NSERC Program Officers and Evaluation Group Members are in the midst of the annual tour of university campuses across Canada discussing the Discovery Grant Program. If you are applying this year (either as a new or returning applicant) it is especially important that you attend these discussions. Representatives will be describing the new Evaluation Group structures and the delinked funding and proposal ranking process.

To find out the date they are visiting your campus, visit http://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/NSERC-CRSNG/Visits-Visites/grants-subventions_eng.asp and scroll down to open the schedule pdf.

If you miss the sessions (or want a refresher on what was said), you can download the 2009 information session presentation pdf (from the previously linked webpage). Of particular importance is slide 20, which hosts a matrix of discovery grants indicators as used by reviewers (in conjunction with the peer review manual) to arrive at a rating for proposals.

I can’t help but wonder if NSERC is going to start publishing what the normal cost of research is for all of the evaluation groups. If someone is consistently ranking high or low on the cost of research indicator and they aren’t told – how will they learn? Maybe there will be some allusion to this in the reviewer feedback.