Research spending at Health Sciences North was down 11.3 per cent in 2015, compared to the previous year, according to the latest rankings of Canadian research hospitals from Research Infosource Inc.
The firm ranked Health Sciences North 36th out of 40 research hospitals on its list in 2015, but the hospital has fallen to the 39th spot in 2016.
Research Inforsource obtained its data on hospital research spending from hospitals' financial statements and through the Council of Academic Hospitals of Ontario.
In 2015, Health Sciences North spent just over $6.5 million on research, compared to more than $7.4 million in 2014.
Mark Hartman, the chief operating officer of the Health Sciences North Research Institute, said many other hospital research institutes across Canada saw similar declines in 2015.
“Research is an area where you do see fluctuations year to year because a large part of the funding is grant-based,” he said.
Hartman added the last six months have seen some positive developments for the hospital, including a $688,051 research grant, over three yeard, from the Canadian Institute of Health Research to fund Dr. Hoang-Thanh Le's efforts to develop a nicotine vaccine.
The HSN Research Institute has also expanded into the area of northern and Indigenous health research, and is hiring researchers to conduct that work.
A new research facility on Walford Road is due to open in the spring of 2017, and will expand the institute's physical capacity.
In addition to the decline in research dollars, Health Sciences North's research spending in 2015 represented 1.5 per cent of hospital spending. Of the 40 Canadian research hospitals in Research Inforsource's list, only the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority had a smaller portion spending on research, with 1.4 per cent.
Hartman said the hospital hopes to increase that number over the next few years.
“In research terms, we're a relatively young research institute. It takes time to build up the grant success as a revenue source,” he said.
Hartman added the research spending percentage represents funds from various grants and foundations, and does not cut into the hospital's clinical funding, which comes primarily from the province.
As with last year, Toronto's University Health Network topped the Research Infosource list. In 2015, the network spent more than $316 million on research, up 4.4 per cent from the previous year.
Research represented 16.9 per cent of the University Health Network's total spending in 2015.
Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children was a distant second on the list, with $182 million in research spending in 2015.
Nearly 25 per cent of the Hospital for Sick Children's 2015 budget went to research spending.
The Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre, the only other hospital based in Northern Ontario on the list, was ranked 37th in 2015, down from the 35th spot in 2014.
The Thunder Bay hospital spent more than $8.4 million, or 2.5 per cent of total hospital spending, on research in 2015.
