Simon Fraser University
Engaging the World

NSERC would like to share with you some important updates regarding the Alliance grants. In this message, you will find information on:

1. Electronic communication of its decisions
2. Updates to the terms and conditions
3. Updates to the reporting requirements

This information is also included in the new presentation deck entitled “Preparing an Alliance application,” recently added to the Alliance grants resources page.

I. Electronic communication of NSERC Alliance grants decisions

Starting in June, NSERC will be communicating its decisions on Alliance grants electronically.

When a funding decision on an Alliance grant is rendered, the principal investigator will receive NSERC’s notifications of decisions and all other pertinent documents (e.g., terms and conditions, reviewer reports, message to applicant) through their individual SharePoint library. The onus will be on applicants to share NSERC’s decision with the partner organizations, research administrative offices, and any co-applicants.

To help keep the Research grant offices informed of the status of Alliance grants submitted within the fiscal year, reports listing NSERC’s decisions will be issued through the grants and scholarships administrative portal (GSAP) on a bi-weekly basis.

For your information, templates of the reports which will be available through GSAP are attached.

II. Updates to the NSERC Alliance grants terms and conditions

We wish to remind you that the terms and conditions for Alliance grants have been updated in order to specify that NSERC will be requesting, from Alliance grant holders, the contact information of the students, fellows and other research trainees paid out of their Alliance grants. NSERC may contact the trainees to gather information for statistical and reporting purposes. Note that grantees have the obligation to inform trainees in this respect.

III. Updates to the NSERC Alliance grants reporting requirements

Our reporting requirements for Alliance grants will be streamlined in comparison to what we used to request for prior university partnerships programs. This will reduce the burden on the universities’ finance offices, on the researchers and on the partners.

In particular, yearly status reports will be done online and should take less than 10 minutes to complete through answering a few questions. For projects whose duration is of three years or more, one mid-term progress report would be requested. At the end of all projects, a final report will be requested.

We will provide you with more information on the reporting requirements as we get closer to the implementation stage.

NSERC will continue to notify you as new information on its grants become available. Feel free to reach out to us at alliance@nserc-crsng.gc.ca or via our regional offices with your questions.

Please contact ors@sfu.ca if you have any questions or concerns.