Chairs in Design Engineering Program

Objectives

The Chairs in Design Engineering (CDE) Program was 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. Chairs funded under the program 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 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.

NSERC is working to establish a total of 16 Chairs in Design Engineering across Canada. At least one Chair in Design Engineering are available in the current competition.

Application Procedures

The applicant must be the Dean of Engineering (or equivalent) with direct responsibility 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 application form for this program.

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 program goals. Detailed criteria are described in the program’s Guide for Applicants.

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, university and sponsoring organization(s) are required to submit a first term progress report after 48 months (see Renewal section). 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.

Contact

For further information, contact the Program Officer responsible for this program:

Monika Michalska
Account Manager
Research Partnerships Programs Directorate
NSERC
350 Albert Street
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 1H5

Tel.: 613-995-8124
Fax: 613-992-5337
E-mail: Monika Michalska