Call for Nominations

Nomination deadline: May 3, 2010

The Synergy Awards for Innovation honour outstanding university-industry R&D partnerships in the natural sciences and engineering. Since 1995, the awards have showcased the benefits of pooling university and industry resources to make the most of Canadian research excellence and industrial expertise.

Winners of the Synergy Awards for Innovation show effective use of human, technical and financial resources, and demonstrate a lasting partnership between university and industrial collaborators, with tangible commercial results.

The Synergy Awards for Innovation are your opportunity to show the world what Canadian ingenuity and collaboration can accomplish.

Eligibility

The nominated partnership must be in the natural sciences and/or engineering and be between a Canadian university professor, or group of professors, and a Canadian-based company or companies.

Categories

Nominations can be made in one of four categories:

• Small and Medium-Sized Companies – A partnership with a single company of up to 500 employees.
• Large Companies – A partnership with a single company of more than 500 employees.
• Two or More Companies – A partnership with two or more companies of any size.
• Leo Derikx Award – An established innovative model of long-standing university-industry partnership in pre-competitive R&D that has improved the general well-being of an industry.

Up to four awards may be presented annually, one in each category.

Nomination Process and Selection Criteria

How to Nominate a Partnership

Please refer to the Nomination Checklist to ensure that your nomination package is complete. Nominations must be submitted by a senior executive from one of the participating organizations:

• the President, CEO or Vice-President of Research (or equivalent) of one of the industrial partner organizations;
• the President or Vice-President of Research (or equivalent) from the university.

The nomination package must include letters of support from:

• the nominator (a senior executive of one of the industrial partner organizations or an executive head of the university);
• the senior executive of all other partner organizations listed on the Synergy Awards Nomination Form.

Nominations that are not legible (e.g., font size too small), or which do not meet the Presentation Guidelines, will be rejected. Additional material or information will not be accepted.

Complete the Synergy Awards Nomination Form, with all required signatures, and use it as a cover letter for the nomination material. Quantified outcomes for each criterion will assist the committee in assessing the nominations. Use the following headings:

1. Background: Describe the objective of the partnership and how the university and industrial partners worked together to achieve that objective.
2. Partnership: Successful entries will demonstrate a lasting partnership between the university and industrial collaborators rather than a one-time initiative aimed at addressing a single problem or challenge, and should describe:
   • the role of each of the partners;
   • the objective of the partnership and how the partners worked together to achieve that objective, clearly illustrating superior partnership management practices that were used;
   • innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship; and
   • the contributions of both the university and the industrial partners, as well as other sources of financial or non-financial support that contributed to the success of the partnership.
3. Effective use of resources: Successful entries will demonstrate effective and sustained use of both the university and industrial partners’ human and technical capital, and provide evidence of:
   • high-quality research in the natural sciences and engineering;
   • effective training of undergraduate and graduate students;
   • employment opportunities for university students and graduates; and
   • strategies that maximized the use of university and industry resources.
4. Tangible benefits: Successful entries will provide evidence of tangible commercial and knowledge-based benefits to both the industrial and university partners and to Canada, and demonstrate results that include:
   • rewards to the university, such as enhanced research and teaching capabilities;
   • rewards for the industry, such as new and improved processes, products or techniques, patents, or enhanced export potential;
   • other socio-economic benefits to Canada; and
   • evidence, where applicable, of pre-commercial and/or commercial success, increased employment opportunities for university graduates and spin-off benefits to other sectors of the economy.
5. Innovative model (for the Leo Derikx Award only): Document the innovative model of a long-standing university-industry interaction with pre-competitive benefits that has contributed to the general well-being of an industrial sector.

Presentation Guidelines

When you prepare your nomination, follow these guidelines:

• Use a maximum of six 8 ½"x 11" (21.5 cm x 28cm) sheets.
• Print must be in black ink and of letter quality.
• Text must be single-spaced, with no more than six lines per inch.
• The accepted font is Times New Roman regular 12 pts, or any comparable font. Smaller font sizes will result in the nomination being rejected.
• Condensed fonts, and applications completed strictly in italics, are not acceptable.
• Use white paper, 8 1/2 x 11 inches (21.5 cm x 28 cm), portrait format, with a single column.
• Set margins at 3/4 of an inch (1.9 cm) (minimum) all around.
• Number your pages sequentially.
• Print on one side of the page only.

Announcement

The winners will be announced at an event hosted by NSERC.