NSERC Funding opportunities
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Funding Prizes About

Funding opportunity

Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering

Overview

Closed
Who can apply
  • Researcher > Early career
  • Researcher > University
  • Faculty > University
Eligible institution
  • University
  • Private sector
  • Public sector
Program type
Award/Prize
On this page
  • Description
  • Eligibility
  • Application
  • Review
  • Award
  • Regulations, policies and guidelines
Description

The Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering is awarded annually to an individual whose body of work, conducted in Canada in the natural sciences or engineering, has demonstrated persistent excellence and influence.

Call for nominations

Nomination deadline: November 28 before 8 p.m. (ET).

If the deadline falls on a weekend or federal holiday, NSERC must receive your nomination before 8:00 p.m. (ET) the next working day.

The Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering is awarded annually to an individual whose body of work, conducted in Canada in the natural sciences or engineering, has demonstrated persistent excellence and influence.

Eligibility

Candidates may be nominated by any individual or group. Posthumous nominations or self-nominations will not be accepted. Current NSERC Council members are not eligible for nomination.

To be eligible, the nominee must be a scientist or engineer employed at a Canadian university, a Canadian federal or provincial government lab, or a private firm active in Canada. Their research must be primarily based in the natural sciences or engineering. Most of the nominee’s significant contributions to research, training and mentoring included in the nomination must have been made from work done while their main place of employment was in Canada.

NSERC reserves the right to determine the eligibility of nominees.

An individual may be nominated for the Herzberg Medal and other NSERC Prizes (Brockhouse, Polanyi, McDonald, Synergy or Strickland) in the same year but can receive only one prize per year. An individual may receive the Herzberg Medal only once.

NSERC is acting on the evidence that achieving a more equitable, diverse and inclusive Canadian research enterprise is essential to creating the excellent, innovative and impactful research necessary to advance knowledge and understanding, and to respond to local, national and global challenges. This principle informs the commitments described in the Tri-agency Statement on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. NSERC strongly encourages nominators and university officials to address barriers to equity, diversity and inclusion in their nomination processes.

Application How to apply

Nominators are responsible for preparing the required documentation, which must follow NSERC’s general presentation guidelines. Documents that do not meet the presentation standards may be rejected or at a disadvantage compared to those that meet the standards.

Nominations must be submitted electronically through NSERC’s ICSP Secure Submission Site. All parts of the nomination package must be combined into a single Portable Document Format (PDF) file. Note that hyperlinked material will not be considered as part of the review process. Only documents requested by NSERC will be made available to the selection committee.

For re-nominations, nominators are asked to submit a complete and updated nomination package. The list of suggested reviewers should also be updated to include new individuals.

Nominations must be submitted before 8:00 p.m. (ET) on the deadline date. Late nominations will not be accepted. Once submitted, nominations cannot be updated.

In January, nominees will receive a system-generated email from NSERC with instructions on how to complete a self-identification questionnaire. The program collects and uses disaggregated self-identification data from all nominees to monitor diversity levels and to review its policies and processes for potential systemic barriers. Although completing the questionnaire is required before peer review, each question allows the option “I prefer not to answer” and self-identification data are not seen or used by NSERC peer reviewers.

Review

A diverse selection committee made up of research representatives from academia, government and industry across a range of disciplines will review the nominations and recommend successful candidates to NSERC. Committee members are selected according to NSERC’s guidelines governing membership of selection committees. The committee may recommend that the prize not be awarded in a given year if there is no outstanding nomination.

NSERC recognizes that the entire research ecosystem is strengthened by equitable, diverse and inclusive access and participation. In support of its ongoing commitment to cultural and systemic change in Canadian research, NSERC has updated and improved its guidelines concerning contributions to research and training. The intended outcomes of the Tri-agency EDI Action Plan and recommendations from the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) inform these changes. NSERC’s revised guidelines on the assessment of contributions to research, training and mentoring diversify the principles and considerations regarding contributions and assessing their quality and impact.

The selection committee will consider a wide range of contributions to research, training and mentoring, with a focus on their quality and impact, as described in NSERC’s guidelines on the assessment of contributions to research, training and mentoring. These contributions are not limited to published journal articles and may also include, for example, article preprints, patents, datasets, software, protocols, well-trained researchers, or societal outcomes and policy changes resulting from research.

