NSERC: last year and now

NSERC Discovery Grants 2008 (before the cuts): We are on a tight budget!

Last Spring’s NSERC letter to Discovery Grants applicants: The 2007-08 Discovery Grants program budget was under great pressure despite the injection of close to 6 million of new funds. This situation was due to the substantial increase in the number of applications which could not be matched by a corresponding growth in the program’s budget. Therefore, the budget was insufficient to meet the needs of the large number of new and returning applicants. For the Pure and Applied Mathematics “A” Grant Selection Committee 336, this resulted in the budget awarded to renewal applicants being approximately 16% lower than the amount previously held by that group of researchers. This made the competition more difficult than in previous years and the resulting recommendations are reflective of this extra pressure.

NSERC Discovery Grants 2009 (after the budget cuts): Our major core programs were protected!

This spring’s Fortier letter to unhappy researchers: It is important to note that all of our major core programs were found to be high performing and were protected in this exercise. For example, the budget for our Discovery Grants Program is projected to be $326 million in 2009-10, compared to $323 million in 2008-09.

Expect More of that on April 17th.