Canada Excellence Research Chairs (CERC)
See the University of Alberta's Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Action Plan, updated September 2019.
The Canada Excellence Research Chairs (CERC) Program offers universities award values of up to either $8 million or $4 million over eight years to support world‑renowned researchers and their teams to establish ambitious research programs at Canadian universities.
The CERC program is funded by the three federal research funding agencies:
- The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC)
- Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)
The program offers eligible Canadian, degree-granting institutions an opportunity to establish highly funded research chairs in the Government of Canada’s ST&I priorities for the CERC and CFREF programs.
The objectives of the program remain to:
- strengthen Canada’s ability to attract the world’s top researchers, in order to be at the leading edge of breakthroughs in ST&I priority areas expected to generate social and economic benefits for Canadians;
- help Canada build a critical mass of expertise in ST&I priority areas identified by the Government of Canada;
- create a competitive environment to help Canadian institutions, in their pursuit of excellence in their research, attract a cadre of world-leading researchers; and
- contribute to branding Canada as a location of choice for world-leading research, science and technology development, alongside other federal programs with similar objectives.