NSERC rolls out new college program for strengthening research infrastructure

Support for college innovation received another boost with the awarding of more than $8 million to purchase equipment that allows for more effective collaboration with industry. The inaugural competition of the Applied Research Tools and Instruments (ARTI) grants program benefits 79 projects at 32 colleges across the country, including Niagara College which received $425,000 for three new applied research projects.

As part of the recently expanded the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council's (NSERC) College and Community Innovation (CCI) Program, ARTI grants complement larger grants being offered by the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) through its new College-Industry Innovation Fund (CCIF).

"These grants provide up to $150,000 per lab so they're smaller than the CFI's college awards which are up to $800,000. Using the CFI's 40/40/20 formula, that's up to $2 million per institution," says Bert van den Berg, NSERC's director of knowledge and technology transfer. "The ARTI program will enable colleges to build capacity in collaboration with local companies. They need the physical capability in place to do research and innovation."

The CCIF provides $25 million for equipment and $7.5 million for operating support. Of the $25 million, $5 million can be applied for in conjunction with NSERC's Innovation Enhancement (IE) grant application process. The deadline for CCIF letters of intent were earlier this month with decisions scheduled for March/12.

"It can be one application for equipment and a five-year project," says van den berg.

The CCI Program was doubled in the 2010 Budget and augmented with several new funding initiatives in the March 22nd ((unimplemented) and June 6th Budgets (R$, March 31/11).

"We heard from the colleges that there's an unmet need. We proposed this increase and as a result the CCI program budget is doubling from $15 million to $30 million a year," says van den Berg.

In addition to ARTI, the other CCI grants are: IE grants, Applied Research and Development (ARD) grants and Technology Access Centre grants — the latter modeled on Quebec's successful network of College Centres for Technology Transfer.

NSERC announced the results of EI and ARD grant competitions On the day the election was called .

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