Office of Research Services (ORS)

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Internal Deadline for Office of Research Services (Expression of Interest): NSERC CREATE

Building on our previous newsletter post, please find below a description of important changes to the NSERC CREATE Competition and a new internal process to select projects to move forward to the Letter of Intent (LOI) stage.

The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC)’s Collaborative Research and Training Experience (CREATE) program has recently undergone a renewal process aiming to simplify the program and the application procedures. These changes apply for the 2025 competition year and beyond, and are as follows:

  • University LOI quota is now three (3) for all eligible institutions. In recent years, Dalhousie’s quota has been six (6) LOIs.
  • The LOI stage is now non-competitive, meaning that the LOIs are not adjudicated by NSERC’s selection committee and proceed directly to the application stage.
  • LOI submissions are still required by the May 1 deadline, but the information to be provided is reduced.
  • The Industrial stream has been eliminated. Industrial participation in CREATE initiatives is encouraged, but the extent and nature of industrial participation is determined by the applicants and their industrial partners.
  • Mobility experiences are now mandatory for all M.Sc. and Ph.D. trainees, with a minimum duration of 1 month for M.Sc. and 2 months for Ph.D.

NSERC will hold a webinar to discuss changes to the LOI instructions and other program elements on February 7 & 8, 2024. These changes will also be reflected on the CREATE website when the updates for the 2025 competition year are posted in early March 2024.

Given the reduction of LOI quota from six (6) to three (3), the Office of Research Services (ORS) has developed an internal Expression of Interest (EOI) process. Researchers interested in applying will be required to submit an EOI to their Faculty Dean, using the EOI template. Researchers are asked to contact their Dean’s Office for the internal Faculty deadline to submit an EOI for consideration. All Deans will submit EOIs from their Faculty to ORS by 4:30 PM on February 21, 2024.

If more than 3 EOIs are submitted for consideration, they will undergo a review process by an internal selection committee. The Selection Committee’s review will be based on the NSERC CREATE program’s review procedures and selection criteria for the LOI stage. Each EOI will be assigned a merit review score that will be used to select the projects moving forward to the LOI stage. Results will be communicated to researchers in early March. Teams selected to move forward from the EOI stage will be asked to submit their complete LOI to ORS via ROMEO by April 10, 2024.

Please contact Dr. James Karle (j.karle@dal.ca) with any questions.

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