NCE announces competition to create up to five business-led networks

Competition for the latest new federal R&D program has begun with the launch of the Business-led Networks of Centres of Excellence (B-NCE) program. With a budget of $46 million over four years, B-NCE is designed to support up to five large-scale collaborative networks to the tune of $2 million per year.

Geared to conform to the five broad priority areas spelled out in the recent S&T Strategy, the modestly budgeted program is intended to bring together experts from industry, government and academic to engage in applied research focused on identified business needs. The targeted areas are environmental science and technologies, natural resources and energy, health and related life sciences, information and communications technologies and management, business and finance.

To be eligible, applicants must establish a "vision" involving a private-sector driven research topic. NCE funding covers 50% of direct research costs and 75% of administrative costs, with the balance coming from private sector cash and in-kind.

Unlike standard NCEs which can receive funding for up to 14 years, B-NCEs are designed to last just four years. They are open to university, industry and government labs, with the latter eligible for student support if the government researchers are adjunct professors and bring their own resources.

not-for-profit consortia

Applicants must be not-for-profit consortia that represent companies with substantial R&D operations in Canada. The ideal consortium would include a mix of different sized firms, research providers and research users, similar to the long-standing model employed by Precarn Inc. In fact, Precarn has already indicated its intention to apply under the new program following its failure to secure funds for an enhanced business support strategy (R$, July 3/07).

Due to the time required to assemble not-for-profit consortia, the process for selecting the first batch of B-NCEs is expected to take at least 15 months. B-NCE applicants have until January 30/08 to submit letters of intent. They will be examined and ranked by a private sector advisory board (PSAB) which will forward its selections to the NCE Steering Committee for a final decision on who proceeds to the full proposal stage. That decision will be made in April/08, with full proposal applications due by June 31/08. Each proposal will be subject to review by an expert panel as well as further review by the PSAB. Final decision will be made by the NCE Steering Committee in November, with the launch of the first B-NCEs expected in early 2009.

The B-NCE program is the second of three new programs assigned to the NCE Secretariat in the last Budget (R$, March 26/07). The competition for the much larger Centres of Excellence for Commercialization and Research program was announced last month (R$, October 10/07).

The final program to be launched is the Industrial R&D Internships program. It has a budget of $4.5 million over the first two years with details on the timing of its inaugural competition expected later this fall.

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