Summary of Major Changes to CREATE program for the 2010 Competition

1. Two–stage process – Letters of Intent and Full Applications (if invited to apply)

   There will now be a Letter of Intent (LOI) stage and selection process instead of the Notification of Intent to Apply which was only used for planning purposes. The Letter of Intent has been expanded to ensure that essential information on which to judge the application is provided.

   The CREATE Selection Committee will review the Letters of Intent received and will choose, based on the novelty and value-added benefit to graduate training of the proposed CREATE initiative and on the excellence of the researchers, those proposals that will be invited to submit a Full Application. With funding available for only 20 proposals, and therefore a success rate in the 2009 competition of 15 percent, it was decided this was the best approach to ensure optimum usage of university administrators’ and researchers’ time and effort.

2. Quotas

   The quotas have now been changed in response to concerns from the university community and by taking into consideration what was received in the first competition year. Instead of a quota of four applications maximum from each eligible Canadian university, as was allowed in the 2009 competition, there will be a distinction based on the size of the university. Large universities will have a quota of six Letters of Intent. Mid-size universities will continue to have a quota of four LOIs. Smaller universities will have a quota of two LOIs. The quotas will be posted on NSERC’s secure site after March 16^th.

3. External peer review to be conducted by NSERC

   As with other NSERC programs, we will be requesting suggestions for external reviewers at the LOI stage. Once it is known which LOIs will be going forward, potential external reviewers will be contacted by NSERC and it will be verified that there is no conflict of interest. Once the full applications are received, they will be sent for external peer review and NSERC will collect the external evaluations of the CREATE proposals directly.

4. University support letters

   In the instructions for the full applications last year (Form 102) it stated that: Three letters are required from the lead institution. One letter is required from each of the following people:

   • Head of Department
   • Dean of the Faculty
   • VP Research
   
   

   In addition, if the program involves training for graduate students, a letter of support must also be provided by the Dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies.

   This year, only one institutional letter of support is required by NSERC from one of the individuals listed above, as is deemed appropriate by the university.