Mechanical Engineering Grant Selection Committee Restructuring

The research community served by the Mechanical Engineering Grant Selection Committee (GSC 13) has seen consistent growth over the past several years with an average of close to 200 Discovery Grant applications and over 100 Research Tools & Instruments Grant applications per year. Due to this increased demand, NSERC is restructuring GSC 13 effective immediately.

Two new GSCs will be struck and will work in tandem. One will focus mostly on the solid mechanics aspects of the discipline and the other will focus mainly on the thermal fluids aspects.

The following table demonstrates how the areas covered by GSC 13 would be divided.  

In order to ensure a smooth transition between the previous structure and the new one, and to ensure consistency between the two groups, the committees will jointly review a number of applications in areas overlapping the two committees, and will hold joint policy discussions every year before and after the competition meetings.

The restructuring of GSC 13, while reducing the workload for its members, will ensure better coverage of the mechanical engineering sub-disciplines as the number of members will increase from 14 to 18. Under the proposed structure, members will be better supported in their peer review activities, which will in turn further improve the review process itself.