Deadline: 30-May-22
The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and the University of Toronto (U of T) have launched a call for proposals under their Collaboration Centre for Green Energy Materials.
The call is to provide funding for projects aimed at developing a range of innovative solutions to Canada’s current and future economic, social and environmental challenges.
The Collaboration Centre for Green Energy Materials targets low technology-readiness levels (TRL) according to the research pillars and platforms.
Objective: The objective of the funding is to test ideas, show potential, and further develop technology towards a proof of concept, for further development by the Collaboration Centre for Green Energy Materials, and other potential programs and industry.
Pillars
- The Collaboration Centre for Green Energy Materials includes 5 research pillars that serve as focus areas for the program:
- Next-generation photovoltaics
- Renewable, carbon-based feedstocks
- Renewable fuels and fuel cells
- Next-generation, consumer-scale energy solutions
- AI- and robotics-enabled materials discovery
- The following platform technologies under development support the above research pillars:
- Accelerated materials discovery and process development
- Production scale-up, demonstration and standardization
- Materials and process sustainability and safety
Funding Information
Up to 4 new projects will be funded as part of each call for proposals.
- U of T principal investigators (PI) funding: For each project, the NRC will provide the U of T PI (and co-PI) with up to $70,000 (CAD) over 2 years for the funding of U of T graduate students and postdoctoral fellows (PDFs), including overhead costs. Funding for students and postdoctoral fellows must be at least equal to the funding of the U of T PI (and co-PI), which must also cover any other expenses related to the University of Toronto project.
- NRC project collaborator (PC) funding: The Collaboration Centre for Green Energy Materials initiative will provide the NRC PC (and any co-PI) with the necessary work and equipment codes, and will fund all reasonable and justified operating costs of the project. It should be noted that, except in exceptional circumstances, operating costs are expected to be well below $30,000 per year.
- Relative NRC and U of T project expenditures: Each project will be different, but the total amount of dollar contributions to each project by the NRC and the U of T, including staff salary costs, student and PDF costs should not differ by more than a ratio of 2 to 1. For example, if the NRC or U of T contributes $200,000, the other should not contribute less than $100,000.
Eligibility Criteria
- Expressions of interests (EOI) may be submitted by researchers from either the NRC or U of T. While all Collaboration Centre for Green Energy Materials projects must be co-led by PIs from both the NRC and U of T, PIs from both institutions should be identified at the EOI stage.
- The NRC PIs (or co-PIs) must be full-time researchers, and may be employees of any NRC research centre. The U of T PI co-leads must be full-time U of T faculty and may work within any U of T campus, faculty or department. It is the responsibility of the PIs to ensure that they comply with any of their home institution’s policies and to obtain any approvals as may be required. Any non-continuing NRC PIs can lead a project but would need to involve a continuing PI in the project to ensure project continuity.
- Please note that for the current round of proposals, PIs of Collaboration Centre for Green Energy Materials projects that received funding in a prior round of projects may again receive funding in the next round.
For more information, visit https://bit.ly/37v7I25
