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Networks of Centres of Excellence

The Networks of Centres of Excellence (NCE) is a jointly funded initiative of Canada’s Tri-Council research funding agencies – the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).

As a federally funded initiative, the NCE program funds partnerships between universities, industry, government, and not-for-profit organizations to create large-scale research networks focusing on developing and expanding knowledge in strategic areas in order to enable the creation of “multifaceted solutions to specific social and economic challenges, with the goal of helping build a more advanced, healthy, competitive, and prosperous country.”

Networks are expected to:

  • Be challenge-focused and solution-driven;

  • Foster innovative research, training and the co-creation of new knowledge on critical issues of intellectual, social, economic and cultural significance;

  • Engage partners in the design and execution of all network activities, including knowledge creation, mobilization and exploitation;

  • Have a strategic, diverse leadership, incorporating all relevant sectoral and disciplinary perspectives.

The program began in 1989 and will continue until 2024. Making the Shift was awarded an NCE in the last round of funding.

* Quotes are from the Networks of Centres of Excellence Competition Guide 2017.