Short list announced for highly anticipated new Canada Excellence Research Chairs

The first shoe has dropped on one of the highly anticipated Canada Excellence Research Chairs (CERC) program, with a short list of 17 universities and 40 proposals vying for 20 awards each worth $10 million over seven years. The announcement of the short list was made with considerable fanfare in Ottawa last week even though it will be another nine months before the ultimate winners are selected and announced in February/10.

The non-renewable chairs are intended to attract international calibre researchers to Canadian universities to establish cutting-edge programs in the four priority areas outlined in the 2007 S&T Strategy. The 40 competing proposals also correspond to sub-priorities established by the Science, Technology and Innovation Council within the government's ranking of technology sectors where the country has a strategic advantage.

Announced in the February 26/08 Federal Budget, the CERC program will cost $28 million when fully implemented. Another competition will be launched in several years time.

The short list was compiled from 135 proposals submitted by 41 universities. The second phase will see the 20 successful universities submit up to 40 researchers for the 20 positions, with the stipulation that at least one chair be allocated "under one or more of the priority areas that is of direct benefit to the automotive industry".

Despite the requirement that the research programs proposed under CERC correspond to previously selected priority areas, the overriding emphasis is on research excellence, says Derek Burney, the chair of the CERC selection board responsible determining the 20 ultimate recipients.

"I came into the program because of the emphasis on excellence. They assured me that there were no ground rules other than excellence," says Burney, senior strategic advisor to Ogilvy Renault LLP, a former senior civil servant and head of several major companies such as Bell Canada International and CAE Inc. "The thing that struck me as a non-scientific type is the capability of our universities to supplement and complement what they can get from the government with private and foundation resources. I had no idea universities had reached out as much as they had for support."

Burney was also impressed with the performance of Canada's small- and mid-sized universities .

"What was unexpected was how well the smaller institutions performed that aren't as heavily endowed with research funding as the top universities," he says. "Their applications stood toe-to-toe with the very best from the big universities."

One of those institutions is the Univ of Manitoba, which was successful in one of four research programs it proposed — Arctic geomicrobiology and climate change.

Dr Digvir Jayas, the U of M's recently appointed VP research, says a CERC chair will fill a critical gap in what's already a world class cluster of expertise in Arctic research and the impact of climate change.

"We have many researchers in this area and they will provide leadership in bringing a group together and developing a formal program in Arctic research and science," says Jayas. "I'd like to thank the federal government for establishing a program of this magnitude. They're committed to move the S&T Strategy forward."

The CERC program is administered on behalf of the three granting councils by the Canada Research Chairs program through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).

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