Update on the NSERC Partnership Renewal

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NSERC

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NSERC's New Research Partnerships Program

Description

On November 30, 2018, NSERC released a revised version of their discussion document on the renewal of the NSERC partnership suite. This document incorporates feedback NSERC received from its recent round of consultation and townhalls, and seeks to better clarify the new elements of the program design. Universities Canada has been providing feedback to NSERC on issues brought forward by the community, including the loss of the Industrial Research Chair flagship program within the new design.

These updates include the creation of a new three-tiered cost-sharing structure where NSERC will provide for 50% of the cash costs (a 1:1 leverage ratio), 66% of the cash costs (a 2:1 leverage ratio), or 90-to-100% of the cash costs depending on the type of research to be performed and the partners assembled. It also includes NSERC’s current thinking about eligible expenses, as well as evaluation criteria for partnership applications. For full details about the proposed structure, parameters and features of the program, please consult the new version of the Research Partnerships Framework. 

In addition, with the forthcoming implementation of the new Research Partnerships Program, NSERC has established transition plans for its current partnership programs included in the consolidation.

NSERC will continue to accept comments on the latest version until January 2, 2019; comments and questions may be sent to RPR@nserc-crsng.gc.ca.

Special Notes

No further competitions of the Strategic Partnership Grants for Networks (SPG-N) and Strategic Partnership Grants for Projects (SPG-P) will be held. The 2019 SPG-N and SPG-P competitions will not occur. This does not impact the evaluation of the existing SPG-N applications that were invited in July, 2018 to apply to the full 2018 SPG-N competition. Commitments for previously awarded Strategic Partnerships grants will be honoured.