We are pleased to share an update with the university community regarding the leadership and implementation of Memorial’s new budget model.

Thank you to all members of the university community who have engaged in the process so far, and to former vice-president (finance and administration) Trudy Pound-Curtis for her leadership in guiding the early development of the model.

During the first phase of the project, we worked together to lay the foundation for transitioning to an activity-based/responsibility-centred budgeting system (ABB/RCM) that will strengthen long-term financial sustainability and better support the university’s core priorities.

Moving forward, Scott Bishop, associate vice-president (finance) and chief financial officer, will chair the budget modelling group and co-chair the working group with Roxanne Millan, director of resource allocation and planning in the provost’s office.

In addition, the Budget Office has been realigned to report directly to the associate vice-president (finance) and chief financial officer, ensuring stronger co-ordination, improved decision-making and a more integrated approach to financial planning across the university.

Progress to date

At the end of fall 2025, the Budget Model Working Group completed phase two: the initial design of the revenue attribution model, which reflects how and where revenue is generated and how costs are distributed to units. This work was completed, presented to deans and approved by the Budget Model Implementation Steering Committee.

With the endorsement of the steering committee, the Budget Model Working Group has also finalized the shared service cost structure and cost allocation methodologies for both academic and administrative units.

Expenses have been grouped into major cost bins — including academic management, facilities management, financial management, general institutional, human resources, information technology, libraries, research management, student services and university advancement — with clearly defined allocation drivers for each to ensure transparency, fairness and consistency in how costs are assigned.

We are now beginning the shadow budget phase of the project, which involves modelling budgets for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 fiscal years to demonstrate how academic units would have been allocated funding under the ABB/RCM budget modelling.

Once shadow budget results are complete, a transition plan will be developed to guide unit budgets in moving from the current budget approach to the new model.

This update provides an overview of the ongoing work as we progress toward a full transition by April 2027.

We look forward to continued collaboration with the university community as we advance to the next stage of Memorial’s budget model project.