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.

NSERC has released the 2009-2010 Program Guide for Professors. This document supersedes all previous NSERC guidelines and is in effect as of September 2009.

Read the summary of changes for a quick review of the revisions.

Notable changes include:

• Shifting the CHRP deadline back to October 1st
• Clarifications to the CREATE program description
• Review of DGs & RTIs by “Evaluation Groups”
• Form 101 changes – all samples of research contributions must be submitted electronically
• NSERC’s Policy on Intellectual Property has been revised

The apparent shift away from paper submission might be problematic for some applicants. Be sure to get electronic copies of your research contributions ready ahead of the DG 2010 deadline (November 1)!

NSERC posted an analysis of the 2009 Discovery grant competition (including comparisons to the 2008 competition) on their Program News page.

This is the most detailed analysis I have ever seen from NSERC. The change in grant level scatter plots are particularly fascinating.

FYI – I had a bit of trouble getting the file because the release links directly to the pdf. Here is the URL directly to the pdf.

The “Mathematics Committee for Liaison with NSERC” has provided more insight into the 2009 Discovery grants competition from the perspective of applicants and committee members of GSCs 336 and 337. Read their letter to the Canadian mathematics community here.

The letter contains some interesting commentary on the binning process and describes some specific challenges for the mathematics research community.

I think they raise some very valid points regarding the weaknesses of the binning process, namely the potential for large cuts in funding. I think that this issue will create instability in research programs and promote conservatism in research and training initiatives in the years bracketing renewal.

Another interesting comment was on the challenges of instituting a minimum grant amount ($14,000 for the GSCs 336 and 337 in the 2009 competition).

The letter is worth a read even if you are not in the discipline of mathematics.

Last week I was at a training session at NSERC and I learned something that I didn’t know before.

A few years ago, the online system would keep forms available for 7 years. That timeframe has now been compressed to 18 months!

This is great if you have many different test applications cluttering your eConsole as they will be removed in a much shorter timeframe. It is also a more effective use of NSERC’s resources – as the amount of net data storage is reduced.

Of course this does not apply to the Form 100 (the CV module or “personal data form”).

The take home message: Save a copy of your application (a pdf version) as soon as you click submit, because you never know when an archival copy of your grant applications will come in handy.