[PDADC-L] Ontario Research Fund - Research Excellence, Round 6

MEMORANDUM

TO: PDAD&C
FROM: Professor Paul Young, Vice President, Research
DATE: August 24, 2011
RE: Ontario Research Fund – Research Excellence, Round 6
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The Ministry of Research & Innovation has just released information on Round 6 of the Ontario Research Fund-Research Excellence (ORF-RE) program. The ORF-RE program promotes research excellence of strategic value to Ontario by supporting new leading-edge, transformative, and internationally significant research.
While research proposals in all disciplines are eligible for ORF-RE Round 6, the Ministry particularly encourages collaborative projects across institutions and disciplines from the following focus areas:
• Bio-economy and clean technologies;
• Advanced health technologies;
• Digital media and information & communications technologies;
• Sustainable communities (multidisciplinary research including but not limited to the topics of ageing, energy, health, environmental sustainability, regional economic development and/or economic prosperity for all).
The Ontario Research Fund Research Excellence (ORF-RE) program promotes research excellence in Ontario by supporting transformative, internationally significant research of strategic value to the province. This program focuses on scientific excellence and strong commercialization and targets new, leading-edge research initiatives. As a general rule, the minimum support provided by the ORF-RE to a project is $1 million and the maximum support provided is $4 million. Only in exceptional circumstances will requests over $4 million be considered. ORF-RE investment constitutes one-third of the total project budget, and requires a $1-$1 match from the institution and from a private sector partner(s). Strong participation by industry is a significant part of the ORF-RE mandate.
Regional information sessions will be held in September. Specific dates will be posted on the website below as they are scheduled.
The internal deadline at the Research Services office (RSO) for Notices of Intent (NoI’s) is September 30, 2011. RSO staff will submit all UofT NOIs to the Ministry for their Oct 14, 2011 deadline. RSO staff will work with applicants and their division heads to finalize full submissions. Internal deadlines for staged development of proposals will be established in consultation with project teams. The Ministry’s deadline is January 27, 2012. Forms and additional information on the competition can be found on the Research Services website: http://www.research.utoronto.ca/research-funding-opportunities/research-excellence-orf-re/


Please make your colleagues aware of this wonderful opportunity for UofT faculty to attract significant research investment. Questions may be directed to Sheila Van Landeghem (416-976-3603; sheila.vanlandeghem@utoronto.ca).