Important Notice From NSERC – Your Notification of Intent to Apply for a Discovery Grant (Form 180)

It is time to start preparing your Discovery Grant application. A Notification of Intent to Apply for a Discovery Grant (Form 180) and the required attachments must be submitted by the deadline date of August 1.

We would also like to remind you that the deadline date for the receipt of Research Tools and Instruments (RTI) Grant applications is October 25.

Important Changes to the Peer Review System for Discovery Grants

Further to the recommendations from the International Review of Discovery Grants and the GSC Structure Review, NSERC is introducing major changes to its peer review system for Discovery Grants (the details and recommendations of both reviews are available on our Web site):

1. A Conference Model for the peer review of its Discovery Grant applications starting this year for the 2010 competition. The Grant Selection Committees are being replaced by Evaluation Groups – refer to List of Evaluation Groups and Research Topics for more details, as you will be required to suggest the Evaluation Group that is most appropriate to review your research proposal.
2. Since the 2009 competition, the decoupling of the assessment of Discovery Grant applications from the previous grant held by the applicant. A two-staged approach is being introduced: a) rating of all applications based on the three merit criteria (excellence of the researcher, merit of the proposal and contributions to the training of highly qualified people), and b) assignment of a funding level to each merit category – refer to the eBulletin on this new approach.

Notification of Intent to Apply for a Discovery Grant (Form 180) Submission

Note that Form 180 is an important part of the review process. Failure to submit it will prevent the selection of referees and may, therefore, have an adverse impact on the review of your application.

If you do not intend to apply this year, please let us know by sending an e-mail, before August 1, to coord@nserc-crsng.gc.ca , with your name, Personal Identification Number (if available), department and institution name.

Before you start, you must read or consult the following documents on NSERC’s Web site:

1. The instructions on how to complete Form 180; and
2. NSERC’s Eligibility Criteria.

You are also encouraged to verify the balance of your current Discovery Grant account, if applicable, before submitting Form 180. If the available funds are sufficient to cover anticipated expenditures through the next fiscal year, please take advantage of the automatic one-year extension to use the accumulated funds prior to submitting a new request for funding. Deferring an application does not adversely affect the review of your next application, but rather demonstrates good fiscal management of the funds and allows you to re-organize your activities and postpone the renewal/re-application date by one year. It also provides the opportunity for the Agency to fund other researchers with more urgent needs.

The 2009 versions of the literature and application forms (Forms 100 and 101) will be available on NSERC’s Web site as of August 5, 2009; however, you may start preparing your application now using the current versions of the forms.

Completing your Form 180

Starting this year, NSERC will only accept a Form 180 through its On-line Services. You must complete the form through NSERC’s On-line Services page.

The deadline for submitting your Form 180 is August 1. The information contained in this form allows NSERC to start planning some aspects of the review process, including preliminary assignments to an Evaluation Group and the selection of appropriate referees.

Note: Once your form has been submitted, NSERC will send you, via e-mail, an acknowledgement of receipt. The status of the form on your My Portfolio page will also change to Received within three business days. Do not send a paper version of your completed form by mail; we will use only the electronic version.

In September, your university Research Grants Office will be provided with a list of all completed Form 180 submissions. They, in turn, will advise your department.

Personal Data Form (Form 100)

As part of Form 100, NSERC applicants are required to describe their contributions to the training of highly qualified personnel (HQP) by providing certain details about the individuals they have trained or supervised. Due to federal Privacy Act rules governing the collection of personal information, applicants are now required to obtain consent from these individuals before providing personal data about them to NSERC.

To help the applicant obtain this consent, NSERC has created a form called Appendix D (Form 100) – Consent to Provide Limited Personal Information About Highly Qualified Personnel (HQP) to NSERC. We are making this consent form available in advance of the Discovery Grants application deadline to give you extra time to collect the required signatures.

When using this form to seek consent, you will need to assure the individual that the information collected will only be used by NSERC for the purpose of assessing your contribution to HQP training. You must keep these signed consent forms on file and, if requested, make them available to NSERC.

In cases where it proves difficult or impossible to obtain consent, you will still be able to list contributions to training using generic data and descriptions that do not identify those supervised.

If you would like to find out more about the Discovery Grants program, visit the NSERC Web site or send an e-mail to resgrants@nserc-crsng.gc.ca. Please direct questions regarding NSERC’s On-line Services to the NSERC Helpdesk, Monday to Friday, from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (EST). The Helpdesk can be reached by telephone at 613-995-4273 or by e-mail at webapp@nserc-crsng.gc.ca.