Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca
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International Opportunities Fund – G8 Research Councils Initiative on Multilateral Research Funding and Belmont Forum
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In May 2008, at the G8 Heads of Research Councils (G8-HORCs)1 meeting in Kyoto, Japan, an initial proposal for a multilateral funding activity was introduced with the understanding that multilateral research projects can address global challenges in ways that are beyond the capacity of national or bilateral activities. The G8-HORCs framework provided the unique opportunity to pilot new modalities for conducting international research. G8-HORCs agreed that research topics would be defined separately in three calls for proposals.
The initiative was officially launched in 2010 with the first call for proposals. NSERC and its partners in the G8 countries supported three calls in total, with the research topics defined separately in each call. The third call expanded the scope of participating countries by aligning with the Belmont Forum’s call. In each call, researchers were required to form consortia of at least three partners from three of the participating countries.
1Among the G8-HORCs members, NSERC was joined in the initiative by the French National Research Agency (ANR), the German Research Foundation (DFG), the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR), the Research Councils of the United Kingdom (RCUK), and the US National Science Foundation (NSF). Three additional members—the National Research Council of Canada, the Italian National Research Council and the French National Centre for Scientific Research—did not participate in the calls for proposals.
Funding
In total, NSERC committed over $4 million to the three calls for proposals:
- 1st Call: Application Software towards Exascale Computing for Global Scale Issues ($771K in three projects).
- 2nd Call: Material Efficiency: A first step towards sustainable manufacturing ($1.34M in four projects).
- 3rd Call: Freshwater Security ($1.91M in four projects).
Results
1st Call: Application Software towards Exascale Computing for Global Scale Issues
| Project Title | Lead Principal Investigator | Canadian Principal Investigator and University | Other Principal Investigators and Country | NSERC Contribution CAN$ |
| ExArch - Climate analytics on distributed exascale data archives | Martin Juckes, UK |
Paul Kushner, University of Toronto | V. Balaii, US M. Lautenschlager, Germany S. Denvil, France B. Lawrence, UK (no funding) Duane Waliser, US Giovanni, Italy (no funding) |
231,455 |
| Seismic Imaging – Modeling earthquakes and earth’s interior based upon exascale simulations of seismic wave propagation | Jeroen Tromp, US |
Qinya Liu, University of Toronto | D. Komatitsch, France | 273,000 |
| ECS - Enabling climate simulation at extreme scale | Marc Snir, US |
Andrew Weaver, University of Victoria | F. Cappello, France R. Loft, US (no funding) D. Wuebbles, US F. Wolf, Germany S. Matsuoka, Japan G. Bosilca, US M. Sato, Japan O. Unsal, Spain, (no funding) |
266,900 |
| ICOMEX - Icosahedral-grid Models for Exascale Earth System Simulations | Günther Zäng, Germany |
- | S. Reich, Germany L. Linardakis, Germany J. Thuburn, UK M. Satoh, Japan H. Tomita, Japan T. Dubos, France |
- |
| INGENIOUS - Using next generation computers and algorithms for modelling the dynamics of large biomolecular systems | Makoto Taiji, Japan |
- | D. Nerukh, UK S. Karabasov, UK V. Goloviznin, Russia |
- |
| Nu-FuSE - Nuclear fusion simulations at exascale | Graeme Ackland, UK |
- | X. Garbet, France D. Reiter, Germany H.J. Bungartz, Germany T. Boku, Japan B. Chetveruskin, Russia W. Tang, US |
- |
| Total funding over three years |
|
771,355 |
2nd Call: Material Efficiency: A first step towards sustainable manufacturing
| Project Title | Lead Principal Investigator | Canadian Principal Investigator and University | Other Principal Investigators and Country | NSERC Contribution CAN$ |
