NSERC Research Grants Become NSERC Discovery Grants

Name change for flagship program effective today

Ottawa, Ontario, June 7, 2002 – The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council today completed the renaming of its largest grant program from Research Grants to Discovery Grants. This name will from now on appear in all NSERC publications, applications and correspondence, and will be applied to current NSERC awards and also to those made in previous competitions.

"Response to the new name, which we first proposed last year, has been extremely positive," said NSERC President Tom Brzustowski. "'Discovery' is the object of basic research, which is what this program supports, and the use of that term in the name makes that very clear."

"It's always difficult to change a well-established name," said Isabelle Blain, NSERC Vice-President of Research Grants and Scholarships, "particularly when the program has been in existence since 1916, and some professors have held research grants, or 'operating' grants as they were known for a period, for many years. But we have many grant programs and they all involve research, so it doesn't make sense to call only one kind of grant a 'research' grant."

"By branding this program more carefully, we can better explain these awards to the public and their political representatives, as well as take advantage of new communications opportunities," said Communications Director Tim Nau.

NSERC Equipment Grants, Major Equipment Grants and Major Installation Grants programs have also been renamed. They become Research Tools and Instruments, Categories 1, 2 and 3, respectively. "The new unified name makes it clear that we are funding very similar things – purposeful devices and aids for research. The only real difference between the categories is in the total cost of the item being applied for," said Blain.

For more information, contact:

Francis Lionnet
NSERC Newsbureau
Tel.: (613) 992-9001
E-mail: fzl@nserc.ca