Simon Fraser University
Engaging the World

NSERC and the US National Science Foundation (NSF) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on research cooperation. The MOU provides an overarching framework to encourage collaboration between Canadian and US research communities and sets out the principles for developing jointly supported activities. This new NSERC-NSF collaborative research opportunity focuses specifically on discoveries and innovations in the areas of artificial intelligence and quantum science.

Through a lead agency model, US and Canadian research teams will submit a single collaborative proposal that will undergo a single review process at the NSF, which will be the lead agency. Canadian academic researchers may receive funding from NSERC, and US researchers may receive funding from the NSF. NSERC funding will be provided as an Alliance grant.  For this collaborative call there is no requirement for partner organizations or contributions in the Canadian component, and they should not be included in the proposal. The collaborative opportunity is fully described in the  Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) available on the NSF website. The DCL provides the complete guidelines for the preparation, submission, review and award of NSERC-NSF collaborative research proposals.

Eligibility: 

The full requirements are described in the DCL. Proposals must include eligible applicants from both Canada and the US as described below.

For Canada: 

One Canadian university researcher, or a team of Canadian university researchers, who is eligible to receive NSERC funds can apply.

For the US: 

Please refer to the DCL and to the NSF website.

Value and Duration: 

One to five years

Application Steps: 

Step 1 - Letter of Intent 

The Canadian researcher or team of researchers must submit a letter of intent (LOI) to NSERC using the NSERC online system at least eight weeks prior to the planned submission of the full proposal to the NSF. The NSERC eligibility criteria for faculty and the national security guidelines apply. The LOI must not exceed three pages, excluding references, and must respect NSERC online presentation and attachment standards.

Step 2 - Full proposal (by invitation only) 

Based on the review of your LOI, you may be invited to proceed with a full proposal to the NSF. NSERC will provide an Invitation to submit letter to Canadian applicants, which must be appended to the full proposal as a supplementary document. Only proposals that have been invited to submit will be accepted. The NSERC eligibility criteria for faculty apply. The collaborative proposals must be submitted by US principal investigators to a participating NSF program using the appropriate NSF submission process. Full applications are not submitted to NSERC.

Please click on website link for further information on how to apply to this opportunity. 

Website: 

NSERC-National Science Foundation – Collaboration on quantum science and artificial intelligence (nserc-crsng.gc.ca)