The Office of the Vice-President Research and Innovation (VPRI) recently launched a call for the nominations for the Canada First Research Excellence Fund (CFREF) competition. The CFREF was created to support Canada’s postsecondary institutions in their efforts to become global research leaders. The CFREF helps institutions:
- Compete with the best in the world for talent, for partnership opportunities, and to make breakthrough discoveries;
- Seize emerging opportunities and strategically advance their greatest strengths on the global stage; and
- Implement large-scale, transformational and forward thinking institutional strategies
CFREF aims to support large-scale research programs focusing on existing institutional thematic area aligned with the Government of Canada’s science, technology and innovation (ST&I) priority areas, and aims to boost the strengths of Canadian postsecondary institutions so that they can achieve global success in research areas that create long-term social and economic advantages for Canada.
All CFREF awards are for up to seven years. The competition is capped institutionally with each institution limited to one application. The total funding envelope is $1.4 billion and there is no pre-set maximum on what can be requested in an application to this program. More information on the CFREF competition can be found here.
To meet the CFREF program submission dates, UBC has instituted the following internal deadlines:
- Internal Notice of Intent (NOI) #1: December 22, 2021 (please see Internal FoM and UBC NOI #1 Submission processes outlined below)
- Internal NOI #2: February 2, 2022
**Note: The Faculty of Medicine will not be adjudicating applications but have outlined the internal FoM process (below) to ensure that the Cover Page is signed by the Dean of Medicine prior to UBC’s deadline.
INTERNAL FACULTY OF MEDICINE NOI #1 PROCESS
- Applicants must email the Office of Research (shelly.au@ubc.ca) by December 10, 2021 to express their intent to apply for a CFREF and the title of their proposal.
- The CFREF Internal UBC NOI #1 Cover Page must be sent to the Office of Research via email by December 13, 2021 for signature from the Dean of Medicine. For applications across multiple Faculties, please clearly identify the Faculties and name of the Dean(s) in the signatory section.
- A copy of the final NOI #1 submitted to UBC (sample NOI) must be sent to the Office of Research via email on December 22, 2021.
UBC NOI #1 SUBMISSION PROCESS
The UBC NOI #1 must be submitted via https://apply.research.ubc.ca by December 22, 2021. To complete and submit a UBC CFREF internal NOI #1, the project lead must log in to VPRI’s online application system UBC Research + Innovation Apply using their campus wide login (CWL), and follow the instructions provided. Once the NOI has been initiated, the project lead may invite co-applicants with a CWL to contribute using the “add collaborator” button located in the left side block. Applications can be saved and completed at a later date before final submission, and can be downloaded as a PDF at any time. Each section must be marked as complete before the lead applicant can submit the application (note only the lead applicant is able to submit the NOI for review).
Next Steps
| December 10, 2021 | Email the Office of Research (shelly.au@ubc.ca) to express your intent to apply for a CFREF |
| December 13, 2021 at 12:00pm PST | Send UBC NOI #1 cover page to the Office of Research via email to obtain signature from the Dean of Medicine |
| December 22, 2021 | NOI #1 including cover page must be submitted to UBC via https://apply.research.ubc.ca. A PDF copy of the submission must be sent to the Office of Research via email. |
| January 10, 2022 | Feedback provided to applicants on UBC NOI #1 |
| February 2, 2022 | Deadline to submit NOI #2 to UBC |
| February 3-18, 2022 | Review of each UBC NOI #2 using internal and external reviewers. Reviews may include a Q&A session with project leads |
| February 25, 2022 | UBC lead application selected |
| March 1, 2022 | UBC Letter of Intent submitted to CFREF |
| August 31, 2022 | UBC’s full application submitted to CFREF |
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 exceptional FoM nominations and appreciate that the timeline is tight.