Date/Time
Date(s) - 03/03/2025 - 01/05/2025
12:00 am - 8:00 pm

Natural Sciences and Research Council (NSERC)
Collaborative Research and Training Experience Program (CREATE)

 

Notify ROADS, Dept Chair, and Associate Dean (Research) of Intent to Apply	March 03, 2025
Submit Draft Letter of Intent (LOI) to ROADS for Review	April 08*
Submit LOI to ROADS for Admin Review	April 24
LOI due to NSERC	May 01

*If submitting to the Genomics call (details below), note that LOI must be submitted to ROADS by April 01

 

The Collaborative Research and Training Experience (CREATE) program supports the training and mentoring of teams of highly qualified students and postdoctoral fellows from Canada and abroad through the development of innovative training programs that:

 

• encourage collaborative and integrative approaches, and address significant scientific challenges associated with Canada’s research priorities; and,
• facilitate the transition of new researchers from trainees to productive employees in the Canadian workforce.

These innovative programs must foster the acquisition and development of important professional skills among students and postdoctoral fellows that complement their qualifications and technical skills, and improve their job readiness for careers in industry, government, non-governmental organizations and/or academia.

 

In addition, these programs should encourage the following as appropriate:

• student mobility, nationally or internationally, between individual universities and between universities and other sectors
• interdisciplinary research within the natural sciences and engineering (NSE), or at the interface between the NSE and health or between the NSE and the social sciences and humanities—however, the main focus of the training must still lie within the NSE
• increased collaboration between industry and academia

 

Webinars

NSERC hosted English- and French-language webinars in early-February. If you are interested in accessing a recording of the English-language webinar, please contact Ryan Heyden, Senior Advisor (Development): heydenrw@mcmaster.ca.

Slides for the webinar are attached to this announcement.

 

Changes to the CREATE Program

In an effort to simplify the application process and provide opportunities for a wider range of eligible institutions, the CREATE program for the 2026 competition year will be modified as follows:

• An unlimited number of Letters of Intent (LOIs) can be submitted by an institution. There are no university LOI quotas for eligible institutions.
• The LOI stage will be semi-competitive. NSERC will admit, via peer review using established criteria, a specific number of LOIs from each institution to the application stage. An institution’s allotment is based on the average total value of NSERC grant funding awarded over the past 3 years. McMaster’s allotment for the 2026 competition is 3 applications.
• Only when an institution submits a number of LOIs greater than their allotment will their LOIs be peer reviewed to determine which of these will advance to the application stage.
• LOIs submitted to the International stream are exempt from the institution’s allotment.
• The total number of new CREATE grants that can be awarded to an institution is capped at 3 per competition year.

 

Call for applications in Genomics

 

For the 2026 Competition, NSERC is accepting a maximum of two (2) CREATE applications per institution related to Genomics. Applications under this call are not included in McMaster’s institutional quota stated above.

 

NSERC will fund a total of four CREATE initiatives in Genomics in the 2026 competition.

 

If more than two (2) McMaster LOI are to be submitted under this call, an internal selection committee will be created to assess which ones will proceed to NSERC.

 

Applicants hoping to submit under the Genomics call must tell ROADS of this intent in their initial outreach.

 

International Stream

NSERC and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) have established a formal bilateral training program that involves an exchange of students between Germany and Canada. Applications to the international stream of CREATE require additional pre-LOI actions through DFG. Please ensure adequate time to establish an international partnership and to complete the DFG-IRTG application process.

 

Applicants with a successful DFG IRTG pre-proposal, please notify ROADS for further information.

Application Process

CREATE is an institutional program, and as such, LOIs must be endorsed by the applicant’s Department and the Faculty.  Please notify your department chair, Associate Dean, Research, and ROADS (Ryan Heyden, Senior Advisor: heydenrw@mcmaster.ca) of your intent to apply to either the regular or Genomics stream no later than March 03, 2025.

Should there be more than two teams interested in the Genomics stream, an internal selection process will be established. An internal LOI (to be provided by ROADS) must be submitted by April 01 to be considered internally.

Draft LOI are due to ROADS no later than April 08, 2025 for content review.

LOI are due to ROADS on April 24, 2025 for admin review.

Applicants will submit LOI to NSERC on or before May 01, 2025 by 8PM ET.

Additional Information:

Additional information regarding the CREATE Program can be found on the NSERC website at http://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/Professors-Professeurs/Grants-Subs/CREATE-FONCER_eng.asp.