1. Funding Programs for Natural Science and Engineering Research
Vera Kettnaker
Research Projects Advisor, Natural Sciences and Engineering
x77314

2. Finding funding sources
Fundopps sign-up here Recommended: Digest version (2 s/week) or choose NSE and Event.
Searchable funding opportunities table here Currently defunct, a new table is getting programmed at the moment
In the interim, you can download an Excel sheet with >1000 entries

3. Funding Sources for NSE Research: Overview
Federal: “tri-council” (NSERC, CIHR, SSHRC, CRC, NCE), CFI
Provincial: e.g., Early Researcher Award (ERA) Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE) grant programs, ORF-RE
Queen’s internal grants
Foundations and other external funders, e.g., industry associations & consortia
U.S. and international agencies
Company grant programs (e.g., Ericsson, Imperial Oil)
Research internship grants for grad students, PDFs (Mitacs, OCE TalentEdge)
Fellowships for Graduate Students, Postdocs ( to subscribe to the PDF newsletter)
Contract work Contracts for government agencies (check buy and sell.gc , select “Active”, search for “Research”) or for companies
=> see fundopps list for opportunities that are not italicized

4. Funding without Company Support
Funding sources that do not require a contribution from an industry partner:
NSERC Discovery Grants (NOI Aug 1): 5 year grants for a research program mostly to pay students (HQP), avg. $32K/y, success rate ~64% long enough to pay PhD students & you are allowed to change research plans time intensive application
NSERC RTI grants (Oct 25): for equipment up to $150K (~33% success, but lower in future)
Need to hold or concurrently apply for a peer-reviewed NSERC grant to be eligible (DG, CRD, SPG, CRC)

5. Funding without Company Support, continued
NSERC CREATE Grants (LOI May 1): $1.65m/6y grants for teams of 10-11, often interdisciplinary and spanning multiple universities, for value-added training of HQP, will typically pay for 1-2 grad students/y per co-applicant, Success rate: ~13% of LOIs are awarded grants
Ontario Early Researcher Award (ERA) (LOI ~ June):
Apply in year 3-5 of being a professor: requires peer-reviewed funding, independent publications and HQP supervision.
$100K/5 years for HQP only.
Success rate ~ 30%, but very competitive applicant pool

6. Queen’s Internal Grants – no industry required
QROF: “Research Leaders Fund” (for exciting research initiatives in strategic areas) and “International Fund” (small grants for International Collaboration visits). LOIs due around Dec 1. Only tenured or tenure-track faculty are eligible.
QROF Postdoc Fund: 1. funding to bring outstanding postdocs to Q (up to 3/y), deadline January
2. funding for postdoc travel: deadlines Nov 1, April 1.

7. Travel grant to meet with companies
NSERC has a small grant program (Connect) that pays for travel expenses to visit companies to discuss potential collaborations:

8. Lots of restrictions (see webpage for details):
Funding Programs requiring in-kind support by partner organization – pt. 1
NSERC Engage (anytime): $25K for 6 months, research collaboration of 1 researcher and 1 company. Company needs to contribute in-kind (min. ~ $2,000, at least staff time to meet with you monthly). Company gets the IP. Success rate ~ 85%.
Lots of restrictions (see webpage for details):
you need a peer reviewed NSERC grant in the last 6 years to be eligible (or “Strong” Researcher in last DG application)
applicants from a Health faculty need a DG in last 6 years to be eligible
no previous relationship with company
company has to have 2 full time employees and has to be >= 2y old
1 Engage/researcher/year
Elaborate 2 page company support letter required – ask me for a template

9. Funding Programs requiring in-kind support by partner organization – pt. 2
NSERC Strategic (LOI Feb 1): avg. $180K/y for 3 years, usually involves small team of researchers. Early stage research in specific strategic areas.
success rate 2017: 15.6% of LOIs were awarded grants
Requires in-kind support by companies or government agencies with a policy mandate related to the topic
Allows government agencies as supporting
organizations, big grants
Only works for research on listed topics, competitive

10. Programs requiring industry cash – pt. 1
OCE VIP I (anytime): bundle of grant programs, requires $5K industry cash and $15K in-kind, yields $20K from OCE + optionally $25K from NSERC Engage if fulfilling Engage conditions. 1 year grant. For applied research that can have economic impact in 2-5 years. Success rate ~85% Up to 1:9 cash matching – attractive for companies Ontario companies only. Tip: ask Diana Purvis (contracts) for “Schedule D” early on.
OCE VIP II (anytime): up to $150K over 2 years, company cash 50% and in-kind 50%, can be double-leveraged with NSERC CRD. Ontario companies only.

11. Programs requiring industry cash – pt. 2
NSERC CRD: 1-5y, scalable: from $10K/y up to a few million $, can involve multiple researchers, universities, Canadian companies. Success rate > 90%.
Matching: company $X cash, $X in-kind => NSERC gives 2*$X
No previous NSERC grant required.
Decisions take 3-6 months. Requires 10 page proposal

12. Internship grants requiring industry cash
Mitacs: (contact: Kristin Spong 1. Mitacs Accelerate (anytime): Grad student and PDF interns: % of time at Canadian company, rest with you; Partner org has to contribute $7,500 per 4 month internship unit % success
2. Mitacs Elevate (twice/year): 2 year PDF fellowships ($55K/y);
more competitive; requires company contribution of $30K/y,
Queen’s contribution of $5K/y. Only Ontario companies/orgs Partner organizations: companies and some non-profits.
OCE TalentEdge: research internship programs for undergraduates, graduate students and postdocs. Better matching ratio than Mitacs. Only for internships in Ontario companies.

13. Overhead a.k.a. Indirect Costs
Queen’s policy: found here
Default rate: 40% of contribution to direct costs
NSERC grants: no overhead on the amount from NSERC, but overhead applies to the industry contribution
25% on industry cash if matched by government grant(e.g., CRD)
30% clinical trials
Lower rate if prescribed by the sponsor (e.g, 0% on OCE VIP I, Mitacs, and Genome Canada grants, 8% on NIH etc. )
If necessary, you can try to negotiate a lower rate with your department head and faculty (“Request for Variance…” form)

14. NSERC’s Open Access Requirement
Journal papers from NSERC grants need to be made open access within 12 months of publication
That does not mean you have to publish in Open Access journals – choose the best possible journal to publish in
Look up on Sherpa/Romeo if this journal lists the following
with compatible conditions (within 12 months)
If yes: send the pdf to (free) to archive
If no: pay fee to journal to make it open access (~$1-3,000)
Full details

15. Information Overload?
Sign up for fundopps
Ask Vera or Kelly for one-on-one meetings to discuss funding options for your situation
or call anytime if you have questions about any funding program
Let us know early on which programs you plan to apply for, then we can provide templates, resources, and advice, check eligibility etc
Vera Kettnaker x77314) and Kelly Cathcart )