Three new centres added as NCE program emerges as key driver of innovation agenda

Conforming to STIC sub-priorities

The Networks of Centres of Excellence (NCE) continue their impressive growth which has seen the program triple in size over the past 10 years. Three more networks added to the roster last week are the first to operate under revamped criteria aimed at encouraging commercialization and tied closely to the government's priorities and sub-priorities for science and technology.

The NCE program now offers three distinct streams and an internship program, positioning it as a key driver for the federal government's emphasis on capturing the benefits of S&T investment through improved productivity and commercialization outcomes. The program's budget now tops $160 million annually to encompass 41 networks. That number could reach 45 if, as expected, the new competition for Centres of Excellence for Commercialization and Research (CECR) produces four winners.

The three new NCEs are funded to the tune of $67.7 million over five-years, with the potential for two renewals for a total of 15 years of funding. The third five-year cycle will be awarded if a network can demonstrate that it is partner-driven, with significant cash and in-kind support coming from receptor communities.

"During the second five-year cycle, the networks must think hard about how they will change into partner-driven networks, which is somewhere between Business-Led NCEs and traditional NCEs," says Jean-Claude Gavrel, the NCE's associate VP with responsibility for managing the overall program. "This is also the first time where we introduced the sub-priorities developed by STIC (Science, Technology and Innovation Council). We've been tweaking the criteria so there's an emphasis on critical importance for Canada. All three (new NCEs) fit that very much."

The latest NCE competition was conducted according to carefully conceived criteria that enhanced the program's place in the federal S&T framework. Proposals were required to adhere not only to the 2007 S&T Strategy's four priority areas but to the 13 sub-priority areas established by STIC. Only one network could be funded in each of the four main priority areas (environmental science and technologies, natural resources and energy, health and related life sciences and technologies and information and communications technologies).

"The NCE program is a natural fit (for prioritization). It lends itself well to be targeted," says Gavrel. "There are also other differences with this competition. The new networks must provide specific reports annually on meeting the new directions. These will be published."

The new networks

The GRAND NCE seeks to build upon Vancouver's burgeoning strength in digital media by co-locating with the Centre for Digital Media on the Great Northern Way Campus's where its Masters of Digital Media program is situated. Focused on advancing the technologies underpinning graphics, animation and new media, GRAND will work in the areas of games, social networking live performance, Internet-enabled e-journalism, mobile applications, e-government and e-health. The network will involve 50 researchers at 19 universities and has 32 partners so far. It is led by Dr Kellogg Booth, professor of computer science and the former director of the Media and Graphics Interdisciplinary Centre at the Univ of British Columbia.

NeurodevNet will network research activities into brain development in children with an initial focus on autism spectrum disorder, fetal alcohol spectrum disorder and cerebral palsy. Led by Dr Daniel Goldowitz, senior scientist at the Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics and the Child and Family Research Institute at the Univ of British Columbia, is encompasses a wide range of research from brain imaging and genetics to development biology.

Carbon Management Canada (CMC) is hosted by the Univ of Calgary and involves multidisciplinary teams of energy, environmental and social science researchers. Led by Dr Stephen Larter and spearheaded by the Institute for Sustainable Energy, Environment and the Economy, and the Canada School of Energy and Environment, CMC links researchers from 21 universities, the National Research Council and Natural Resources Canada as well as 13 companies. Research areas include lower-emission fossil energy recovery and processing technologies, carbon capture technologies, carbon storage processes and regulatory regimes and market mechanisms to accelerate implementation of low-carbon emission technologies and practices.

The NCE program also announced a third competition for the CECRs with $57 million in available funding. Particular emphasis will be placed on the ability to "create, grow and retain Canadian companies that can capture new markets with breakthrough innovations and evidence that the proposed centre would accelerate the commercialization of leading-edge technologies, good and services in priority areas."

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