Section II – Analysis of Program Activities by Strategic Outcome

NSERC’s Program Activity Architecture

Section II of this report follows the structure of NSERC’s Program Activity Architecture (PAA) in terms of its three strategic outcomes (SO), related program activities and program sub-activities, as presented below:

* Programs involving two or more Agencies.
+ The new Business-Led NCEs, Centres of Excellence for Commercialization and Research, and Industrial R&D Internships will be included in this activity.

Strategic Outcome 1.0 – People: Highly skilled science and engineering professionals in Canada

NSERC will help ensure a reliable supply of highly qualified people for Canadian industry, government and universities by promoting science and engineering to Canadian youth, supporting students and fellows training in Canadian universities and abroad, and providing support to university faculty.

Program Activities

1.1 Promote Science and Engineering

Selected key programs, services and initiatives within this Program Activity that will support NSERC’s priorities from 2008-09 to 2010-11 include the following:

• CRYSTAL Evaluation. A program evaluation of the Centres for Research in Youth, Science Teaching and Learning (CRYSTAL) is underway and will be completed in 2008. Results of this evaluation will inform decisions on the future of the program.
  
• Aboriginal Ambassadors in the NSE. NSERC continues to work with the university community and other stakeholders to implement strategies to better address the under-representation of Aboriginals in the NSE. NSERC is ready to announce a new initiative that will encourage Aboriginal scholarship and fellowship holders to conduct outreach in Aboriginal communities. Many science centres and science promotion organizations are ready to assist them (e.g., helping the Ambassadors prepare their material).
  
• Major NSERC Prizes. NSERC will seek out high profile locations and develop high quality presentation packages to call wide attention to its prestigious medals and prizes. In addition, NSERC will increase the monetary value of the Synergy Awards for Innovation in order to increase the prestige and profile associated with these tributes to industry-university partnerships.

1.2 Support Students and Fellows

Selected key programs, services and initiatives within this Program Activity that will support NSERC’s priorities from 2008-09 to 2010-11 include the following:

• Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarships. As announced in Budget 2007, the Canada Graduate Scholarships (CGS) program is being expanded to support an additional 1,000 students per year across all disciplines. The total number of scholarships awarded by the three federal research granting agencies will stand at 5,000 by 2009. Furthermore, the scholarships have been renamed in honour of renowned Canadian innovators and researchers. Students in the natural sciences and engineering will now receive the Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship. Consequently, NSERC will increase the number of Alexander Graham Bell CGS awards offered in the natural sciences and engineering, from 1,200 awards in 2006-07 to 1,600 awards by 2009-10. These awards will greatly contribute to improving Canada’s production of graduates with advanced degrees, to meet the demand for highly qualified personnel in the private, academic and private sectors.
  
• Foreign talent. NSERC has reserved funds to offer scholarships and fellowships to attract excellent foreign graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to Canada to work in the S&T Strategy’s priority areas of research with top national research centres and networks.

1.3 Attract and Retain Faculty

A key initiative under Program Activity 1.3 that will support NSERC’s priorities from 2008-09 to 2010-11 is the following:

• Industrial Research Chairs. Industrial Research Chairs (IRC) are prestigious appointments, intended to assist universities in building on existing strengths to achieve the critical mass required for a major research endeavour in science and engineering of interest to industry. By its nature, the IRC program is focused on priority areas of need or opportunity identified by industrial partners. NSERC will continue to be responsive to a growing desire from the private sector to enter into partnerships with the university research community and will implement the recommendations of a recent program evaluation, the results of which were positive, including increasing the program’s visibility and enhancing performance measurement.

Strategic Outcome 2.0 – Discovery: High quality Canadian-based competitive research in the natural sciences and engineering

Support for ongoing programs of research provides the foundation for scientific and technological advances, ensuring Canada’s participation in the generation of new knowledge and ability to draw on such knowledge generated around the world. Support for research equipment and major resources ensures that Canadian post-secondary institutions are able to train the next generation of scientists and engineers in a world-class research environment, with access to state-of-the-art instruments and equipment and to major regional or national research facilities.

Program Activities

2.1 Fund Basic Research

Selected key programs, services and initiatives within this Program Activity that will support NSERC’s priorities from 2008-09 to 2010-11 include the following:

• Discovery Accelerator Supplements. These awards provide substantial and timely additional resources to accelerate the progress of outstanding researchers each year, helping them to compete with the best in the world. The supplements may be used to expand the recipient’s research group (i.e., students, postdoctoral fellows, technicians), to purchase or to have access to specialized equipment, or for other initiatives or resources that would maximize the impact of their research program. The program was launched in 2007-08 with an initial objective to award 50 Accelerator Supplements per year. With additional funds provided in Budget 2007, NSERC will award 50 additional supplements per year to outstanding Discovery Grant recipients working in the priority areas of energy and natural resources, environment, and information and communications technologies.
  
• International Polar Year. The International Council for Science (ICSU) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) declared 2007-08 as the International Polar Year (IPY). The "year" started on March 1, 2007 and will end on March 1, 2009, covering 24 months. NSERC enabled the participation of Canadians in the IPY, a major international initiative of particular national importance, investing $6 million over three years in the research activities of 11 groups of Canadian researchers through the Special Research Opportunity Program. NSERC also administers more than $30 million of the federal government’s $98 million in IPY research funding. These investments will help Canada maintain its leadership in the important area of Arctic research.

