Bissett School of Business wishes to congratulate Bissett  Associate Professor, Rajbir Bhatti on being appointed as a Grant Reviewer for the  second  year in succession, by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC). Rajbir will be reviewing applications made to a joint initiative application to the College and Community Innovation Program (CCI) – IE and Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI).  The College and Community Innovation (CCI) Program is managed by NSERC in collaboration with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).

The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) participates in the Innovation Enhancement (IE) Grants component of the granting agencies’ College and Community Innovation (CCI) Program in order to foster partnerships between colleges and the private sector that will lead to business innovation at the local, regional and national levels. This joint initiative allows colleges to apply for a comprehensive funding package supporting both research costs and research infrastructure (through the CFI’s new College-Industry Innovation Fund

IE Grants stimulate applied research that brings together necessary expertise from diverse fields such as natural sciences and engineering, social sciences and humanities, and/or health sciences to address business-driven challenges and opportunities. IE Grants provide funding to colleges on a competitive basis to support the growth of their applied research capacity leading to collaborative applied research and technology transfer activities with and to the benefit of companies—SMEs in particular. They thus increase company engagements and contributions throughout the term of the grant. These grants will focus on an area where the college has recognized expertise and that meets local or regional needs and where there is the potential to increase the economic development of the community.

The funding limit for these grants is $400,000 per year, (payable for five years) – capped at $2 million per application.