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 (for university faculty) to ensure that you can participate in this grant program as an applicant or a co-applicant.

Who completes the application?

The applicant and co-applicant(s) must complete their respective sections of the application according to the instructions using the Research Portal. In addition, they must each complete the Canadian Common CV (CCV) and link it to the application.

Presentation standards

You must include all requested information in the application, and the submitted application must meet the Research Portal presentation and attachment standards. Incomplete applications and applications that do not meet the presentation standards may be rejected, or be at a disadvantage, in comparison with those that are complete and respect the presentation standards. Where page limits are stated, pages in excess of the number permitted will be removed. Information that is not required, based on the application instructions, will also be removed.

Application deadlines

Your application must be received at your institution’s research grants office by its internal deadline date; contact your research grants office for those deadlines.

The application must be received at NSERC by 8:00 p.m. (ET) on the deadline date. The application deadline is 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 an application 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, contact Subatomic@nserc-crsng.gc.ca.
• For matters related to the Research Portal, contact the online services helpdesk by email at webapp@nserc-crsng.gc.ca, by phone at 613-995-4273, or complete an online services support request.

You must complete the application according to the instructions, using the Research Portal. In addition, you must complete and link the NSERC Canadian Common CV  (CCV) to your application.

Note: If you have not submitted a notification of intent (NOI) for this program, you cannot create or submit an application. Consult the program description for more information.

• Sign in to the Research Portal.
• Select the funding opportunity and click Create.
• Select your notification of intent (NOI) to apply; it will form the basis for your application.
• Complete your eligibility profile and click on Validate.
• Click on Continue and Create Application.
• Under Applications, open the application.
• Click on Edit to complete the different sections.

Some fields are pre-populated based on the information provided in your NOI. You may edit these fields as needed.

Administering organization

Organization – Select the organization that will administer the grant.

Department – If your department is not in the list, select “head office.”

Application

Application title – The title must be short and descriptive. It may be used for publication purposes. Restrict the use of acronyms (e.g., DNA, NATO, etc.), and avoid company or trade names. The title of the application can differ from the title provided on the NOI.

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

Suggested evaluation group (not editable) – Only resources that support research activities in subatomic physics can apply to the Subatomic Physics Major Resources Support (SAP-MRS) program. Applications that do not meet this requirement will be rejected.

Hours per month to be devoted to research/activity or use of equipment or facility – Enter the number of hours per month you, the applicant, plan to devote to the use or operation of the resource. Do not include hours contributed by others (e.g., highly qualified personnel).

A maximum of 3,000 characters is allowed in the text box.

The summary is intended to explain the proposal in language that the public can understand, and it will be made available to the public if your proposal is funded.

Using simple terms, briefly describe the resource, what it will be used for, and the major research projects and programs it supports. Indicate why and to whom the resource is important, the anticipated outcomes of the research projects and programs supported by the resource, and the benefits to the research fields supported by the resource and to Canada.

If you wish, you may also provide a summary in the other official language in the text box identified for that purpose.

Provide the expenditures for the previous and current fiscal years toward the support of the resource’s operations, reporting the support provided by previous NSERC SAP-MRS grants (if applicable) and any contributions from other sources.

Use the Budget justification section (free-form attachment) to explain and justify each budget item, any contributions from other sources, as well as the reasons for a positive or a negative balance in each of the years.

SAP-MRS grants are awarded for up to five years. Read the program description and consult the Tri-agency Guide on Financial Administration for information about the eligibility of expenditures for the direct costs of research and the regulations governing the use of grant funds.

Provide an annual budget. If your request is for less than five years, provide an explanation in the Budget justification section. If you do not request support for certain years, you must enter 0 for each of those years.

Verify all of your entries carefully. The Total Amount Requested from NSERC is calculated automatically by subtracting the Total Cash Contributions, if any, from the Total Proposed Expenditures.

For SAP-MRS grants, the amount requested in the application should not differ by more than 20% from that included in the NOI. If the request differs by more than 20%, you will need to justify the difference and obtain NSERC’s approval before submitting your full application.

Use the Budget justification section (free-form attachment) to explain and justify each budget item and any contributions from other sources toward the support of the resource.

Should anything change after submitting your NOI, please contact the program officer before submitting your full application.

Certification requirements

Before completing this section, consult the Requirements for certain types of research.

Research involving humans: If you select Yes, you must provide your institution's administration with the appropriate certification indicating that research involving humans has been reviewed and has received the required approval.

Research involving the use of animals: If you select Yes, you must provide your institution's administration with the certification from the animal care committee at the institution that the experimental procedures proposed have been approved and that the care and treatment of animals are in accordance with the principles outlined in the Canadian Council on Animal Care (CCAC) guide.

Research involving human pluripotent and/or totipotent stem cells: If you select Yes, or if the application is found to fall into this category through peer review and is recommended for funding, it will be forwarded, with your consent, to CIHR’s Stem Cell Oversight Committee (SCOC) to ensure compliance with Chapter 12, Section F of the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans (TCPS 2). The SCOC review is in addition to the normal review by local research ethics boards (REBs). Funding will not be released until approval has been obtained from the SCOC.

