Alliance Missions grants

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Overview

Budget 2022 prioritizes Canada's ongoing efforts to fight climate change and protect the environment by taking bold and immediate action to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, while strengthening the Canadian economy with sustainable jobs and clean industrial growth. The 2030 Emissions Reduction Plan: Clean Air, Strong Economy, outlines a sector-by-sector path for Canada to reach its emissions reduction target of 40% below 2005 levels by 2030 and net-zero emissions by 2050. Advancing science through critical investments in climate change research, applying existing knowledge and incorporating new insights that inform our GHG emissions pathway analysis and mitigation planning will be essential to address the challenges ahead.

Canada's approach to climate change mitigation reflects input from more than 30,000 Canadians, provinces and territories, Indigenous Peoples, industry and the independent Net-Zero Advisory Body. This underscores the need for an interdisciplinary, collaborative effort built on an understanding of real issues and opportunities for inclusive and shared decision-making models.

Alliance Missions grants are intended to provide support for research activities that will

• promote interdisciplinary collaboration among academic researchers, federal scientists, private-sector scientists and policymakers to increase the scientific information available to support government decision-making to achieve net-zero GHG emissions targets
• build on scientific capacity in earth system climate science, atmospheric monitoring/modelling and socio-economic analysis to understand anthropogenic GHG emissions at regional and national scales or by sector to inform ambitious GHG mitigation opportunities and to improve understanding of how GHG emissions are changing over time
• advance Canadian knowledge and tools to inform decision-making processes for achievement of net-zero GHG emissions by 2050 through the investigation of anthropogenic GHG emissions and their changes over time

Partnerships are strongly encouraged across academia, government, private-sector organizations and not-for-profit organizations to leverage existing data and models, and to facilitate the uptake of new knowledge related to GHG emissions mitigation in order to identify new GHG mitigation opportunities, inform mitigation action plans, and report on changing emissions over time. An interdisciplinary network of researchers from at least three separate departments, faculties, institutions or organizations is also strongly encouraged. The participation of at least one partner organization that is recognized for cost-sharing is required.

Grant support ranges from $100,000 to $500,000 per year, for a duration of three years. NSERC will provide support for 100% of the eligible costs of research. Although partner organizations do not need to provide cash contributions to participate, they must actively play a role in the project and support it through in-kind contributions. A broad range of in-kind contributions could be made toward a project; refer to the Partner organizations web page for additional information.

Developing and implementing policies or directly applying your research results may depend on scientific understanding beyond the natural sciences and engineering (NSE). Alliance Missions grants support collaborations with academic researchers in fields other than the NSE. Research costs for these collaborations can represent up to 30% of project costs. Research proposals are expected to demonstrate an interdisciplinary approach that reflects the complexity and interconnections inherent in climate change. NSERC may prioritize the funding of interdisciplinary projects.

Who can apply?

If you are a Canadian university researcher who is eligible to receive NSERC funds, you can apply on your own or as a team with co-applicants who are also eligible academic researchers. Given the limited funding, applicants will be allowed to participate in only one Alliance Missions grant application for this call, either as the principal investigator or a co-applicant. However, you may concurrently apply to Alliance grants Option 1 and/or Alliance grants Option 2 to support other research activities not included in your Alliance Missions application.

NSERC encourages the participation of early career researchers (ECRs) as applicants or co-applicants on Alliance Missions grant applications. Accordingly, a proportion of awards equal to the proportion of applications submitted that are led by early career researchers will be reserved for these researchers. For more information on how NSERC categorizes an applicant as an ECR, refer to the Discovery Grants—applicant categories.

National Security Guidelines for Research Partnerships

In the case where your application involves one or more partner organizations from the private sector, including when they participate alongside other partner organizations from the public and/or not-for-profit sectors, you must complete the National Security Guidelines for Research Partnerships' risk assessment form and include it as an integral part of your application.

At all times, Canadian researchers are encouraged to exercise appropriate levels of due diligence to safeguard their research. Resources to do so are provided by the Government of Canada on the Safeguarding Your Research portal.

What's next?
Partner organizations