• General information
• Completing the NOI
• Identification
• Uploading your NSERC CCV (applicants and co-applicants)
• Submitting the NOI

About the program

Read the program description before you complete the application.

Am I eligible to apply?

Consult the Eligibility requirements for faculty to apply for or hold grant funds (Sections 1.1, 2.1, 3 and 4 for university faculty) to ensure that you can participate in this grant program as an applicant or a co-applicant. If you are an adjunct professor, see the Note on Adjunct Professors section. NSERC verifies the eligibility of researchers only at the full application stage; however, it is important that you consult the eligibility criteria now and discuss any concerns with your institution’s research office.

Who completes the NOI?

The applicant must complete the NOI using the Research Portal. In addition, the Canadian Common CV (CCV) must be completed by applicants and co-applicants (when applicable) and linked to the NOI.

Application deadline

Your notification of intent to apply (NOI) must be received at NSERC by 8:00 p.m. (ET) on the deadline date. The NOI and application deadlines are indicated on the program description page.

In instances of systems interruptions, refer to the Service standards for NSERC and SSHRC's online application systems policy on sustained interruptions.

Once a NOI has been submitted to NSERC, it cannot be updated or modified (either before or after the deadline).

Personal information

The information you provide in your application is collected under the authority of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council Act. The collection, use, disclosure, retention, and disposal of your information are outlined in the following policy statements:

• Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act
• Data retention information
• Privacy notice

For more information, refer to the Personal Information Banks described in NSERC’s Info Source.

Self-identification information (research team)

You must complete the self-identification questionnaire found in the person profile of the Research Portal when applying for funding. This data provides information on the diversity of the population applying for and receiving agency funds. This information increases NSERC’s capacity to monitor its progress on increasing equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in its programs, to recognize and remove barriers, and to design new measures to achieve greater EDI in the research enterprise. If you do not want to self-identify, you have the option to choose “I prefer not to answer” for each question, but you are required to select a response for the questionnaire to be marked as complete. Self-identification information is not part of the application and will be neither accessible to, nor shared with, external reviewers and/or selection committee members. The self-identification questionnaire should be reviewed and updated, if required, every time you apply to the program.

For more information, refer to the Frequently Asked Questions about the Self-identification Questionnaire.

Whom should I contact for help?

• For program-related information, email subatomic@nserc-crsng.gc.ca.
• For technical matters related to the research portal, contact the online services helpdesk by email at webapp@nserc-crsng.gc.ca, by phone at 1-855-275-2861, or complete an online services support request.

1. Sign in to the Research Portal.
2. Select Create application.
3. Select the subatomic physics funding opportunity you are applying for under Stage: NOI and select Create.
4. Under Applications, open the NOI.
5. Select Edit to complete the different sections.

Administering organization

Organization – Select the organization that will administer the grant.

Department – If your department is not in the list, select Head office.

Application title – The title must be short and descriptive. It may be used for publication purposes. Restrict use of abbreviated forms (for example, DNA, NATO, etc.), and avoid company or trade names. Note: you may edit the application title at the full application stage.

Language of the application – Indicate the language in which the application will be submitted. The main body of the application should be written in either English or French, rather than in a mix of both official languages. The NSERC CCV (for the applicant and all co-applicants) must be submitted in the same language as the application.

Suggested evaluation group – The Subatomic physics evaluation section will be selected by default, and you cannot change this selection. If you do not intend to apply to the Subatomic Physics Discovery program but, rather, to the Discovery program in other disciplines, you will need to first select the appropriate funding opportunity in the Research Portal and then refer to the relevant instructions on how to complete the NOI for it.

Even though you may select the Subatomic physics evaluation section to review your application, NSERC reserves the right to make the final review committee assignment.

Proposed research topic(s)

The first research topic is Subatomic physics by default, and you cannot change this selection. You may select, in order of relevance, up to four additional research topics in any evaluation group, as required.

Keywords

Provide up to ten keywords that best describe the proposal. It is important to separate the keywords by commas.

Provide an estimate of the amounts that will be requested from NSERC for each year. Enter the full amount for each year. If you do not request support for some years, you must enter 0 for each of those years.

SAP Individual Discovery Grants are awarded for up to five years, the normal duration being five years. SAP Project Grants are awarded for up to three years, the normal duration being three years.

The estimated amounts should be as close as possible to those that will be requested in the application. Should the amounts requested in the full application differ by more than 20% from those that were included in the NOI, the applicant needs to justify the latter and obtain NSERC’s approval before submitting the grant application.