| SBP – Structural Bamboo Products | Gregory D. Smith University of British Columbia, Canada | - | L. Gibson, US Michael H. Ramage, UK |
414,874 |
| REO Kiln – Reduced Emission Cement: Cradle to Grave Material Applications and Accounting | Frank Zeman, Royal Military College of Canada, Canada |
- | P. Fennell, UK P. Jaramillo, US M. Nemer, France |
245,514 |
| G8MUREFU2 – Material Efficiency – A First Step Toward Sustainable Manufacturing | Steven Nutt, US | Pascal Hubert, McGill University, Canada | K. Potter, UK K.Drechsler, Germany |
328,223 |
| PHYTOCAT – Catalising the Growth in Metal Recovery | James H. Clark, UK | John A. Meech, UBC, Canada Christopher W.N. Anderson, UBC, Canada |
N. Bruce, UK A.J. Hunt, UK T. Graedel, US E. Rylott, UK |
351,854 |
| IPSOS – Ink-jet Printed Single-Crystal Organic Photovoltaics | Henning Sirringhaus, UK | - | J. Anthony, US S. Hotta, Japan M. Niggemann, UK |
- |
| HPPMSNG – High Performance Permanent Magnets Sustainable for Next Generation | Takao Suzuki, US | - | G. Hadjipanayis, US H. Kronmueller, Germany O. Gutfleisch, Germany K. Hono, Japan K. Masuzawa, Japan |
- |
| G8-NNL – Nanodiamond-Based Nanospacer Lubricants | Donald Brenner, US |
- | M. Ivanov, Russia E. Osawa, Japan O. Shenderova, US |
- |
| SmartCoat - Multiscale Smart Coatings with Sustained Anticorrosive Action | Helmuth Moehwald, Germany | - | K. Ariga, Japan M. McShane, US R. Fakhrullin, Russia D. Shchukin, Germany |
- |
| Adschiri PJ – Sustainable Manufacturing of Solution Processed Devices on Flexible Substrates Using Nanohybrid Materials | Tadafumi Adschiri, Japan | - | C. Aymonier, France F. Lafaye, France T. Cardinal, France J. Watkins, US R. Riman, US M. Hirao, Japan K. Ito, Japan |
- |
| SEMS – New Low Surface Energy Materials | Julian Eastoe, UK | - | M. Sagisaka, Japan F. Guittard, France |
- |
| Total funding over three years | - | - | - | 1,340,465 |
3rd Call: Freshwater Security
| Project Title | Lead Principal Investigator | Canadian Principal Investigator and University | Other Principal Investigators and Country | NSERC Contribution CAN$ |
| FuturAgua – Enhancing Adaptation and Resilience to Drought in Dry Tropical Social-Ecological Systems: The Guanacaste, Costa Rica Example | Tim McDaniels, University of British Columbia (UBC), Canada | Douw Steyn*, Mark Johnson*, Kai Chan*, UBC, Canada |
F. Vignola, Costa Rica G. Leclerc, France Mitchell Small, US I. Grossman, US G. Wong-Parodi, US |
581,851 |
| TLSCC – Maintaining Productivity and Incomes in the Tonle Sap Fishery in the Face of Climate Change | Lee Hannah, US | Kevin McCann*, Evan Fraser*, University of Guelph, Rashid Sumalia, UBC, Canada |
S. Lek, France R. Pomeroy, US C. Costello, US L. Kaufman, US K. Winemiller, US S. Nam, Cambodia C. Khunleap, Cambodia |
756,912 |
| JWP – Integrated Analysis of Freshwater Resources Sustainability in Jordan | Steven Gorelick, US | Amaury Tilmant*, Université Laval, Canada | E. Gawel, Germany B. Klauer, Germany J. Harou, UK D. Mustafa, UK A. Salman, Jordan E. Al-Karablieh, Jordan |
187,200 |
| XINGU – Integrated Land Use Planning and Water Governance in Amazonia: Towards Improved Freshwater Security in the Agricultural Frontier of Mato Grosso | Alex Krusche, Brazil | Mark Johnson*, Leila Harris, UBC, Canada | C. Neil, US M. Coe, US M. Ballester, Brazil S. G. Molina, Brazil A.R. Almeida Jr., Brazil V. Empinotti, Brazil, H. Elsenbeer Germany F. Reichardt Brazil M. Eduardo Garavello, Brazil |
383,375 |
| SAHEWS – Southern Africa’s Hydro-Economy and Water Security | Delcan Conway, UK | - | T. Osbourn, UK C. Ringler, US W. Landman, South Africa |
- |
| DrIVER– Drought Impacts: Vulnerability Thresholds in Monitoring and Early-Warning Research | Kerstin Stahl, Germany | - | C. Knutson, US M. Svoboda, US J. Hannaford, UK K. Collins, UK I. Clifford, Australia N.D. Crossman, Australia M.J. Collof, Australia |
- |
| Total funding over 3 years |
|
1,909,338 |
(* indicates names of researchers funded by NSERC)