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Evaluate
Analyzing corporate
performance
We are committed to remaining publicly accountable
and one way we did that in 2019–20 was by
reviewing and updating our 2015 Performance
evaluation, risk and audit framework. We revised it to
better align with our 2019 Contribution Agreement
with the Government of Canada. It now includes
new indicators of success, such as tracking the
participation of underrepresented groups including
women, indigenous people, visible minorities and
people with disabilities inourfunding programs.
Using this framework, we draft annual reports on
the CFI’s performance, which are reviewed by CFI
management and its Board of Directors.
Early in 2019–20, Innovation, Science and
Economic Development Canada (ISED) began an
evaluation of the CFI to assess the eciency and
eectiveness of our operations over the past ve
years. This evaluation will draw on, among other
things, data collected through the framework.
Talking to our
stakeholders
In the spring of 2019, we surveyed a number of
CFI stakeholders: administrators and researchers
at institutions that are eligible for CFI funding,
representatives from federal and provincial
governments, and other funders and partners in the
research community. This third biennial stakeholder
survey included questions about the eectiveness
and eciency of our activities and elicited views
on the progress we have made in meeting our
mandate. Among other things, we found that, in
keeping with previous years:
• 93 percent of respondents believe the CFI is
valuable to science, technology and innovation
• 87 percent of respondents are
satised or very satised with how
the CFI delivers its programs
Focusing on results
Over the past four years, we have been producing
a series of reports to demonstrate how the CFI
is meeting its objectives. Each “Focusing on
results” report looks at one or more outcomes of
CFI investments and relies on data from various
sources, including the project progress reports we
receive from the institutions we fund, interviews,
focus groups, surveys and datafrom external
sources, such as bibliometrics.
In a study done this year, we examined how CFI
investments have helped advance knowledge. We
found that CFI-funded research infrastructure enables
researchers to advance knowledge in all areas of
research, and that studies acknowledging the CFI
arecited more frequently than the global average.
Developing a common
classication system
for Canadian research
The Canadian Research and Development
Classication provides Canadian researchers,
research institutions and funding organizations
a new way to categorize their work. The CFI has
collaborated with the Canadian Institutes of
Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and
Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC),
the Social Sciences and Humanities Research
Council of Canada (SSHRC) and Statistics Canada
on the initiative.
It provides a common approach to classifying
research across institutions and governments.
Having one standard to classify research will make
it easier to assess Canada’s overall contribution
to any one eld or type of research, or to any
particular socioeconomic challenge. The new
classication system was completed at the end
of scal year 2019–20. The CFI will be the rst to
implement it in its awards management system in
summer 2020.
ANNUAL REPORT 2019–20
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