2.2 Support for Research Equipment and Major Resources

A key initiative under Program Activity 2.2 that will support NSERC’s priorities from 2008-09 to 2010-11 is the following:

• Major science initiatives. Several major science initiatives and infrastructure projects, put in place with CFI funding, face challenges in securing ongoing operating funds. These include the North-East Pacific Time-series Undersea Network Experiments (NEPTUNE) project, the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory Laboratory (SNOLAB), the Amundsen research vessel, and the Canadian Light Source (CLS). NSERC has worked with the CFI, the provinces and the proponents to put in place shared emergency funding to ensure that two of these—NEPTUNE and SNOLAB—are able to start their operation. NSERC is also working with CFI and the other funding agencies to document trends in federal investments to date by nature of investments (e.g., direct, indirect, infrastructure and people costs).

Strategic Outcome 3.0 – Innovation: Productive use of new knowledge in the natural sciences and engineering

Wealth is created when Canadians add value in producing goods and services that are sold in world markets. Knowledge is the modern basis for adding value. NSERC aims to maximize the value of public investments in research for the benefit of all Canadians by promoting research-based innovation, university-industry partnerships, technology transfer activities and the training of people with the required scientific and business skill sets to create wealth from discoveries in the NSE.

Program Activities

3.1 Fund Research in Strategic Areas

Selected key programs, services and initiatives within this Program Activity that will support NSERC’s priorities from 2008-09 to 2010-11 include the following:

• Growth in Strategic Partnership programs. With funding provided in Budget 2007, incremental investments have been made to several programs under the Strategic Partnerships sub-activity. The incremental funding will support additional Strategic Network Grants, Strategic Project Grants and Strategic Workshop Grants under the three target areas – Healthy Environment and Ecosystems, Sustainable Energy Systems, and Advanced Communications and Management of Information – each of which has been re-scoped and repositioned to align more directly with the S&T Strategy priority areas. These programs accelerate research and training in targeted and emerging areas of national importance that could strongly enhance Canada's economy, society and/or environmental stewardship within the next ten years. To promote an integrated, multidisciplinary approach to addressing the priority research areas, calls for proposals are designed to include co-applicants from disciplines outside the NSE.
  
• Strategic Network Enhancement Initiative. In 2007-08, NSERC provided new funding to existing Strategic Networks to build on their strengths and support enriched training, develop and improve international linkages, and increase the impact of the network through intensified knowledge and technology transfer. These new linkages respond to the S&T Strategy commitment to strengthen Canada's ties to the global supply of ideas, talent and technology through support for multinational collaborative research projects. This initiative has become a permanent enhancement to the program along with the doubling of its budget.
  
• Collaborative Health Research Projects. Together, NSERC and CIHR have expanded their Collaborative Health Research Projects Program, more than doubling the program budget from $6M per annum in 2006-07 to a total of $13.8M, to increase interaction between the health science and natural science and engineering communities so as to address important health challenges that require expertise from the two sets of disciplines.

3.2 Fund University-Industry-Government Partnerships

Selected key programs, services and initiatives within this Program Activity that will support NSERC’s priorities from 2008-09 to 2010-11 include the following:

• Implementation of new programs. The implementation of new initiatives and investments announced in Budget 2007 is well underway and will continue into 2008-09 and beyond. These include:
  • The Business-led Networks of Centres of Excellence (BL-NCE) will fund large-scale collaborative networks to support private sector innovation in order to deliver potential economic, social and/or environmental benefits to Canadians.
  • The Centres of Excellence for Commercialization and Research (CECR) will create internationally recognized centres of commercialization and research expertise in four priority areas in order to deliver economic, health, social and environmental benefits to Canadians.
  • The Industrial Research and Development Internship (IRDI) Program will create internships in industry, introducing students to practical business problems while allowing them to apply their expertise to help meet the research needs of Canada’s private sector. The program is modelled after a successful initiative developed by the Mathematics of Information Technology and Complex Systems (MITACS) NCE.
    
• Pre-CRDs. The Collaborative Research and Development (CRD) Grants program enables companies to access the unique knowledge, expertise, and educational resources available at Canadian post-secondary institutions, and offers opportunities for mutually beneficial collaborations, jointly funded by NSERC and the industrial partner(s). In order to increase the number of university-industry interactions and partnerships, and to build receptor capacity in Canadian industry, NSERC plans to launch a pilot Pre-CRD Initiative. Incentives will be provided for researchers to actively seek out companies with whom to partner. A one-year “Pre-CRD” grant would be available for researchers and companies who have not previously participated in NSERC’s Partnerships Programs. To encourage industry to participate, the Pre-CRD grant would not require industry cash or tangible in-kind contributions. NSERC’s experience has shown that successful long-term collaborations often begin first as a small joint CRD project, progressing to larger CRDs and, in some cases, to an Industrial Research Chair, a major time and financial commitment for both the company and the university researcher.

3.3 Support Commercialization

A key initiative under Program Activity 3.3 that will support NSERC’s priorities from 2008-09 to 2010-11 is the following:

• College and Community Innovation (CCI) Program. As discussed under Priority 3 in Section I above, the permanent CCI program, announced in Budget 2007, was launched in January 2008. Funding will flow to recipients in 2008-09 and beyond.