Government Makes Call for Applications for New Networks of Centres of
Excellence
Ottawa, January 12, 2000 - The Government of Canada issued today
a call for applications to establish new Networks of Centres of Excellence
(NCEs) in the following areas:
- The Automobile of the 21st Century;
- Genomics Technologies and Society;
- Meeting Environmental Challenges for Clean Water;
- Early Child Development and Its Impact on Society.
New NCEs targeted in these research fields will help to fulfill the Government's
promise, outlined in the Throne Speech, to strengthen Canada's commitment
to children and the environment and to expand Canada's expertise in areas
like advanced engineering and genomics. The attached Backgrounder identifies
research that could be supported by networks in these new target areas.
University researchers and their private and public sector partners are
invited to present innovative strategies in Letters of Intent by May 1,
2000; invited applicants will have until October 2, 2000 to submit full
applications.
Information sessions for prospective applicants will be held in March, 2000
across Canada.
The Government has allocated $13 million for this year's targeted competition.
In the coming months, results will be announced from the 1999 competition,
which was open to proposals for research in all areas. It is expected that
these two competitions will lead to the creation of up to eight new NCEs.
The new networks will be selected through a rigorous peer-review process.
A committee of experts will review the Letters of Intent, as well as the
full proposals, against five equally weighted criteria: research excellence;
training of highly-qualified personnel; networking and partnerships; knowledge
exchange and technology exploitation; and network management.
Full proposals will undergo a two-tiered evaluation. First, Expert Panels
will meet with representatives of the groups of applicants, and will submit
their in-depth evaluation to the NCE Selection Committee. Then, the full
proposals and Expert Panel reports will be reviewed by the Selection Committee,
which will make recommendations about the networks to be funded to the NCE
Steering Committee for final decision.
Industry Canada and the three granting councils (the Natural Sciences and
Engineering Research Council, the Medical Research Council and the Social
Sciences and Humanities Research Council) jointly manage the program.
The NCE program seeks to mobilize Canada's best research talent in the university,
private and public sectors and apply it to the task of developing the economy
and improving Canadians' quality of life. It is based first and foremost
on research excellence and the power of partnering and networking across
the country to maximize impact.
The schedule for the targeted competition will enable successful groups
to receive funds before March 31, 2001.
Interested groups should refer to the 2000 Program Guide and the 2000 Letters
of Intent Guidelines.
Backgrounder
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