The committee also recognizes contributions that are often overlooked, such as public outreach activities, membership on committees, editorial boards, or advisory boards, support for and use of Indigenous ways of knowing, and work done by applicants to promote the inclusion and advancement of equity-deserving groups in research.

Selection criterion
  • Persistent and exceptional quality and impact of contributions to research, training or mentoring in the natural sciences or engineering

Quality and impact of a wide range of contributions will be assessed using indicators found in NSERC’s guidelines on the assessment of contributions to research, training and mentoring, taking into account the context of different disciplines and the nature of the research being conducted. Examples of these indicators can include, among others, the extent to which:

  • the nominee’s contributions are novel, creative or innovative
  • the nominee’s body of work has led to novel or potentially transformative concepts and lines of inquiry
  • the nominee’s contributions have impacted other researchers, the specific field, the discipline as a whole, other disciplines or areas beyond the research ecosystem
  • the nominee’s application of existing knowledge has improved current practices or led to the development of novel solutions to practical problems
  • the nominee has upheld a transparent and rigorous approach to research, including reproducibility of results, accessibility of findings, appropriate data stewardship, and the integration of equity, diversity and inclusion considerations in the research process where relevant
  • the nominee has engaged in transformative formal or informal mentoring of highly qualified personnel (HQP), colleagues, collaborators or community members
  • the nominee has established and promoted safe, equitable and inclusive research environments, practices and norms
  • the nominee’s contributions have increased public understanding, use or interest in aspects of research in the natural sciences or engineering
Nomination process

Because nominations are reviewed by a multidisciplinary committee, the nomination material should be written for non-specialists.

The nomination package must include:

  1. A letter of nomination signed by one or more nominators. The letter must be no more than four pages if written in English and five pages if written in French. Structure your letter using the following points as headings to clearly describe
    1. the nominee's most significant contributions to research, training and mentoring in terms of quality and impact (refer to selection criterion above)
    2. the role of the nominee in bringing about the contributions
  2. The nominee's up-to-date personal data form (Form 100) or Canadian Common CV or an up-to-date CV in another format. This must include detailed information about the relevant achievements and contributions to research and training over the nominee’s entire career
  3. The names and email addresses of six researchers at the forefront of the nominee’s field who could be contacted by NSERC to conduct an impartial review of the nomination. Reviewers must not be in conflict of interest (see Conflict of Interest and Confidentiality Policy of the federal research funding organizations)
    1. Nominators should suggest a cross-section of reviewers with expertise in the nominee’s area of research, including:
      1. Canadian or international researchers from established and early-career stages
      2. individuals from underrepresented groups, including women
      3. researchers from a variety of academic and non-academic institutions
    2. Nominees must not contact suggested reviewers in advance
    3. NSERC reserves the right to select all or none of the suggested reviewers
    4. Provide a short paragraph for each person describing their background and why they would be a suitable reviewer
  4. Identification of any eligible leaves of absence (optional, maximum one page if written in English and 1.5 pages if written in French), in line with the section on interruptions in research, training and mentoring in NSERC’s guidelines on the assessment of contributions to research, training and mentoring. For medical leave, it is not necessary to describe the illness or treatment, but rather its impact on your research activity. Please:
    1. provide the duration of the interruption
    2. describe its impact on research activity
  5. A terms and conditions form for nominees signed by the nominee (do not use the encrypted digital signature function)
  6. A terms and conditions form for nominators signed by each nominator (do not use the encrypted digital signature function)
Award Notification of results

NSERC will inform all nominees of the results of the annual competition electronically by the end of June. The names of the award recipient will be publicly announced in the fall.

Conditions

The NSERC Herzberg Medal recipient will be asked to confirm, by email, that they accept the award and are able to use the full value of the accompanying research grant.

They will also be asked to report on the impact that the award has had on their research activities.

Regulations, policies and guidelines

The STRAC Policy addresses risks related to Sensitive Technology Research Areas performed with research organizations and institutions that pose the highest risk to Canada’s national security. The STRAC Policy applies to this funding opportunity.

Applicants must identify whether the grant application aims to advance a Sensitive Technology Research Area. If so, the submission of attestation forms will be required from researchers with named roles (see the list of named roles specific to this funding opportunity) to certify that they are not currently affiliated with, nor are in receipt of funding or in-kind support from, a Named Research Organization (NRO).

The Tri-agency guidance on the STRAC Policy provides more information on applicable procedures and requirements, including responsibilities of researchers and the responsibilities of institutions.