NSERC announces new target research areas for strategic partnership programs

Closely aligned with government policy

NSERC hopes it's seen a glimpse of the technological future and has launched new priority areas for its strategic partnership programs aimed at assisting industry and other partners in growing their businesses through innovation. The new targets areas of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council reflect a dynamic combination of advances in research, government priorities and evolving industry needs at a time when the pace of innovation is accelerating and has become truly global.

The re-prioritization of target research areas is a critical foresight exercise that occurs roughly every five years, and with a slightly different approach each time depending on current circumstances and projected developments. This time, NSERC conducted the re-alignment in the context of the 2007 federal S&T strategy with additional direction it received in the 2008 Budget, requiring the agency to spend $34 million more annually in the areas of automotive, manufacturing, forestry and fisheries research.

"The Strategic Partnerships Program (SPP) is directed to looking 10 years out. We change the target areas every five years because research is changing as well as the external environment. It's a challenging balance," says Janet Walden, NSERC's VP research partnerships program. "We want to get industry on side as a partner by stretching the research side. For example, ICT now refers to cloud and grid computing. ICT receives more regular and significant updates because of the speed of the movement in research."

wide consultation

The latest assessment of target research areas involved consultation with 570 industry, government and academic representatives which helped to identify new target areas: environmental sciences and technologies (with a strong focus on water), information and communications technologies (ICT), manufacturing, natural resources (focused on forestry and fisheries) and energy (both hydrocarbon-based and alternative). Areas that were discontinued as target areas were safety and security and quality food and novel bio products. Biomedical technologies were shifted to the Collaborative Health Research Projects (CHRP) program, a joint initiative of NSERC and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).

Each target area had to satisfy the following criteria:

* Supports goal of target areas;

* Economic and/or social benefit to Canada

* Canada has or can develop niche expertise in area

* Sufficient receptor capacity

* Demonstrated need for highly qualified people

* Sufficient number of Canadian researchers

"The challenges associated with the discontinued areas will still be explored under the new priority areas but with a different focus," says Walden. "We're challenging those researchers to address the new priority areas within their research areas."

ICT is a case in point. With a strong focus on applications, the ICT target area has been closely aligned with the Digital Economy Strategy being developed by Industry Canada.

The manufacturing area covers a diverse range of research topics ranging from bionanoparticles and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) to materials used in batteries, light emitting materials and engineered structural materials (structural foams, composites and functionally graded materials).

refining target areas

The consultation was followed by five focus groups comprised of high-level experts from all sectors who drilled down to determine which are the most appropriate niche areas for further research (see chart).

The target areas will have the greatest impact on two programs within the SPP portfolio — Strategic Project Grants and Strategic Network Grants — which account for more than $90 million or 37% of the research partnership program's $255-million million.

While biomedical is no longer a core target area, NSERC is actually increasing its investments in the field through the CHRP program. Beginning next year, both NSERC and CIHR will double their commitment to the program from $3 million to $6 million over three years, boosting its annual budget to $12 million by 2014.

"CHRP was launched several years ago when the Medical Research Council became CIHR. The focus to date has been building new relationships and outcomes," says Walden. "We're now at the point where we can take the next step — sustaining relationships and bringing in a multi-disciplinary approach to respond to the challenges that are articulated."

R$