1. Funding
  2. External Funding
  3. Natural Sciences and Engineering
  4. NSERC CREATE

NSERC CREATE

Collaborative Research & Training Experience Program: 2026 Competition Year

The NSERC CREATE  program provides a value-added experience to the university training environment, which fosters the acquisition and development of professional skills to a group of trainees that complement qualifications and technical skills, and improve their readiness for both academic and non-academic careers.

The CREATE Grant is an institutional application, requiring full consultation with Research Services, and the applicant's Department Head and Associate/Vice Dean (Research).

Due to changes in how NSERC calculates the institutional quota for CREATE submissions, a maximum of two Letters of Intent (LOIs) will be endorsed for submission from Queen’s. Quotas are now based on a 3-year rolling average of NSERC funding rather than based on categories of institutional size. Given the quota restriction, Queen’s has implemented an internal adjudication process, and only those researchers selected can submit LOIs.

New for the CREATE 2026 competition year is the Genomics stream, and each university will have a quota of 2 LOIs. This is in addition to Queen's quota of 2 LOIs for the regular stream and an unlimited number for the international stream (in collaboration with Germany).

Note: Check the NSERC CREATE  website for updates and relevant details in early March 2025.

Information sessions

Panel discussion for Queen's applicants

The Vice-Principal Research Portfolio hosted a panel discussion and Q&A for new applicants to learn from the experience of current CREATE grantees.

  Queen's NetID is required to view session materials

February 3, 2025 - View the slide deck (PDF 214 KB)

NSERC webinar for prospective applicants

  Queen's NetID is required to view session materials

February 6, 2025 - View the English slide deck (PDF 1.56 MB)

February 7, 2025 - View the French slide deck (PDF 1.05 MB)

Important Dates

Deadline Type

 Date Related Information
PHASE 1 - Letter of Intent (LOI)

Queen's Internal

 Friday, February 28, 2025 - 11:59 pm EST Expression of Interest (EOI) - Mandatory
Monday, March 24, 2025 – 11:59 pm EST internal Letter of Intent (iLOI) - Mandatory
Early to mid-April Pitch session (expectations will be shared after submission of EOI) - Mandatory (date TBD)
Within 1 week of the pitch session Notice of decision and selection of the two (2) applications to proceed with NSERC LOI submission
External Thursday, May 1, 2025 - 8:00 pm EST Final LOI submission directly to NSERC by applicants via NSERC's On-Line System
PHASE 2 - Full Application (details coming soon)

Expression of Interest – Mandatory

Interested applicants are required to provide the information below. This information will be used for scheduling pitch sessions and coordinating reviewers.

  • Lead applicant name
  • Title of the project and a brief description of the project (100 words maximum)
  • Proposed co-applicants/collaborators and affiliated department/institution/organization
  • Proposed sector and partner organization(s) (if applicable)
  • Submission stream: regular, genomics or international (Note that the international stream is not counted toward the quota.)

Note: International stream applications do not count toward institutional quotas for submission. Please let us know as early as possible if you plan to apply to this stream.

Please send EOI details to Dr. Merline Fonkwe  merline.fonkwe@queensu.ca by Friday, February 28, 2025.

LOI submission for internal review – Mandatory

The internal LOI must be submitted by all interested applicants. The following components are required:

  • Overview, including novelty and need for a new training program in this area - 1/2 page limit
  • Description of the training program and expected outcomes: technical skills, professional skills and future career possibilities - 1 page limit
  • Details of the trainee intake schedule indicating proposed students per level of study per year. Use a table (Table 1)
  • List partner organizations (Table 2) and rationale for trainee mobility opportunities with these partners, 1/2 page limit. Table should include an indication of (a) secured, invited or proposed partner and (b) local, national or international for each partner
  • Description of sustainment plan (may require early conversation with Dept Head/Dean) - 1/2 page limit
  • Excellence of the research team (“narrative” style) - 1 page limit

Note: Tables (1 and 2) not included in other page limits.

Compile all components into one document before submitting to Research Services via email to Dr. Merline Fonkwe  merline.fonkwe@queensu.ca by Monday, March 24, 2025.

Objectives: The CREATE program is designed to improve the mentoring and training environment for the Canadian researchers of tomorrow by improving training in areas such as professional skills, communication and collaboration, as well as providing experience relevant to both academic and non-academic research environments.