The summary of proposal must not exceed 6,000 characters. It should

• state the objectives of the proposed research program
• summarize the scientific approach
• highlight the novelty and expected significance of the work to a field in the natural sciences and engineering

Note: Should your proposed research program change substantially from the time you submit your NOI to the time you submit your application, contact the program officer responsible for the subatomic physics suite of programs.

Provide the information for five possible external reviewers who

• are not in a conflict of interest
• are not from your own institution
• are from different institutions from one another
• can provide an independent assessment of your application
• are capable of reviewing your application in the language in which it is written

Applicants are encouraged to suggest a diverse cross-section of potential reviewers with appropriate expertise (Canadian, international, established and early–career, women and other underrepresented groups, from academic and non-academic institutions).

Applicants should avoid proposing reviewers who, to the best of their knowledge, are currently affiliated with or are in receipt of funding or in-kind support from a Named Research Organization (NRO), especially if the proposed research aims to advance a Sensitive Technology Research Area (STRA). Note: In accordance with the Policy on Sensitive Technology Research and Affiliations of Concern (STRAC Policy), applicants will be asked to identify whether their research aims to advance a STRA at the full-application stage.

Applicants must not contact suggested external reviewers in advance.

Applicants should note that NSERC will not select members currently serving on an NSERC evaluation group or section.

Conflict of interest guidelines

A conflict of interest may be deemed to exist or perceived as such when external reviewers

• are a relative or close friend, or have a personal relationship with the applicants
• are in a position to gain or lose financially/materially from the funding of the application
• have had long-standing scientific or personal differences with the applicants
• are currently affiliated with the applicants’ institutions, organizations or companies—including research hospitals and research institutes
• are closely professionally affiliated with the applicants, as a result of having in the last six years
  • frequent and regular interactions with the applicants in the course of their duties at their department, institution, organization or company
  • been a supervisor or a trainee of the applicants
  • collaborated, published or shared funding with the applicants, or have plans to do so in the immediate future
  • been employed by the institution
• feel for any reason unable to provide an impartial review of the application

NSERC reserves the right to resolve areas of uncertainty and to determine if a conflict of interest exists. For more information, refer to the Conflict of Interest and Confidentiality.

How to enter your external reviewer suggestions in the Research Portal

1. Family name (required)
2. First name (required)
3. Initials (optional)
4. Email (required)
5. Expertise (required)
6. Organization (required)

To enter the organization, click on the Edit button. Using the drop-down menu, select the country where the organization is located. Then, select the state or province (for organizations in the United States or Canada). Then, search for the organization. If the organization cannot be found, enter the organization name in free-form text. The system will accept it.

Note: Certain Canadian universities are listed under “The”, such as The University of British Columbia.

7. Department (optional)

You may request that some researchers, organizations or large collaborations not be involved in the review of your application. While NSERC cannot be bound by this information, the agency will take it into consideration when selecting reviewers. NSERC may also exclude reviewers because of conflicts of interest, as described in the Conflict of interest and confidentiality policy of the federal research funding organizations.

Information concerning exclusions may be accessible to those individuals named in this section, under the Privacy Act.

Note that the exclusion type Collaboration refers to large research groups that work on specific projects.

It is mandatory to have at least one co-applicant to submit a project grant application.

From the Application Overview page, in the Invitations section, select Manage Invitations.

Provide the name and email address of each co-applicant. An email will be sent to each participant with instructions on how to accept the invitation and upload their NSERC CCV.

To successfully upload your CCV, the first name and family name used to create your CCV site account must be identical to those used to create your Research Portal account. The email address used to create your Research Portal account must be identical to at least one of the emails you listed on the CCV site.

• In the Application overview page, click Attach.
• Enter your CCV confirmation number (refer to the NSERC CCV instructions for professors for details on how to obtain your confirmation number).
• Click Upload.
• Click Back to Application Overview.
• Preview your CCV in the Research Portal and verify that it was uploaded correctly and that it contains all of the records that you wish to submit for peer review. Your CCV should be in the same language as your application. You may update your CCV at the full application stage.

Note: While the Canadian Common CV website is bilingual, you can only save your NSERC CCV in one official language at a time. For example, to save a French version of your NSERC CCV, you must sign into your account using the French platform.

Click on the Submit button at the bottom of the Application Overview page. A pop-up message will appear. You will be required to extract and view your NOI to ensure that it is complete. Note that the CCV will not appear in the extracted application. Once the confirmation box has been checked, click on the Submit button displayed in the pop-up message.

To complete the submission process, you will need to read and accept the terms and conditions by clicking on the I Accept button. You will receive a confirmation message on the web page, as well as a confirmation email that your NOI was received and that the status of your submission is Received by Agency.

To verify the status of your submission, return to the home page. The status will be Received by Agency.