Name: NSERC CREATE (Collaborative Research and Training Experience)
This is a large team grant program for added-value training of graduate students.
URS will hold an
info session for potential applicants:
December 19, 2017 from 10-11:30am, in the URS conference room (3rd floor Jemmett wing of Fleming Hall)
We'll discuss NSERC rules for this program that are important at the conceptual stage, and also the results of an analysis of successful past applications.
Brief RSVP:
https://goo.gl/forms/DdIqDeSlEntXRl1R2 [If you are interested in the info session but December 19 doesn't work for you, then you can also indicate in this form alternate times in January when you are available]
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Note: NSERC has
not yet updated the webpage for the next round, so the information below is based on last year's information.
Funds Available: up to $1.65 million per project over 6 years: Funding of up to $150,000 in the first year, and up to $300,000 annually in subsequent years, will be provided by NSERC for a maximum period of six years. At least 80 percent of the CREATE grant must be used for trainees' stipends. Up to 30 percent of this portion can be distributed to trainees who are not enrolled in the Natural Sciences and Engineering (NSE).
Relevant Research Areas: Priority areas (at least 60% of funding) are Environmental science and technologies; Natural resources and energy; Manufacturing; and Information and communications technologies, but other areas in the natural sciences and engineering will also be considered.
Deadlines:
February 1 2018: Interested applicants should send a brief email to
[email protected] to
inform URS of their intent to submit an LOI. NSERC gives each university a quota of LOIs (last year's quota for Queen's was 5), so we want to know early on how many potential applicants we'll have, and if we will need an internal competition.
Objectives: The Collaborative Research and Training Experience (CREATE) Program supports the training of teams of highly qualified students and postdoctoral fellows from Canada and abroad through the development of innovative training programs that:
- encourage collaborative and integrative approaches, and address significant scientific challenges associated with Canada's research priorities; and
- facilitate the transition of new researchers from trainees to productive employees in the Canadian workforce
These innovative programs
must include the acquisition and development of important professional skills among students and postdoctoral fellows that complement their qualifications and technical skills.
In addition, these programs should encourage the following as appropriate:
- student mobility, nationally or internationally, between individual universities and between universities and other sectors;
- interdisciplinary research within the natural sciences and engineering (NSE), or at the interface between the NSE and health, or the social sciences and humanities. However, the main focus of the training must still lie within the NSE;
- increased collaboration between industry and academia; and
- for the industrial stream, an additional objective is to support improved job-readiness within the industrial sector by exposing participants to the specific challenges of this sector and training people with the skills identified by industry.
Eligibility: In the case of multi-organization collaborations (academic, industrial, government or not-for-profit sectors), the applicant must be from an NSERC-supported field at an NSERC-eligible university. One person must be designated to administer the grant. This person is the "applicant" and is responsible for completing and submitting the Letter of Intent (LOI) and the application (if invited) on behalf of the group. The applicant's university will be the lead university.
- At least 70 percent of the group must be from NSE fields, but co-applicants at the interdisciplinary frontier between NSE and the areas covered under the umbrella of SSHRC and CIHR may be incorporated into proposals.
- The focus should be on new training initiatives. Existing initiatives must justify the incremental value that will accrue from the CREATE Program.
- A yearly quota has been established for each university, and only those researchers selected at their university can submit LOIs. In addition, a researcher may only be the applicant on one CREATE initiative annually. There is a limit on participation in multiple active CREATE projects. NSERC limits the participation of an individual researcher in a maximum of two CREATE initiatives-as either an applicant or co-applicant.
- For applicants who have previously held a CREATE Grant, the proposed initiative must differ from the previous one. This must be clearly explained in the Letter of Intent.
Joint NSERC CREATE/ German Research Foundation (DFG) applications:
An agreement between NSERC and the German Research Foundation, the
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), has been concluded to establish a formal mechanism for supporting a bilateral training program that involves an exchange of students between Germany and Canada. The German counterparts have to submit a pre-proposal first ("Antragsskizze", no deadline) to a program called "DFG Internationale Graduiertenkollegs" (in English:
International Research Training Group).
Canadian CREATE LOIs with a successful pre-proposal from the DFG will automatically advance to the full application stage. However, the CREATE grant will only be successful if both the CREATE proposal and the corresponding full proposal to the German agency are approved in their individual competitions.
Further Information
Queen's resource page for applicants
