Funding, News and Announcements

In support of early career researchers (ECRs), NSERC is launching a pilot initiative to offer 200 vouchers of $10,000 each to replace some or all of the required cash contributions from partner organizations in an Alliance Advantage grant (formerly Alliance Cost-Sharing Option 1). These vouchers are being offered to make it easier for ECRs to participate in Alliance Advantage grants and to aid them in attracting partner organizations to their programs of research.

If a Principal Investigator (PI) meets NSERC’s definition of an ECR (see Discovery Grants: What is an early career researcher?) and intends to submit an application to the NSERC Alliance Advantage Program after February, 2024 (see 4b below), they can apply for a $10,000 voucher to replace some or all of the required cash contributions from their partner organization(s). The $10,000 will be counted as part of cash contributions from partners in calculating NSERC’s funding toward the project. NSERC matches partner contributions in a 2:1 ratio for Alliance Advantage grants. Therefore, the $10,000 voucher will be matched with $20,000 for a total of $30,000.

The pilot program will provide vouchers to a maximum of 200 eligible researchers. PIs must submit a Letter of intent (LOI) through the NSERC online system (see Alliance Advantage — Letter of intent and redemption: voucher for early career researchers). The LOI involves providing basic information about the PI and their attach their personal data form with CCV.

If NSERC receives more than 200 Letters of intent, it will choose recipients through a random selection process.

Summary of Submission Processes:

1. The PI will generate the LOI documentation in the NSERC Portal.
2. The PI will create an investigator checklist, attach a complete preview of the LOI documents (sourced from the NSERC portal), and then transmit the package via ROMEO. This package must be submitted to ROMEO a minimum of 10-business days prior to the funder’s deadline of February 22, 2024.
3. Once department, faculty, and ORS (institutional) reviews and approvals are in place, the PI will be informed by ORS that they may submit their LOI via the NSERC Portal.
4. Important:
   • Like all NSERC Alliance grant funding requests, on behalf of the PI, ORS is responsible to approve and forward the LOI to the funder, after the PI has submitted the final version to the NSERC Portal. ORS’ deadline to approve and forward the PI’s LOI to NSERC is the same deadline as the PI holds to submit the LOI to the NSERC Portal (i.e. Feb.22, 2024, 9 PM Atlantic Time). As such, we request that all PIs submit their complete and finalized LOIs to the NSERC Portal no later than 2 PM on Feb.22, 2024.
   • Once an ECR has been notified that they have been selected to receive an ECR voucher, the voucher can be used on a new Alliance Advantage grant application. This means that the voucher cannot be used on an already submitted or funded Alliance application. The ECR must be selected to receive a voucher first, then they can submit their Alliance grant proposal using the voucher.

Deadlines

Internal: February 8, 2024, at 4:30 PM Atlantic Time
Funder: February 22, 2024, at 9:00 PM Atlantic Time

ORS Contact: Please contact the research grants facilitator for your faculty.
NSERC Contact: alliance@nserc-crsng.gc.ca; 1-855-275-2861