Research involving hazardous substances: If you select Yes, you must provide your institution's administration with the certification from the biosafety committee at the institution that the laboratory procedures being used comply with the safety precautions necessary for the level of containment required by the research.

Environmental impact: For more information, consult NSERC’s Guidelines on impact assessment.

Sensitive Technology Research Areas: If you select Yes, you must complete and attach attestation forms to your grant application – in the STRAC Attestation Attachment section – to comply with the policy. In accordance with the Policy on Sensitive Technology Research and Affiliations of Concern, all researchers involved in the activities supported by a research grant that aims to advance a Sensitive Technology Research Area (STRA) must review the List of Named Research Organizations.

Research subject codes:

Consult the Research subject codes table. All applicants are required to select a primary research code.

Area of application codes:

Consult the Area of application codes table. All applicants are required to select a primary area of application code.

Keywords:

Modify, as required, the keywords to best describe your proposal. A maximum of 10 keywords is permitted.

You must re-validate your eligibility profile. Review your information and ensure it accurately reflects the details of your eligible position. If your position is not in the list provided, enter free-form text. Click on Save and validate.

In the Application Overview page, click Attach to include each required document type. Attachments are free-form and must respect the Research Portal presentation and attachment standards and page limits, where appropriate.

Important note: You must preview all of your attachments in the Research Portal to ensure that the documents have been uploaded correctly and that the content is viewable. NSERC will not accept corrupted or protected files that cannot be opened or viewed.

This is a free-form PDF attachment.

Using individual headings that relate to each criterion, explain how your proposed research meets the criteria listed in the program description. Additionally, for each criterion listed provide specific, measurable and relevant objectives that can be followed up and reported on, based on your resource’s known capacity and what is achievable over the next five years.

If the resource has a website to enable users to apply for access, screenshots of the appropriate web pages can be included in the proposal. Reviewers should not be referred to the resource’s website for additional information on your proposal.

The following page limits apply:

• For applications requesting an average of up to $499,999 per year (over the requested duration), a maximum of 15 pages is allowed.
• For applications requesting an average in the range of $500,000 to $999,999 per year (over the requested duration), a maximum of 20 pages is allowed.
• For applications requesting an average of $1,000,000 per year or more (over the requested duration), a maximum of 25 pages is allowed.

This is a free-form PDF attachment.

Page limit: two pages.

• Provide a list of literature references in support of your proposal.
• Do not refer reviewers to websites for additional information on your proposal.
• Do not include hyperlinks or footnotes in your list of references.

This is a free-form PDF attachment.

There is no page limit. The file size limit is 10MB.

Provide a detailed explanation and justification for each budget item identified. Provide sufficient information to allow reviewers to assess whether the resources requested are appropriate. Applicants must only use this section for the purpose of justifying the proposed budget. NSERC reserves the right to remove pages from this section if they are unrelated to the budget justification.

Salaries and benefits

Provide the names (if known), categories of employment and proposed salaries (with explicit indication of the non-discretionary benefits) for professional and technical staff employed to provide support to users or to operate and maintain the resource. Eligible remuneration of any other nature that is required as part of the activities of the resource must also be explained.

Refer to the NSERC CCV instructions for information on obtaining consent to name individuals in your proposal.

Equipment or facility

Provide a breakdown of minor equipment/upgrades that are essential to the operation and maintenance of the resource, providing detail on items requested, models, manufacturers, prices and applicable taxes. Justify each item requested.

Materials and supplies

Provide details of the budget requested for materials and supplies and explain major items.

Travel

Provide details and explain how each activity relates to the resource’s plan to keep abreast of scientific and technical advances.

Dissemination

Provide details and explain how each activity relates to outreach to increase the potential user communities’ awareness of the activities and opportunities offered by the resource. Any other eligible dissemination expense, such as for publications, should also be explained.

Other expenses

List all items not covered in previous categories and provide a detailed explanation for major items.

Contributions from other sources (if applicable)

If appropriate, explain any contributions from other sources. Resources that apply user fees should report that income in this section.

This is a free-form PDF attachment.

Any relationship and/or overlap, conceptual or financial, between proposed activities and activities supported by other funding sources must be explained.

Provide the following information:

• Information on the conceptual and budgetary relationship or difference between this application and all other support for similar research (currently held or applied for).
• For each grant currently held or applied for supporting similar research, briefly describe the main objectives.

Note: If you are applying for support for infrastructure or equipment funded by the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), indicate the approximate date on which the infrastructure or equipment will be operational.

Refer to Selecting the appropriate federal granting agency for additional information.

Sources of research support other than CIHR or SSHRC

The explanation of other research support (held and/or applied for) is considered in the evaluation of the need for funds. You may hold funds from other sources for the same research ideas or objectives as long as they are used to cover different expenses and the funding sources are not the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and/or the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). Other sources of support include grants and contributions from funding agencies, organizations, the private sector, institution start-up funds, research chairs, the primary place of employment (for adjunct professors), and other institutional research support.