The training initiative should be focused on providing a value-added experience to the university training environment to better prepare research trainees for their future careers in industry, government or academia.

The innovative training program should:

  • encourage collaborative and integrative approaches, and address significant scientific challenges associated with Canada’s research priorities;
  • facilitate the transition of new researchers from trainees to productive employees in the Canadian workforce.

In addition, these programs should encourage the following as appropriate:

  • student mobility, nationally or internationally, between individual universities and between universities and other sectors;
  • interdisciplinary research within the natural sciences and engineering (NSE), or at the interface between the NSE and health, or the social sciences and humanities. However, the main focus of the training must still lie within the NSE;
  • increased collaboration between industry and academia;
  • for the industrial stream, an additional objective is to support improved job-readiness within the industrial sector by exposing participants to the specific challenges of this sector and training people with the skills identified by industry.

Successful applicants will consist of a group of accomplished researchers who will work collaboratively to offer a defined research training program to a group of trainees. This environment will provide trainees with experience relevant to both academic and non-academic careers. The research training experience should focus on providing an enriched training experience for graduate (master’s and doctoral) students.

Note: NSERC and Mitacs have formalized their existing relationship. Applicants are encouraged to take advantage of Mitacs programs that support internships in industry as well as other opportunities to increase the number of trainees.

Funds Available: Up to \$1.65 million per project: Funding of up to \$150,000 in the first year, and up to \$300,000 annually in subsequent years (± \$50,000 per year variation allowed), will be provided by NSERC for a maximum period of six years. At least 80 percent of the CREATE grant must be used for trainees’ stipends. Up to 30 percent of this portion can be distributed to trainees who are not enrolled in the NSE.

Grant duration: Up to 6 years.

Relevant Research Areas: All areas of natural science and engineering.

Eligibility:

In the case of multi-organization collaborations (academic, industrial, government or not-for-profit sectors), the applicant must be from an NSERC-supported field at an NSERC-eligible university. One person must be designated to administer the grant. This person is the “applicant” and is responsible for completing and submitting the Letter of Intent (LOI) and the application (if invited) on behalf of the group. The applicant’s university will be the lead university.

  • Each researcher can only be involved in 2 active CREATE grants. Each researcher can only be the applicant on one CREATE per year.
  • At least 70% of the group must be from NSE fields, but co-applicants at the interdisciplinary frontier between NSE and the areas covered under the umbrella of SSHRC and CIHR may be incorporated into proposals. 
  • Each training program will have a program committee responsible for overseeing the progress of the program and its future directions. The applicant may not be the Chair of the Program Committee.
  • The focus should be on new training initiatives. Existing initiatives must justify the incremental value that will accrue from the CREATE Program.
  • A yearly quota has been established for each university, and only those researchers selected at their university can submit LOIs.
  • For applicants who have previously held a CREATE Grant, the proposed initiative must differ from the previous one. This must be clearly explained in the Letter of Intent.

Recent program changes:

  • Research Coordinators can now receive their salary from the grant for all 6 years, not just the first 2 years (as was the rule in the past). This also applies to any existing active CREATEs. 
  • The amounts requested per year can now vary by +/- \$50K from the default amounts of \$150K/y in year 1 and \$300K/y in years 2-6 so long as the total still sums to \$1.65M. 
  • Applicants should consider gender diversity in the applicant team and in their plans for recruiting students. This is especially true for disciplines where there is a recognized gender imbalance.
  • A start date of September 1 is now able to be requested (or the default start date of April 1). 

  Queen's NetID required to access these documents

Note: This sample application is intended for internal use at Queen’s only. You must enter your Queen's NetID and password to access this file. It is prohibited to circulate the sample applications outside of Queen’s or to host the example applications elsewhere online. Similarly, it is strictly prohibited to duplicate any of the text provided.

Research – Network and Data Management

Training Program Implementation

Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Indigenization (EDII)

If you don’t have a clear EDII action plan in place, please reach out to Dr. Aleksandra Bergier ( a.bergier@queensu.ca) as soon as possible to initiate the conversation and the planning process. If you haven’t already, we also strongly recommend that you take the EDI in Research Training Modules.

 

Completing the TRAQ DSS for Research that is not Hospital-Based

Completing the TRAQ DSS for Hospital-Based Research

Contacts