Global Excellence Initiative

Subsequent to a meeting involving the then Governor-General of Canada, government representatives, and leaders of research agencies, scholarly associations and interested groups through the nation, a federal initiative was launched with the objective of raising Canada's research profile on the global stage: the Global Excellence Initiative outlining strategies behind the Paths to Success . One of the facets of this initiative is to provide support to scholars and scientists toward their nomination for major international awards with the aim of raising international recognition. An early commentary  on this initiative was published in University Affairs in 2014.

In October 2017, Universities Canada took over the helm of the Global Excellence Initiative  at Mr. Johnston's request as he ended his term. With the support of ISED, CIHR, CFI, NSERC, and SSHRC, Universities Canada offers dynamic inventories of prestigious Canadian  and International  research awards, which are eligible for external review.

An external review process is available through Program Specialist, Emily Everett (Universities Canada), which follows the following timeline:

  • At least 6 weeks prior to the submission deadline, the institution must provide the Program Specialist with the name of the nominee as well as a short biography, the subject matter for the nomination, and the name of the prize or award through the GEI's online submission form. Reviewers are selected from a pool of Canadian and international researchers successful in obtaining prestigious prizes and awards. A list of referees involved in and/or providing letters for the nomination should also be included so that the Program Specialist can avoid contacting them to be reviewers.  
  • The institution must submit a full draft nomination dossier no later than 3 weeks prior to the submission deadline to the Program Specialist.
  • Responses from reviewers will be returned to the Program Specialist within 10 days to be transmitted back to the institution.
  • The institution has 10 days to incorporate any comments and suggestions into the final nomination dossier for the international award/prize to the sponsoring organization.

If you are involved in a nomination for an international award/prize and would like to participate in the external review process provided by Global Excellence Initiative, please inform the Research Awards Officer in the Vice-Principal Research Portfolio, and please take note of the timeline provided above.

Last Updated: April 20, 2023