NSERC COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH AND TRAINING EXPERIENCE PROGRAM (CREATE)

Program Description

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.

CREATE programs require institutional letters of support. Please reach out to the Research Development Team no later than 1 April to coordinate review of the LOI, as well as letter of support finalization and signatures.

Awards are valued at up to $1.65M over six years, at least 70% of which must go to trainee stipends.

Teams can apply under two streams:

• Regular stream (institutional allotment applies)
• International stream (no institutional allotment)

NSERC has announced changes for the 2025/2026 CREATE competition:

• Institutions may submit an unlimited number of Letters of Intent (LOIs). As such, there will be no internal selection process at UBC this year.

• The LOI stage will be competitive only if the number of LOI submissions exceed the institution’s allotment.
  • Since UBC’s allotment is 4, the LOI stage will be competitive if more than 4 LOIs are submitted by UBC researchers. If fewer than 4 LOIs are submitted by UBC researchers, then all LOIs will automatically proceed to the full application stage.
• Awards are capped at 3 CREATE grants per institution per year.

NSERC has confirmed that these updates will be made to their website in March.

There is a limit on researchers’ participation in multiple active CREATE initiatives. An individual researcher may participate in a maximum of two CREATE initiatives as either an applicant or co-applicant. Additionally, researchers may be the applicant for one CREATE initiative per year.

Full Program Terms

Proposal Development Support

For support in preparing a UBCO-led application, please get in touch with the contact below:

How to Apply

To coordinate an institutional letters of support, please reach out to the Research Development Team no later than 1 April.

UBC Okanagan requires an RPIF be submitted at the LOI Stage.

UBC Okanagan Submission Guidelines