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Summary of Changes – 2011-12 Program Guide for Professors

NSERC has revised the Program Guide for Professors. A summary of the most significant changes appears below.
The Summary of Changes to the Tri-Agency Financial Administration Guide will be updated in mid-September.

Programs (in alphabetical order)
ARD – Applied Research and Development Grants Revision: November 3, 2011 Applicants for Applied Research and Development (ARD) Grants will see the following modifications: Company participation: Duration of the Level 1 grants have been specified; a maximum of $150,000 per year has been established for Level 3 proposals; and clarifications on partner eligibility. Proposal: Applicants now have to indicate the new partnership in their project description for Level 1 grants; and circumstances for the hiring of consultants have been described. Budget Justification: Applicants now have to indicate who will receive salary support from the ARD Grant.
CDE – Chairs in Design Engineering Revision: January 11, 2012 At least two Chairs in Design Engineering available in the upcoming competition.
CHRP – Collaborative Health Research Projects Program Revision: March 9, 2011 This program has been modified and the overall program budget has been expanded. New features include requirements for knowledge/technology users’ participation at the time of application, and the possibility of special calls for proposals in priority areas. Please read the program description for further details.
CREATE – Collaborative Research and Training Experience Program Revision: April 4, 2011 Changes are explained in a separate document.
CU-I2I – College-University Idea to Innovation Grants Created: November 16, 2011 The College-University Idea to Innovation Grants are intended to develop and strengthen research links between colleges, universities and businesses to accelerate the development of promising technologies and promote their commercialization in the Canadian marketplace.
DG – Discovery Grants Program Revision: August 4, 2011 Applicants to the Discovery Grants program will see the following modifications to the on-line application. Proposal page: Applicants are asked to use headings (recent progress, objectives, literature review, methodology, impact) when writing their proposal; Contribution to Highly Qualified Personnel: Applicants are now required to provide, in a maximum of one page, detailed information about their contribution to the training of highly qualified personnel; Budget Justification: The maximum number of pages is now limited to two pages; References: The maximum number of pages has increased from one to two pages; and Other Research Support page: It is now mandatory for applicants who currently hold, or have applied for, research support from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) or the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) to provide the summary and budget page of these proposals. Failure to do so will result in an incomplete application.
DG-NRS – Discovery Grants – Northern Research Supplements Program Revision: August 4, 2011 Starting with the 2012 competition, supplement awards could range to up to $25,000 per year and all applications will be assessed with a new criterion: Education, Outreach, and Communication Initiatives. By adding this extra element and new dimension to the NRS Program, applicants’ proposals will now have a three-page limit (was previously a two-page limit). Further details can be found in the re-worked NRS Program description and instructions.
G8 Research Councils Initiative on Multilateral Research Funding Revision: July 7, 2011 This initiative is aimed at supporting excellent research on topics of global relevance that can best be tackled by a multinational approach. Funding should help researchers to cooperate in consortia consisting of at least three partners from three of the participating countries.
I2I – Idea to Innovation Grants Revision: November 16, 2011 As a pilot in the Market Assessment portion of an I2I Grant, NSERC will cover the costs of University Industry Liaison Offices (UILO) to conduct a market assessment internally. A copy of the offer of service and CV of the person to be hired to conduct the assessment must be attached to the application. See the I2I Grants description and instructions for more information.
IRCC – Industrial Research Chairs for Colleges Grants Created: October 4, 2011 The goal of Industrial Research Chairs for Colleges Grants is to support the establishment of applied research leaders and promote their role as catalysts in the advancement of business-focused applied research programs at colleges. The result will be the development of new, or the significant enhancement of existing, applied research capacity in areas that meet local or regional socio-economic needs.
NSERC and CIHR Institute of Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes Funding Initiative for Sodium Reduction in the Canadian Food Supply Created: March 22, 2011 NSERC and the CIHR-Institute of Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes will jointly fund collaborative research and development activities to reduce sodium in the Canadian food supply. Applicants may submit proposals to the Collaborative Research and Development Grants Program at any time.
NSERC/NRCan/AECL Generation IV Energy Technologies Program Revision: July 4, 2011 A second phase of this program is being launched. The research priority areas and the overall program budget have been expanded. Preliminary applications are due August 7, 2011. Please read the program description for further details.

Policies and Guidelines (in alphabetical order)
All program instructions and entry pages of NSERC’s On-line System Revision: November 18, 2011 All applicants, co-applicants and College and Community Innovation Program participants submitting applications, or linking their Personal Data form to an application, or accepting funding from federal granting agencies as of November 17, 2011, are required to consent to the disclosure of personal information in cases of serious breach of agency policy. Refer to the Tri-Agency Statement: Consent to Disclosure of Personal Information.
Requirements for Certain Types of Research Revision: August 4, 2011 In the requirements for Research Involving Humans, the text has been revised to make reference to the second edition of the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans (TCPS 2) that replaced the first edition of the TCPS (1998) as the official human research ethics policy of NSERC, SSHRC and CIHR.
Selecting the Appropriate Federal Granting Agency Revision: December 2, 2010 The following three policies have been replaced by the single tri-agency (NSERC, SSHRC and CIHR) policy Selecting the Appropriate Federal Granting Agency: Guidelines for the Evaluation of Subject Matter Eligibility of Applications Related to the Health Sciences; Selecting the Appropriate Federal Granting Agency and Addressing Other Sources of Funding; and Support of Research in Psychology. Information about addressing other sources of funding may be found in the Relationship Between NSERC Proposals and Other Sources of Funds policy.
Tri-Agency Framework: Responsible Conduct of Research Created: December 5, 2011 NSERC, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research launched the new Tri-Agency Framework: Responsible Conduct of Research. This new Framework replaces the previous integrity policy and related documents, including the Tri-Agency Policy Statement: Integrity in Research and Scholarship (TCPS-I, 1994), the Framework for Tri-Council Review of Institutional Policies Dealing with Integrity in Research (1996) and the Tri-Agency Process for Addressing Allegations of Non-compliance with Tri-Agency Policies (2010). All researchers and institutions will be required to adhere to the Framework and to the policies referenced in it.

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