Research Grants Office (RGO)

NSERC Site Visit at McGill - September 25 & 26, 1997

Information & Workshop Sessions: 9:00 am - 12:00 noon
September 25 - McIntyre Medical Sciences Bldg, Room 1027
September 26 - Macdonald-Stewart Bldg, Faculty Lounge, Room MS-2022, Macdonald Campus

Each fall, representatives from NSERC and their Grant Selection Committees (GSCs) visit McGill to inform researchers of current NSERC policies and changes to programs and to provide an opportunity for the GSCs to get a feel for the research environment. A portion of their time will be devoted to a workshop on the preparation of grant applications. This year, NSERC has scheduled a site visit for the Life Sciences Committees and the GSCs will be visiting several departments involved with this discipline. All researchers, including post-doctoral fellows and graduate students, from all disciplines are invited to attend. The site visit will be especially beneficial to first-time applicants, researchers who have not received recent NSERC support but who intend to apply this fall, and researchers who recently transferred from other universities.

SPIN Canada

We have made the SPIN Canada database available to all researchers to assist them in seeking research funding from sponsors other than the ones we are familiar with and for which institutions and individuals in Canada are eligible. The SPIN Canada database can be accessed via the website http://www.infoed.org/. At the InfoEd homepage, click on SPIN, ACCESS SPIN, SPIN, ACCESS SPINWWW, then select SPIN Canada, and you can start searching using any combination of the following fields: Keywords, Applicant Types, Award Types, Sponsors, Sponsor Types, Deadline Dates and free text searching.

In June 1996, a few months after we first subscribed to SPIN, 688 transactions from McGill and its affiliated hospitals were recorded. By June 1997, this number had increased to 10,082. We are pleased that many of you are taking advantage of this database and we urge those not using it to do so.

Upcoming Deadlines

Please refer to the RGO website at http://ww2.mcgill.ca/fgsr/rgo.htm or to the September 1997 issue of the RGO Newsletter recently distributed to researchers.

New Internal Grants Program: NSERC Seed Research Grants for New Opportunities

Eligibility: Eligible Applicants to NSERC
Condition: Research Projects

Seed money is being offered by the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research for 10 research projects for each of the next three years. Funds used for this initiative were obtained by recapturing unspent balances from NSERC grants and are being spent in accordance with the NSERC guidelines.

Applicants are encouraged to submit grants for novel projects (unrelated to other presently funded projects) that need seed money to obtain sufficient preliminary data that will allow for eventual full-fledged NSERC applications. The maximum to be awarded is $10,000 for any given grant. No individual will receive more than one of these grants during the three-year cycle. However, unsuccessful applicants are welcome to re-apply.

Deadline for submitting complete applications to the Research Grants Office is December 15, 1997. Grants will be evaluated by a peer review committee constituted by experienced NSERC peer-review committee members. Applicants will be notified of the results of the competition at the end of February and grants will take effect as of March 1, 1998. For further information, please contact Janie Kwan at 3790.

Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI)

The Canadian Foundation for Innovation has opened its website (http://www.innovation.ca) with all relevant details for proposed programs. Researchers are encouraged to visit the website and to provide comments regarding the proposed programs to the Vice-Principal (Research) by September 18, 1997. E-mail: pbelange@fgsr.lan.mcgill.ca or fax: 8257.