2015-12-31, 12:27Creating a Network of Centres of Excellence (NCE)

Page 1 of 3http://www.nce-rce.gc.ca/Competitions-Competitions/ApplicantResources-RessourcesCandidats/NCE-RCE_eng.asp

CREATING A NETWORK OF CENTRES OF EXCELLENCE (NCE)NCEs are large-scale, academic-led virtual research networks that bring together multi-disciplinarypartners from academia, industry, government and not-for-profit organizations. Networks perform R&Das well as translation and commercialization activities. They also enable Canadian researchers andstudents to work with receptor communities to accelerate the creation and application of knowledge.

What can an applicant do before the launch of a competition?

What are common weaknesses identified by review panels?

Helpful resources

What can an applicant do before the launch of a competition?

Engage with key individuals and organizations as soon as possible

In an NCE, a multi-sectoral approach should be taken to address problems, challenges, and/oropportunities. Engaging with key individuals (including researchers, end-user communities, hostinstitutions and other funding organizations) to define the need for a network will lay the foundationfor a strong application.

When requesting a letter of support from any organization, the applicant should provide reasonabledeadlines for the organization to evaluate and negotiate the request.

The area of proposed research and researchers should cover the mandates of at least two of the threefederal granting agencies: NSERC, SSHRC, and CIHR.

The applicant should consider appropriate members and structures that will ensurestrong governance and management

Applications for NCEs are almost always highly rated on the quality of their research, but may fallshort on management and governance. The proposed governance and management structures shouldbe sound, with a team that has the necessary strengths to deliver on the objectives of the network.With five-year funding cycles, it is important for a network to be able to rapidly ramp-up its activitiesto ensure that it can meet its targets within a five year time frame.

The application should take into account the importance of:

strategic planning based on the needs of partners; and

on-going assessment of the research program, highly-qualified personnel training, networkingand partnership development and knowledge transfer and exchange and exploitation strategy,with well-defined metrics and milestones to track the progress of the network.

What are common weaknesses identified by review panels?

At the Letter of Intent stage

The letter of intent is missing the involvement of a key group or stakeholder.

2015-12-31, 12:27Creating a Network of Centres of Excellence (NCE)

Page 2 of 3http://www.nce-rce.gc.ca/Competitions-Competitions/ApplicantResources-RessourcesCandidats/NCE-RCE_eng.asp

Date Modified: 2014-08-22

The commitments of cash and in-kind support needs to be better described with specific commitmentsand detailed contributions.

The letter of intent does not demonstrate complementarity with existing organizations in this field.

There is a lack of international partners.

More innovative ways of training HQP should be explored.

At the Full Application stage

The application should better demonstrate the value-added of the network approach.

The impact metrics and related milestones and outcomes are not well defined.

The proposed network should have included researchers from the domains of at least two of thethree granting agencies in a meaningful way.

The goals of the network are too ambitious.

The goals of the network are unclear.

Details as to how the network will facilitate interactions among researchers, industry and end userswere not convincingly explained.

Helpful resources

Learn more about existing NCEs.

Understand the review process by visiting current competitions and previous competitions.

Read about the experiences of previous applicants:

“Realizing a Grand Vision for Digital Media” (ExcelleNCE newsletter, September 2012)

“Lessons from the Trenches: Strategies for Competition Success” (February 2013 AnnualMeeting report)

Consult the NCE program guide, which serves as an operating manual for existing NCEs.

Read about the eligible expenses under the NCE grant.

Best Practices for Governance and Operations

Contact the NCE Team.

Be sure to sign up for competition alerts to be informed when the next competition is launched.

An initiative of CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC