Results of the NSERC Discovery Grants Program 2021

NSERC Discovery Grants program (NSERC-DG) supports ongoing programs of research in natural sciences and engineering disciplines with long-term goals rather than a single short-term project or collection of projects. These grants recognize the creativity and innovation that are at the heart of all research advances. On June 15, 2021, the results of the 2021 competition were made available to the research community. Out of four applications, our researchers had two successful grants.

To help our researchers with their applications, the Grants Officer offered a webinar in collaboration with Dr. Valerio Faraoni of the Department of Physics and Astronomy. Dr. Faraoni previously served on a NSERC Discovery Grant Evaluation Group for Astrophysics and could thus offer his unique expertise on the review procedure of Discovery Grants applications. During the webinar the Grants Officer and Dr. Faraoni shared all their tips and tricks on how to prepare a successful application. The Grants Officer also offered recommendations on how to tackle Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) issues in the application, and how to integrate EDI in their research projects. The Grants Officer also thoroughly reviewed and revised the applications and made recommendations and suggestions on how to improve those.

For the 2022 NSERC Discovery Grants competition, the Grants Officer will offer two webinars; Tips and Best Strategies for the NSERC-DG application and How to integrate EDI in the NSERC-DG application. For the first webinar, the Grants Officer will once again be joined by Dr. Valerio Faraoni. Please see the Office of Research and Graduate Studies Newsletter for more information on those webinars.

We wish to congratulate both successful applicants and hope to continue this success for many years to come!