Chairs in Design Engineering

Objectives

Chairs in Design Engineering (CDEs) were established to improve the level and quality of design engineering activity within Canadian universities. NSERC encourages a multidisciplinary view of design engineering and encourages applications from all engineering disciplines. Funded Chairs are expected to:

• establish a creative and innovative undergraduate/graduate training program that gives engineering students the opportunity to experience a functioning design environment and provides them with the skills and knowledge required by the profession;
• educate and train more high-quality design engineers, and increase design education and training for all engineering students;
• design and develop innovative products, processes and technologies;
• establish productive and effective collaborations between industry, design faculty and professional staff within the university and other design engineering chairholders, faculty and experts across Canada;
• establish effective multidisciplinary design partnerships, teams and networks; and
• act as advocates for design engineering, generating an increased awareness and appreciation in both the research and outside communities for all aspects of design engineering

Description

The Chair award provides funding for the Chairholder’s salary and design-related activities, including costs associated with training, partnerships and promotion. Chairholders must have significant design capabilities, industrial collaborative experience, and demonstrated ability in training design engineers. Chairholders are appointed for a five-year term, renewable for an additional second five years if progress is satisfactory and support from the sponsoring organization(s) continues.

NSERC is working to establish a total of 16 CDEs across Canada. At least two Chairs are available in the current competition.

Supporting Organizations

NSERC will match cash contributions from sponsoring private and public organizations up to a maximum of $200,000 per year, or $1 million over the five-year term of the Chair. These partner contributions may come from industry, government, the university, or any other private or public sector organizations, communities or individuals. NSERC will also consider matching in-kind contributions consisting of staff time, salaries, equipment and any other resources provided by the business and industry partners of the Chair.

Industrial cash contributed toward a CDE is eligible regardless of when it was actually provided, as long as the money has not been spent prior to the application being submitted to NSERC. If the supporting organizations choose to contribute to an endowment as a means of supporting the Chair, the recognized contribution will be limited to the amount attributed to industrial sources that are directly allocated to the cost of the Chair over the term of the award.

Application Procedures

The person submitting a CDE proposal (the “applicant” on Form 101) must hold a senior administrative position in the university—such as department head, dean, vice-president or president—with direct or ultimate management responsibility for the proposed Chairholder. The applicant cannot be the candidate for the Chair.

Those interested in applying for a Chair in Design Engineering must first submit a preliminary application to NSERC by the date indicated above. Successful applicants will be invited to submit a full application. There is no specific application form for this grant.  Use Forms 101 and 183A and follow the instructions for preparing a CDE application. Three letters of reference for each Chair candidate should be sent directly to NSERC with the full application.

Preliminary Applications

NSERC must receive the preliminary application by the deadline date.

The purpose of the preliminary application is to provide the vision of the proposed Chair, in relation to the goals and objectives of the CDE Grants, present the Chair candidate, and outline the expected impact. The CDE Selection Committee will use the preliminary application in its screening process in order to determine which applicants will be invited to submit full proposals.

The preliminary application should be up to seven pages in length, not including the budget and CV pages. The preliminary application should include the following sections:

1. Title page;
2. Background;
3. Vision;
4. Impact;
5. Chair candidate(s);
6. Budget; and
7. Candidate’s CV.

Title page

The first page of the application should contain:

• the Chair title (the title must begin with the word “NSERC” and may contain the names of other supporting organizations, if appropriate);
• the names of the applicant and proposed Chairholder(s);
• the amounts requested from NSERC (in a summary table, indicate the total dollar amount requested from NSERC for each year of funding); and
• signatures from the applicant and candidate(s).

Background

Present the current state of design at the university. Discuss the rationale for establishing the proposed Chair(s), the motivation of the university and partners to join forces, their long-term commitment to the design, and their respective expectations.

Vision

Introduce the philosophy and the overall vision for the proposed CDE, and the Chair’s plans and objectives for what will be achieved during its first term. The vision that is presented should also present what will have changed when the first term of the Chair is completed.

Impact

Present the mechanism by which the Chair will be able to effect change and achieve the described vision. Describe the expectations for interactions with other individuals/departments/disciplines and the overall impact on the university's design capacity.

