Canada Excellence Research Chairs

Open Call for Nominations – Canada Excellence Research Chairs (CERC) Program

The Office of the Vice-President Research and Innovation (VPRI) recently launched a call for nominations for the 4th competition of the Canada Excellence Research Chairs (CERC) Program. UBC has a cap of $7M per year on the total dollar value of applications that can be submitted. These applications are expected to be due in the spring of 2022.

The CERC program awards non-renewable chairs of two award values:

  • $4M over eight years (up to $500,000/year); or
  • $8M over eight years (up to $1M/year)

The two award values recognize the varying costs of research within different research disciplines and aims to be inclusive of all areas of research. The funding supports expenses related to compensation, as well as research activities for chairholder, the core team of the chairholder, and up to 25% of the indirect costs of the research.

The Faculties of Applied Science, Arts, Medicine, Science have been invited to submit up to 3 proposals each to VPRI. All other faculties have been invited to submit up to 1 proposal each. Multi-Faculty submissions are encouraged and each proposal must identify a lead Faculty.

Nominees must be full professors or associate professors expected to be promoted to full professor within one or two years of the nomination. For more information, please visit the CERC website.

Faculty of Medicine’s Pre-Selection Process

To ensure FoM’s strongest possible candidates are put forward to VPRI, the Office of Research is seeking nominations from candidates that would be competitive for this award.

  1. All applicants interested in submitting a Notice of Intent (NOI) to FoM should register here by no later than MONDAY DECEMBER 13, 2021 5:00pm PDT.
  2. Preliminary nominations must be sent directly to the Office of Research (shelly.au@ubc.ca) by WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 22, 2021 5:00pm PDT.

    The preliminary nominations must describe (please use template):
    • The type of CERC being sought ($4M or $8M).UBC’s research strengths in the proposed field, assessed against global standards of excellence.The promise of the proposed field of research for the Chair, measured in the context of leading global research in this field; and the likelihood that the work associated with the proposed Chair will be recognized as relevant and will advance the frontiers of research in the field globally.The fit of the target area of the Chair with the priority areas* for the CERC competition.A list of potential candidates for the position along with any relevant information about the likelihood of recruitment. Potential candidates need not have been contacted at this stage.The level of support to be provided by the faculty (e.g., research environment) to support the CERC, including long-term sustainability.How EDI was incorporated in the faculty’s internal selection process.How EDI will be incorporated in the recruitment process and the CERC proposal with respect to the research design and research team.The lead UBC Faculty and lead faculty members for the proposal.
    * The Government of Canada will update ST&I priorities imminently. Please check the CERC website.

Next Steps

December 23, 2021 – January 6, 2022FoM internal review panel will review the preliminary nominations.
Week of January 10, 2022Office of Research will announce the results of FoM’s pre-selection
January 17, 2022Office of Research will forward finalized NOIs to VPRI

Contact

If you have any questions, please contact Shelly Au in the Faculty of Medicine’s Office of Research via email at shelly.au@ubc.ca.

We look forward to receiving outstanding FoM nominations and appreciate that the timeline is tight.