Call for Nominations

Nomination deadline: March 1, 2010

The NSERC John C. Polanyi Award was created to recognize and support a university researcher or team of researchers whose work has led to a recent outstanding Canadian advance in a field of the natural sciences or engineering.

Eligibility

Candidates may be nominated by any individual or group; however, the nominators must be Canadian citizens or permanent residents of Canada. Candidates can be at any stage in their career. At least one of the candidates must hold an NSERC grant. Also, the research that led to the advance described in the nomination must have been supported by NSERC.

In the case of a team nomination, members may be from academia, government or industry, and may be research associates, postdoctoral fellows or students.

The research described in the nomination must fall within one of the research areas that NSERC supports.

NSERC will not consider self-nominations, nor the nomination of current NSERC Council members. NSERC reserves the right to rule on the eligibility of nominations and nominees.

An individual or team may be nominated for the NSERC John C. Polanyi Award and other major NSERC prizes in the same year, but can receive only one such prize in a given year.

Nomination Process

Nominations must be submitted by one or more Canadian citizens or permanent residents.

The nomination package must include:

• a letter of nomination signed by the nominators;
• a brief, one-paragraph description of each nominator’s background;
• up to four documents relating to the recent outstanding advance, that provide evidence of recognition by the scientific community. At least one of these must be a peer-reviewed article. The other documents may include proof of prizes received with their accompanying citations, testimonials attesting to the significance and impact of the advance, journal articles and reports;
• names and addresses (including e-mail) of four Canadian and/or international researchers who currently have, in the opinion of the nominators, at least as much expertise in the candidate’s subject area as the candidate, and whom NSERC could ask to conduct an impartial review of the nomination
• an up-to-date NSERC Personal Data Form, Form 100. If a team is being nominated, an up-to-date NSERC Personal Data Form, Form 100, for NSERC-eligible researchers and, if applicable, an up-to-date curriculum vitae for non-NSERC-eligible researchers;
• a signed authorization by the nominee(s) for the submission of the nomination and agreement to use the award funding for research at a Canadian university; and
• a letter, signed by an authorized representative of the institution where the nominee holds a research grant, agreeing to the terms and conditions of NSERC awards.

The nominators are responsible for assembling the required documentation, which must follow NSERC’s General Presentation Format. Only the documents requested by NSERC will be made available to the selection committee. If a nomination package is incomplete, it will be rejected.

Instructions for Nomination Letter

The nomination letter must be no longer than three pages and must describe the recent outstanding advance, clearly outlining the advance’s nature, significance and impact. The letter must also include a summary of the advance for public release.

Since the selection committee is composed of researchers from a variety of disciplines, please tailor your choice of language accordingly.

Selection Criteria and Evaluation

Note that the stature of the candidates is not an evaluation criteria for this prize. Nominations will be judged on the significance and impact of the advance.

A selection committee of distinguished university, government and corporate research representatives, from a variety of disciplines, will review the nominations and recommend the Polanyi Award winner to the President of NSERC.

NSERC provides for one Polanyi Award to be attributed each year. However, if no outstanding nomination has been received in a given year, the selection committee may recommend that no Polanyi Award be provided for that year.

Conditions and Reporting

The grant is tenable only at, and with the consent of, the Canadian university named in the nomination material.

Given that the grant may be distributed in either one payment or in several instalments, the winning individual or team will be asked to submit a description of the research that will be done with the $250,000 research grant (maximum one page), as well as a detailed budget and payment schedule. If a team wins, it must designate one of the current NSERC grant holders to be responsible for the administration of the award.

The grant must be used to pay for the research activities of an individual or team, in accordance with the rules that govern NSERC Discovery Grants. The grant recipient must report on the use of the grant and its impact on research activities.

Announcement

The names of the winning researcher or team of researchers will be announced at a public ceremony.