Winnipeg Office Set to Open This Summer

Staffing is underway to fill three positions planned for NSERC’s new regional office. The office will be located in the building that houses NRC’s Institute for Biodiagnostics in downtown Winnipeg.We anticipate that the regional manager will move in by mid July and that the other positions will be staffed during the summer.

Consultations in the region revealed that “presence,” “access to programs,” and “promotion,” the three main directions being pursued by the NSERC Atlantic Regional Office, are also relevant in the Prairies. This means that the Winnipeg office will benefit from the wealth of experience we have built up in Atlantic Canada during our first year of operation.

The larger size of the Prairie region and the wider diversity in the size of institutions and in their research environment are important differences and they will present challenges as the Winnipeg office strives to establish a meaningful presence for NSERC across the region. Priority will be placed on finding the best ways to serve institutions in Alberta and Saskatchewan, a concern raised during the consultations.

In early June, we began consultations in British Columbia to plan the establishment of NSERC’s third office, which we hope to open by the end of the year.