Sunnybrook Research Institute ranks in top ten of Canada’s research hospitals

By Eleni Kanavas

Sunnybrook Research Institute (SRI) ranked ninth on Canada’s Top 40 Research Hospitals List 2015, a jump from 11th place last year. Total research funding topped $94 million in 2014, compared with $81 million in 2013. The list, published on Oct. 28 by Research Infosource, analyzes hospital-based research institutes on several metrics, including total funding.

New this year is the category “research activity by type of health institution.” This metric sorts the institutions into one of three categories: hospitals, hospital networks and health authorities. Sunnybrook Research Institute ranked second out of 22 hospitals that made the list.

For researcher intensity, used to measure income per scientist, SRI ranked 15th in the country with an average of $329,400 in expenditure per researcher. When compared with other mid-sized hospitals SRI jumped into the fourth of 11 positions.

Under institution intensity, which measures research activity as a percentage of total activity, SRI ranked fifth out of 11 with 9.7% intensity, moving up one spot on the list from last year’s 8.4% intensity.

The top 40 list scores hospitals across the country based on total research income in the previous fiscal year, as reported in the Canadian Research Hospitals Database. In Ontario, the Council of Academic Hospitals of Ontario collects the data.

Overall, activity at the nation’s leading health science organizations rose by a combined 5% in the 2014 fiscal year. Altogether, hospitals, hospital networks and health authorities reported that their total research activity increased to $2.38 billion from $2.27 billion last year.

Canada’s Top 40 Research Hospitals List 2015 is available on the Research Infosource website.