Opportunities by Area of Research

• Northern Earth System Research
• Material Efficiency
• Life sciences
• Materials Research

Discovery Frontiers Call for Proposals:
Northern Earth System Research

Discovery Frontiers grants support a limited number of large international activities, opportunities or projects that are of high priority in the context of advanced research in Canada. These will be led by world-class Canadian researchers and will comprise teams that will generate substantial impact, for the benefit of Canada. The first Call for Proposals is in the area of Northern Earth System Research. For more details, please view the program description.

Material Efficiency

The research councils of the G8 countries* have established a multilateral funding initiative for conducting international research. The initiative aims to support research on topics of global relevance which can best be tackled by a multinational approach.

Funding should help researchers to cooperate in consortia consisting of at least three partners from separate participating countries. The multinational research consortia must show an interdisciplinary approach in addressing problems within the scope of the described call theme.

The theme for the 2011 call is Material Efficiency – A first step towards sustainable manufacturing. Research topics will be defined separately for annual calls.

For more details, consult the Call for Proposals.

*Italy will not be participating in this call for proposals.

Life Sciences

The Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) promotes research on a global scale and international collaborations in the life sciences through Research Grants and Fellowships. The HFSP supports novel, innovative and interdisciplinary basic research focused on the complex mechanisms of living organisms. Emphasis is placed on novel collaborations—bringing together biologists and scientists from such fields as physics, mathematics, chemistry, computer science and engineering—that focus on problems at the frontier of the life sciences. Canadian researchers are eligible to apply for funding through the HFSP programs, thanks to a funding agreement between HFSP, NSERC and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).  More details

Materials Research

There will be no further competitions for this area of research.

The Inter-American Collaboration in Materials Research (CIAM) is an international, multi-agency initiative that supports collaborative activities in materials research between researchers from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United States. NSERC has issued a request for proposals for two types of activities:

• research projects that present an opportunity for inter-American collaboration, and
• collaborative mobility grants that support the establishment of new inter-American collaborations or the networking efforts of scientists from these countries.

The funding can be used to cover the direct costs of research or to support other activities such as the international mobility of students, postdoctoral fellows and junior faculty. It can also be used to cover the travel costs associated with international research collaborations. More details