ABOUT NSERC

Our Strategy for Partnerships and Innovation is a blueprint for action to accelerate innovation in Canada. Developed with extensive input from industry, our strategy makes it easier for businesses—small, medium and large—to partner with us and capitalize on Canada’s world-class academic research system. 

At NSERC we are stepping up our game to:

• Build bridges between industry and academia with programs that let you forge new R&D relationships with university researchers and participate in short- or long-term research programs.  
  
  
• Remove speed bumps to facilitate collaboration between the public and private sectors. Our renewed policies and programs break down structural barriers that slow the process of innovation. 
  
  
• Develop highrises of excellence by focusing significant resources to accelerate R&D in areas of priority to industry and our country.

NSERC is taking immediate action as part of its new Strategy for Partnerships and Innovation, including:

• Our regional offices are focusing on facilitating industry-academic partnerships.
  
  
• We will launch Engage grants that allow academic researchers to demonstrate their capabilities to new industry partners.
  
  
• We are helping to organize “speed dating” events to bring interested researchers and companies into brief and structured contact to discuss needs and capabilities.
  
  
• We will support project management within our partnership grants.
  
  
• We will offer grants to researchers in support of market studies, to assist in commercializing promising inventions and to explore the market potential for research directions.
  
  
• We have improved our intellectual property policy to expand arrangement options between industry and post-secondary institutions. 

We invite you to read our new Strategy for Partnerships and Innovation.
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