Please note the following updates regarding recent and upcoming changes to NSERC leadership and programs. Future updates will be posted here and distributed to researchers via the Queen’s natural sciences and engineering funding opportunities listserv. Click here to subscribe to the listserv.

In the meantime, should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Nancy Churchman, Research Projects Advisor, Office of Research Services, at nancy.churchman@queensu.ca or ext. 77314.

NSERC Announces Changes in Senior Administration

NSERC President Suzanne Fortier has been selected as the new Principal and Vice-Chancellor of McGill University. NSERC has provided an update on ongoing leadership of NSERC in the transition period prior to the recruitment of the next President.

NSERC Research Tools and Instruments (RTI) Grants Program

As recently announced by NSERC, after extensive consultation and input from stakeholders in the research community across Canada, NSERC made a decision on the continued delivery of the program. As per the feedback and preferences received from the community, NSERC will maintain a national competition for the RTI Grants Program and will work with institutions to implement an application quota so that NSERC receives about 500 applications in total.

Starting with the fall 2013 application cycle, universities will be provided with a quota of applications that they can submit to NSERC. The quota will represent about one third of the number of applications received in the past. The quotas to universities will be based on the number of NSERC-funded researchers supported at each institution, with a minimum quota of two applications.

Queen’s quota for the fall 2003 competition will be 13 applications. An internal application process will be introduced to select 13 submissions.

Details of the internal application process will be communicated to researchers via ORS and the Associate Deans Research of their respective faculties.

NSERC'S Research Portal and the Canadian Common CV

NSERC has released an update notice (see below) on upcoming changes to the NSERC application process. No action is required at this point, but please anticipate future notices about the nature and timing of the transition to the Canadian Common CV (CCV) and Research Portal.

The NSERC CCV template is not yet available on the CCV website, but will be available shortly. NSERC will be phasing in the move to the CCV starting in spring 2013, with all NSERC programs using the CCV by late 2015.

Queen’s Office of Research Services will provide regular email updates on the transition to the CCV. Updates on the following will be provided as information becomes available:

• We will notify you when the NSERC CCV template is available on the CCV website. At that point, researchers may wish to start entering their data in the CCV system.
• We will notify you of which NSERC programs will be adopting the CCV and when they will be doing so.
• We will notify you of NSERC CCV webinars and information sessions.

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NSERC Notice: Update on NSERC's Research Portal and the Canadian Common CV

NSERC will launch its Research Portal and begin using the Canadian Common CV (CCV) in spring 2013. The Research Portal will be used to manage application and peer review processes, acceptance of awards, notification of results and reporting.

The transition to the Research Portal and the CCV will be phased in gradually (i.e., program by program) starting with the Notification of Intent for Discovery Grants (Individual and Team) and all the program elements for the Subatomic Physics Grants suite, followed by Collaborative Research and Development Grants. Details and dates will be communicated as we get closer to launching the Research Portal.

The NSERC CCV will be available in spring 2013. We strongly encourage the research community to start entering their data once the template is available as it can be time consuming to populate the fields the first time. Once data is entered, only updating is required, and it can be re-used for future applications to NSERC and/or other participating organizations. For these reasons, the CCV will lighten the load on the research community in the long run. For more information, including timelines and frequently asked questions on the CCV, please visit the Research Portal Resource Centre on NSERC's Web site.

All other funding opportunities will continue to use the current on-line system and the NSERC Personal Data Form (Form 100) until they are migrated to the Research Portal. All NSERC programs are expected to be integrated by late 2015. In the meantime, applicants to multiple programs will need to maintain and update both their NSERC Personal Data Form (Form 100) and NSERC CCV, given the gradual migration of programs to the Research Portal.

The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), with whom NSERC shares all of its administrative services, including Information Technology services, recently completed its first competition using the Research Portal and the CCV with Insight Development Grants.

This page was updated on March 15, 2013.