D personnel in the business enterprise sector. In 2008, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) introduced new tax forms for applicants to the Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) investment tax credit program. These new forms request R&D personnel data by head count, which may impact the R&D full-time equivalent personnel counts in this sector for the next edition of this publication.

It should be noted that business enterprise data pertain to activities in the natural sciences and engineering only. For further information, see Industrial Research and Development, catalogue no. 88-202-X.

Higher education

This sector includes universities, colleges of technology and other institutions of post-secondary education. Since existing surveys of this sector do not provide information on the R&D activities of staff, it is necessary to estimate R&D personnel.

As in other sectors of performance, we are interested in determining the full-time equivalence by three occupational categories (researchers, technicians and support staff) and by science type (NSE and SSH). The first step we take is to determine "researchers".

It is common knowledge that university professors are involved in other activities besides research (teaching and community service work). Doctoral students and postdoctoral research fellows also do research. The level of education held by these persons would qualify them as researchers. But, how much of their time is actually spent doing R&D?

When estimating R&D expenditures in the higher education sector, universities are classified into small, medium and large based on

1. sponsored research expenditures;
2. sponsored research as a percentage of general operating expenditures and
3. the number of doctoral programs. This is based on the assumption that, depending on the size of the university, some universities spend more time on R&D than others. The same size classification is used to estimate R&D personnel.

Also, when estimating R&D expenditures, we use the full-time teachers field of study to determine science type. Science type of R&D personnel is based on the same field of study classification. Crossing the size classification of institutions with the science type and personnel category, we arrive at percentages used to determine how much time is spent on R&D (table 8).

Now, we apply this methodology to full-time teacher, doctoral student and Ph.D. fellows information. The Centre for Education Statistics provides us with full-time teacher and doctoral students data by institution and by field of study. Postdoctoral fellows information is received from the three granting councils, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the Canadian Institutes for Health Research. These data are organized by university size and by field of study. To arrive at the amount of time these persons spend doing R&D in FTE's, we multiply the full-time teachers, doctoral students and Ph.D. fellows by the percentages in Table 8. As mentioned before, these persons are all considered to be researchers.

In addition to full-time university professors, doctorate students and Ph.D. fellows; there are part-time teachers, technicians and other support staff involved in R&D. Estimates for these classifications of R&D personnel are based on information provided by the Census.

The Census labour market statistics provide data on sector of employment, occupation (based on the National Occupational Classification for Statistics, 2001 (NOC-S), level of education and gender of the employed labour force. The division was able to purchase 1991, 1996 and 2001 Census data with funds made available through our memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Industry Canada. Census data prior to 1991 was not purchased and therefore no revisions to the higher education R&D personnel were made prior to 1991. Estimates previous to 1991 used coefficients based on the older Standard Occupational Classification, 1980 (SOC).

In order to use the Census data, the occupations had to be classified into our three categories – Researchers, Technicians and Other. In order to do this, we have attempted a concordance of NOCS 2001 to the Frascati Manual's (2002) categories of R&D personnel by occupation, which are based on the International Standard Classification of Occupations, 1988 (ISCO). Once this concordance was completed, detailed analysis was made on Canada's employed labour force who work in the university industry (SIC 8531) in order to arrive at the Occupational Coefficients listed in table 9 . What the coefficients imply are that for every full-time teacher, there is 0.18 part-time teachers, 0.75 technicians and 0.55 other support staff doing R&D.

We have determined that "researchers" constitute the R&D full-time equivalent of full-time teachers, doctoral students and Ph.D. fellows. In addition to these we add part-time teachers using the appropriate occupational coefficient provided by the Census data (table 9 ). The total of these occupations equal "Researchers".

Technicians and Other Support staff are determined by applying the coefficient derived from the census data. That coefficient considers both the occupation specified, the highest level of education achieved as well as the field in which the person works (natural sciences and engineering or social sciences and humanities).

As a result of the analysis completed on the Census data, we have been able to identify technicians in the social sciences and humanities back as far as 1991. Previous to that year the distinction between technicians and other support staff is unclear in the social sciences and humanities, these two categories have been combined and are shown as support staff.

The use of large-scale estimates naturally causes data reliability problems. Nevertheless, in the absence of more reliable data, these estimates provide us with a general idea of the situation in this sector, given certain assumptions. Caution should be used when comparing them with other sectors or with expenditure estimates.

Private non-profit organizations

This sector is comprised of private and semipublic organizations and entities for which profit-making is not a primary goal. There are four main types of organizations included: private philanthropic foundations, scientific societies and associations, voluntary health organizations, and research institutes which do not belong to other sectors.

Since 1983, BSSTSD has been collecting personnel data through its survey of R&D performed by private non-profit organizations in Canada. In this survey, respondents are asked to estimate the number of employees engaged in R&D by occupational category.

Since no statistics on R&D personnel in these organizations for the years prior to 1983 are available, estimates were made on the 1983 relationships of personnel, R&D expenditures and occupational categories. Finally, since R&D in this sector is carried out basically in the health sciences, there are no estimates for personnel engaged in R&D in the social sciences and humanities.

The PNP sector appears in both the performing and funding sector for the GERD for Canada. Commencing with reference year 2000, the data for the PNP sector performing research and development are not distributed by provinces, territories or the national capital region. However, the national totals of research and development by performing sector include the PNP sector. The PNP sector continues to be distributed for the funding sector.