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ARCHIVED – College and Community Innovation Program

This information has been archived. Visit the new College and Community Innovation program page for current information.

Archived content

Archived information is provided for reference, research or recordkeeping purposes. It is not subject to the Government of Canada web standards and has not been altered or updated since it was archived. Please contact us to request a format other than those available.

Important information

The College and Community Innovation (CCI) Program is managed by NSERC in collaboration with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).

There are nine types of grants in the College and Community Innovation (CCI) program:

The information below applies to all grants under the CCI Program unless otherwise stated.

Objective
Anticipated impact of the program
The applicant
College participation
In-kind contributions
Overhead and administration
Intellectual property

Objective

The objective of the CCI Program is to increase innovation at the community and/or regional level by enabling Canadian colleges to increase their capacity to work with local companies, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It supports applied research and collaborations that facilitate commercialization, as well as technology transfer, adaptation and adoption of new technologies.

Anticipated impact of the program

Over the long term, the CCI Program will increase the economic development of the community and create new quality jobs based on know-how and technological innovation. This will be achieved by increasing the capacity of the colleges to transform the results of research and development (R&D) into economic activities easier and faster.

The impact of the program will be demonstrated by:

increased awareness by local companies of the capacity of the colleges to assist with applied research projects;
involvement of the colleges with key companies and other relevant stakeholders in the community;
increased involvement of faculty in applied research;
increased applied research capacity at colleges;
college students acquiring applied research knowledge and experience, and exposure to business work environments;
new technologies and processes adopted by local companies and other organizations;
increased applied research collaborations between colleges, local companies and other organizations;
increased R&D investment by local companies and other organizations;
increased productivity and competitiveness of local companies and other organizations;
enhanced reputation of colleges as applied research partners for local companies and other organizations;
other specific impacts identified by the college.

The applicant

College and Community Innovation Program grants are institutional grants. As such, it is expected that the applicant will be a senior manager in the administration of the college. Submission of the college’s application must be authorized by the president of the institution or their representative.

Applicants must comply with the CCI Program’s requirements related to the Use and Disclosure of Personal Information.

College participation

The college is responsible for:

providing space and some support to faculty professors, as well as technical and other staff;
applied research and technology transfer activities;
providing accounting and financial reporting for NSERC funds and non-NSERC contributions;
reporting on the grant progress.

At the application stage, the college will need to demonstrate existing applied research capacity and potential to strengthen it.

In-kind contributions

In-kind contributions must be valued according to NSERC’s Guidelines for Organizations Participating in Research Partnerships Programs. NSERC may reserve the rights to terminate or suspend a grant should companies no longer be involved in the initiative.

Overhead and administration

As funding received through the CCI Program is not eligible for the Research Support Fund, institutions may request funds for overhead and administration costs attributable to the college’s applied research program, but not for general overhead and administration costs of the institution as a whole. These costs may be requested as part of the Engage, IE, ARD, IRCC, and CU-I2I grant applications. The maximum allowable percentage for overhead and administrative costs is 20% of the grant installment per year to a recipient institution.

Overhead expenditures eligible in the Research Support Fund are eligible CCI expenses, except for the expenses outlined below.

Support for the creation of spin-off companies.
Development of incubators.

Intellectual property

NSERC makes no claim to ownership of any intellectual property (IP) generated from the research it funds. Research funded through CCI grants is subject to the CCI IP policy, namely that the college must have the right to use the new knowledge or technology in future teaching and research, and faculty and students must have the right to describe the project on their curriculum vitae.

Colleges are strongly encouraged to develop and sign an agreement with each private-sector partner on the ownership and disposition of IP arising from the funded applied research before initiating any activities.