Comment on the four main objectives of the CDE Grants (that are listed below) and how the proposed Chair plans to address these criteria. 

Introduce the proposed design Chair’s philosophy and plans for:

• the contribution to the training of highly qualified personnel: improving training in design engineering;
• the design and development: facilitating the design and development of innovative products, processes and technologies;
• collaboration: establishing effective multidisciplinary design partnerships, teams and networks inside and outside the university; and outline the involvement of potential participating organizations, including industry; and
• promotion: acting as advocates for design engineering, generating an increased awareness and appreciation in both the research and outside communities for all aspects of design engineering.

Chair candidate(s)

Describe the nature of the position(s) to be created; the candidate(s)' qualifications, background and personal qualities, and how these match the requirements of the position. Describe the Chair candidate’s design experience and relevance to the proposed plans for the Chair. Indicate each Chairholder's anticipated tenure status, appointment level, and teaching and administrative responsibilities.

Budget

Include the estimated annual budget expenditures, and sources of funds (e.g., requested from NSERC and estimated cash and in-kind contributions from the potential participating organizations). 

The application will be strengthened if details are provided about the types of in-kind contributions anticipated and the company(s) offering them.

Candidate’s CV

In this section the proposed Chairholder(s) should include a CV that clearly demonstrates the candidate’s contributions to design engineering and design engineering training. It is not necessary to use the standard NSERC Form 100 to present the candidate’s CV. Applicants are encouraged to consult NSERC when preparing the preliminary application. Note that clear, well-planned contributions to design training are very important to a successful proposal.

The full application

Applicants must be invited to submit a full application.

For detailed instructions, see the Guide for Applicants.

Review Procedures

The preliminary applications will be reviewed by a selection panel comprised of design experts from academia and industry. All full applications will be evaluated through a site visit. The selection panel will then rank the full applications and make the final recommendations to NSERC.

Selection Criteria

Applications will be evaluated on the basis of the quality of the candidate, the impact of the university design strategy, and the relevance and creativity demonstrated by the action plan in achieving the CDE goals. The evaluation criteria involve quantitative and qualitative assessments of the specific results, contributions and impacts to be achieved by the university's design strategy, and the Chair's action plan in relation to each of the four (equally weighted) objectives:

1. contribution to the training of highly qualified personnel;
2. design and development;
3. collaboration; and
4. promotion.

The evaluation criteria also cover the Chairholder, the Chair structure and other arrangements that may affect the Chair's success and effectiveness.

Detailed criteria are described in the Guide for Applicants.

Public Annoucements

Refer to the General Guidelines for the Public Announcement of Major NSERC Awards in planning a public announcement of a CDE. NSERC will approve a public announcement only after the Chairholder has formally accepted the position and after all conditions of the award have been addressed to NSERC's satisfaction.

Reporting

The Chairholder is required to submit annual progress reports and financial statements (i.e., Form 300 – Grants in Aid of Research/Statement of Account). Private and public contributions to the Chair must be confirmed annually. The Chairholder submits annual reports. The Chairholders meet twice a year to discuss issues of common interest and present progress reports.

Renewal

The decision to renew a Chair for a second five-year term will be based on a review of the Chair’s progress during the first 48 months and the proposed Action Plan for the following five years. If the evaluation of the first term’s progress and the renewal proposal are positive and the sponsoring organization(s) is willing to contribute financial support for a second term, NSERC will contribute up to $200,000 per year in support of the Chairholder’s salary and design engineering program.

In the second term only, the maximum NSERC contribution to salary for each successive year will be: 45 percent, 37.5 percent, 25 percent, 12.5 percent, and 5 percent, respectively, of the value of the Chairholder’s salary and fringe benefits at the beginning of the second term. The expectation is that the university will assume an increasing commitment toward the Chairholder’s salary. If the sponsoring organization(s) chooses to contribute an amount greater than NSERC’s grant towards salary, NSERC will not recognize, for leveraging purposes, these additional sponsor funds allocated to Chairholder salary support.

The remainder of NSERC’s contribution is allocated to the Chair’s design engineering program.

The total funding provided by the sponsoring organization(s) during that same period must be equal to or greater than NSERC’s support.

For further information about the renewal of Chairs in Design Engineering, see the Renewal Policy on Chairs in Design Engineering.