ABOUT NSERC

Suzanne Fortier, President
Natural Sciences and
Engineering Research
Council

At the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), we recognize that Canada’s prosperity as a nation rests on our ability to innovate. We also know, from direct experience, that private-public sector partnerships can generate the kind of innovation that leads to business growth, job creation and a stronger, more resilient economy.

Many businesses that perform R&D are seizing the opportunity to work with the public sector to leverage their investments. Each year, NSERC invests over $310 million in funds to support more than 1,500 industry-academic R&D partnerships. It does so through a suite of programs that cover the complete spectrum of R&D, from discovery research to support for product, process and service development; and from working with a single student to interaction with large teams of researchers spanning the country. 

While our track record is strong, we know that we can do more to step up our game. About 20,000 companies in Canada conduct some form of R&D. Many of them are small and medium-sized businesses that could easily double or triple their innovation capacity by engaging in collaborative projects with university and college researchers and students.

NSERC recently consulted more than 400 representatives from a wide spectrum of sectors and businesses to find out how we can play an even stronger role in bringing academic researchers and companies together. We heard loud and clear that companies, including small and medium-sized businesses, see the value in such partnerships and need clear, effective and efficient opportunities to partner with academia.

In response, NSERC has developed a new Strategy for Partnerships and Innovation to make it easier for industry to collaborate with academia, and access the wealth of resources Canada’s first-rate academic system has to offer.

NSERC is ready to move to action and do what it does best: build sustainable bridges between industry and academia; remove unnecessary speed bumps that slow the process of innovation; and build highrises of excellence in areas that are strategic to the well-being of our country.

We hope that you will consider us as your partner and as a bridge to extend your competitive edge.