Call for Nominations

Nomination deadline: March 1, 2012

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, or 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.

Selection Criteria and Evaluation

Note that the stature of the candidates is not an evaluation criterion 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.

The selection committee may recommend not to award the Polanyi Award in a given year if there is no outstanding nomination.

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 nominator(s) (see below for instructions);
• a brief, one-paragraph description of the nominator’s background;
• up to four documents relating to the recent, outstanding advance that provide evidence of recognition by the scientific and engineering 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 full coordinates, including e-mail addresses, of four Canadian and/or international researchers who, in the opinion of the nominators, could be approached by NSERC to conduct an impartial review of the nomination. The majority of these proposed referees should be from outside Canada, and none should be in conflict of interest (see section 6.7.1 Conflict of Interest of NSERC’s 2011- 12 Peer Review Manual);
• 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 CV 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;
• 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; and
• a Consent To Disclosure Form form signed by the nominee(s); The nominee(s) must read and agree to the What do the electronic or original signatures on the application mean? (the applicant and co-applicant sections would apply).

By signing and submitting a nomination, the nominator(s):

• certifies that the information provided in the nomination documents and related documents is true, complete and accurate to the best of their knowledge;
• consents to the sharing between NSERC and any academic institution to which they are, or may become, affiliated of any and all information, including personal information, in any way related to the nomination and to the grant/award;
• understands the Access to Information Act and Privacy Act (including the Use and Disclosure of Personal Information Provided to NSERC) as they pertain to grant application information;
• attests that others listed on the nomination have agreed to be included;
• certifies that the nominator is not currently ineligible to apply for and/or hold funds from NSERC, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) or any other research funding organization world-wide for reasons of breach of responsible conduct of research policies such as ethics, integrity or financial management policies; and
• certifies that the nominator respects and complies with the  Values and Ethics Code for the Public Service , as required only if they are, or were in the last 12 months, a public servant in the federal government.

For nominations in engineering or the applied sciences, nominators should consult the NSERC Guidelines for the Preparation and Review of Applications in Engineering and the Applied Sciences, and prepare the nomination accordingly.

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.

Nominations may be submitted:

Electronically (New): via NSERC’s Innovative Collaborations and Science Promotion Programs Secure Submissions Web site. It is preferable that documents be submitted in Portable Document Format (PDF).

By mail:    

NSERC John C. Polanyi Award
NSERC
350 Albert Street
Ottawa, ON
K1A 1H5

By fax: 613-947-3847

Note: Original signatures are required on documents, but they can still be submitted electronically or by fax.

Instructions for Nomination Letter

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

Note that because the selection committee is composed of researchers from a variety of disciplines, NSERC recommends using language appropriate for non-experts and avoiding inordinate technical detail in a letter of nomination.

Conditions and Reporting

The grant is tenable only at, and with the consent of, the Canadian university named in the nomination material. A winning team must designate one of its members to be responsible for the administration of the award. This member must be eligible to hold an NSERC grant. Refer to NSERC's Eligibility Criteria regarding this matter.

The winning individual(s) will be asked to confirm acceptance, by e-mail or letter, of the award and to confirm the ability to use the full value of the accompanying research grant. Because the grant may be distributed in either one or several instalments, the winning individual(s) will be asked to submit a payment schedule. By drawing on the funds provided through this grant, or by participating in the activities support by it, the winner(s) agrees to comply with the following policies and guidelines, and to any amendments to these that NSERC may adopt:

• Section 2 of the  Tri-Agency Framework: Responsible Conduct of Research (Responsibility of Researchers) posted on the Web site of the Secretariat for Responsible Conduct of Research;
• the NSERC Program Guide for Professors; and
• the Tri-Agency Financial Administration Guide.

If the winning team's composition changes, the original members of the team must indicate in a letter that they all agree with the revised composition of the team.
At the end of the funding period, the winning individual(s) will be asked to report on the impact that the award and the accompanying research grant has had on their research activities.

Announcement

The names of the winning researcher or team of researchers will be announced at a public ceremony in 2013.