You must clearly demonstrate that the funds requested from the SAP-MRS program will be for expenses that are distinct from those covered by support from other sources. For funding applied for, you must demonstrate that there will be no duplication of funding for the same expense(s) by explaining how funds will be used if all applications are successful. The onus is on applicants to provide sufficient information to enable the Subatomic Physics Evaluation Section to assess the relationship between this application and other sources of support, and the incremental value of additional support from the SAP-MRS program. Failure to meet these requirements will result in a rating of “Insufficient” for the need for funds criterion or the application may be rejected.

This is a free-form PDF attachment. The file size limit is 10 MB.

Many contributions to industry or other end-users take the form of technical and internal reports, some of which may be confidential to protect proprietary information. This attachment is for applicants who wish to report on any confidential reports that cannot otherwise be listed in the application. You may attach letters from industry or end users attesting to the nature, importance and significance of these confidential reports.

Note: Any attachments that do not adhere to these instructions will be removed.

If you selected Yes to the question regarding Sensitive Technology Research Areas (STRA) in the Activity Details section of your application, you must complete and attach attestation forms to your grant application to comply with the policy. By using the attestation form template, you and your co-applicant(s), if applicable, must each complete an attestation form certifying that you have read, understood, and are compliant with this policy. You must collect and compile all the completed attestation forms and save them as a single PDF file. The attestation forms must include the current date, first and last name, primary affiliation (institution), email address, public profile link (optional) and attestation statement check. Your response to the STRA question and your submitted attestation form(s) are not accessible to, nor shared with, external reviewers and/or committee members.

Should the application be successful, you and your research team will also be required to comply with the policy for the duration of the grant. For more information, please read the Tri-Agency’s detailed guidance for this policy.

The maximum number of co-applicants is ten. NSERC recognizes that not all resources are the same and that the profile of co-applicants will vary accordingly. The decision of which major users to include as co-applicants is left to the discretion of the applicant.

From the Application Overview page in the Invitations section, click on 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. Co-applicants who were already invited at the NOI stage must accept it again at the application stage. The list of co-applicants may be modified from the time when the NOI was submitted.

In addition to information that must be provided to the applicant for the proposal, co-applicants must accept the invitation as specified in the invitation email (even if you previously accepted at the NOI stage). In the Research Portal, complete the Eligibility Profile, provide the number of hours per month to be devoted to the use of the resource, and upload your NSERC CCV.

Note: Co-applicants (except those from the applicant’s institution) must advise the authorized officer of their organization that the applicant, or the applicant’s institution, will be seeking their authorized officer’s signature and agreement to the co-applicant’s participation before the application is submitted to NSERC.

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 must be in the same language as your application.

Note: While the  Canadian Common CV website is bilingual, you can only save your NSERC CCV in one official language at a time, corresponding to the language of the platform you are using. 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 application to ensure that it is complete and that all relevant attachments extract properly. Note that the CCV will not appear in the extracted application. Save a copy of your application for your records. 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.

When you submit your application, it is sent to your research administrator for approval and submission to NSERC. The status of your application will be changed to Received by administrator. Once your research administrator has approved and forwarded your application to NSERC, the application status will be changed to Received by agency.

To verify the status of your submission, return to the home page.

Note: The retention period of applications in the Research Portal is three months after the deadline date. If you wish to keep a record of your submitted NSERC application, use the Export application and attachments to PDF function and save a copy.

NSERC does not require original signatures on applications or other documents submitted electronically using the Research Portal. User ID/password-based “signatures” allow applicants, supporting organizations and authorized institutional representatives —such as research grants officers, scholarships liaison officers and business officers —to “sign” and submit online applications and other documents to NSERC. Refer to the frequently asked questions in the program guide for professors for more details.

For applicants and co-applicants

Before you, as an applicant or co-applicant, can submit your application to NSERC or upload your NSERC CCV to an application, you must read and agree to the terms and conditions of applying that appear in a pop-up window during the submission process. It is your responsibility to retain a copy of the agreed terms and conditions for your records.

The “signatures” of the institutional authorities certify that

• the institution will abide by the roles and responsibilities set out in the Agreement on the Administration of Agency Grants and Awards by Research Institutions ("the Agreement") with the three federal granting agencies, including the Tri-Agency Framework: Responsible Conduct of Research, the Tri-agency Guide on Financial Administration, and the relevant program literature
• as required by the agreement, you, as the applicant and co-applicant(s), meet the eligibility requirements for the relevant funding opportunity
• before submitting the application, the institution has obtained written approval from any other institutions involved in the application process
• you will not use or disclose any information that you obtain or view on the Research Portal for any purposes other than your participation in the agency’s process
• you understand that the agency reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to terminate or restrict your access to the Research Portal at any time, without notice

The “signatures” of authorized officers of other supporting organizations certify that the organization

• agrees with the content of the application and will provide the committed resources
• agrees to the release of the public summary of the award and to the publication of the organization's name as a supporter of the initiative

If you are both the applicant or co-applicant and a principal of a collaborating organization, another senior official must “sign” on behalf of the organization.