Ontario’s teaching hospitals fear the loss of more than $100 million in research and private-sector funding due to the cancellation of two years’ worth of provincial government grants.

In late November, the Liberals cited “current fiscal challenges” for axing $42 million from key parts of the Ontario Research Fund (ORF.)

The cuts, as reported by the Star on Saturday, stunned university research centres across the province as many scientists had secured matching industry investments to pursue research projects.

The $42 million in provincial cash was transferred into two regional job growth plans. But by doing so, potential projects in genomics, green energy, water research, and advanced health technologies were abandoned.

“This was a surprise,” said Karen Michell, executive director of Council of Academic Hospitals of Ontario, a group representing the province’s 24 academic teaching hospitals.

“We definitely understand the tough fiscal times we are in and we know difficult decisions need to be made. Our concern though is if we are going to emerge from these difficult times with an innovative, strong knowledge based economy we need to be thinking long-term of that kind of economy,” she said Tuesday.

A number of grant proposals were already written and hospitals had secured over $100 million in private-sector matched funding for the applications. The ORF research excellence program requires two-thirds of a funding match from the private sector and other sources such as the federal government.

The council warned that because of the matching requirements, the total loss of research funding is potentially over $360 million, much of which went into health discoveries funded by multi-nationals such as GlaxoSmithKline, Telus and IBM.

“The concern, obviously, is a lot of those commitments were contingent on the matching of the provincial government and we may now well lose that,” Michell said.

At St. Michael’s Hospital’s Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, three researchers were in the process of applying for grant funding along with one other from the Centre for Research in Inner City Health, said Dr. Andreas Laupacis, executive director of the institute.

“Investing in health research is an economic driver for the province,” said Michell.