NSERC Award for Science Promotion

Eligibility

Candidates must be nominated by a Canadian citizen or permanent resident of Canada; posthumous or self-nominations will not be accepted. Nominators may be colleagues or people who have benefited from the nominee’s contributions, such as teachers, parents, community members or administrators. Note: For nominations within postsecondary institutions, senior administrators within the institution can nominate an individual or group, as long as the award does not directly benefit the nominators. NSERC strongly encourages nominators to consider equity, diversity and inclusion in their nomination process.*

Nominees for the individual award must be Canadian citizens or permanent residents of Canada. Nominees for the group award can be any registered non-profit organization, postsecondary institution, non-federal museum, science centre or company within Canada. Current NSERC Council members are not eligible for nomination.

All nominees must have made a successful and sustained effort to encourage public interest in, and an understanding of, the natural sciences and engineering (including math and technology). As a guideline, nominees have typically been involved in science promotion over the course of at least five years, and their endeavours must be outside the formal education system.

Past winners of an NSERC Award for Science Promotion are eligible for re-nomination if a period of at least 10 years has passed since their previous award. Exceptions may be made for individuals or groups who are, or were, linked with an organization that has previously won an NSERC Award for Science Promotion within the last 10 years. In order to qualify, the achievements of any nominee (group or individual) must be distinct from those of the previous award winner. Such nominations must include a letter from the organization confirming the distinct nature of the activities.

*NSERC is acting on the evidence that achieving a more equitable, diverse and inclusive Canadian research enterprise is essential to creating the excellent, innovative and impactful research necessary to advance knowledge and understanding, and to respond to local, national and global challenges. This principle informs the commitments described in the Tri-agency statement on equity, diversity and inclusion.

Summary

The NSERC Awards for Science Promotion honour individuals and groups that are inspirational in the way they promote science to the general public.

These awards are an opportunity for Canada’s science community to recognize, support and encourage outstanding science promoters.

Individual recipients will receive a $10,000 award and group recipients a $25,000 award. The funds are intended to support further science promotion activities in Canada, and must be used in accordance with the PromoScience grants guide.

NSERC Final Deadline: November 15, 2024 8PM EDT

Nomination Materials:

If you are nominating an individual or group, your nomination package must include

1. a completed NSERC Award for Science Promotion nomination form
2. a document (three pages maximum) that describes
   • the nominee’s sustained efforts and involvement in inspiring public understanding and developing abilities in science and engineering in Canada
   • the impact and duration of the nominee’s activities
     (Note: Nominators are encouraged to include specific measures of impact.)
   • the content, originality and target audience of the nominee’s activities  
3. three signed letters of recommendation dated within six months of the application deadline (Note: Letters from individuals with first-hand knowledge of the nominee’s activities, particularly participants in the outreach activity, are strongly encouraged. Letters must demonstrate the impact of the activities.)
4. supporting documentation, such as promotional material, participant feedback, media coverage, publications, awards (four pages maximum)
5. a Terms and conditions form for nominees, signed by the nominee or the representative of the nominated group
6. a Terms and conditions form for nominators, signed by the nominator

The documents described in points 2 and 3 above should not include links to websites. Pertinent information must be included within the nomination documents. Committee members will ignore any links that are provided.

You, as a nominator, are responsible for assembling the required documentation, which must adhere to the general presentation guidelines. Documents that do not meet the presentation standards may be rejected or be at a disadvantage in comparison with those that do meet the standards. Only the documents requested by NSERC will be made available to the selection committee.

Nominations must be submitted electronically via NSERC’s ICSP secure submission site. All parts of the nomination package must be combined into a single portable document format (PDF) file. Do not upload PDF portfolios.

Application deadlines

RSO final internal review deadline

Program application deadline

Eligibility

Candidates must be nominated by a Canadian citizen or permanent resident of Canada. Nominators may include people who have benefited from the nominee’s contributions, such as teachers, parents or community members. However, nominators cannot be individuals from the same organization as the nominee.

For nominations within postsecondary institutions, senior administrators from the same institution may nominate an individual or group, as long as the award does not directly benefit the nominators. NSERC strongly encourages nominators to consider equity, diversity and inclusion in their nomination process.*

Nominees for the individual award must be Canadian citizens or permanent residents of Canada. Nominees for the group award may be registered non-profit organizations, postsecondary institutions, non-federal museums or science centres within Canada. Posthumous nominations or self-nominations will not be accepted. Current NSERC Council members are not eligible for nomination.

All nominees must have made a successful and sustained effort to encourage public interest in, and understanding of, the natural sciences and engineering (including math and technology). As a guideline, nominees have typically been involved in science promotion for at least five years, and their efforts must take place outside the formal education system.

Past winners of an NSERC Award for Science Promotion may be nominated again if at least 10 years have passed since their previous award. Exceptions may be made for individuals or groups linked to an organization that received the award in the past 10 years. To qualify, the nominee’s achievements, whether as a group or an individual, must be clearly different from those that led to the organization’s previous award. Such nominations must include a letter from the organization confirming the distinct nature of the activities.

*NSERC is acting on the evidence that achieving a more equitable, diverse and inclusive Canadian research enterprise is essential to creating the excellent, innovative and impactful research necessary to advance knowledge and understanding, and to respond to local, national and global challenges. This principle informs the commitments described in the Tri-agency statement on equity, diversity and inclusion.

NSERC collects self-identification data from all individual nominees. This data provides information on the diversity of individuals applying for and receiving agency funding. It is also used to monitor the fairness of programs and to inform future measures to increase equity, diversity and inclusion in the research enterprise.

Nominees will be asked to complete a self-identification questionnaire. Each question includes the option “prefer not to answer.” This information will not be seen or used by NSERC peer reviewers.

Nomination process and selection criteria

If you are nominating an individual or a group, your nomination package must include the following:

1. A completed NSERC Award for Science Promotion nomination form
2. A document (maximum three pages) that describes:
   • the nominee’s sustained efforts to inspire public understanding and foster skills development in science and engineering in Canada
   • the impact and duration of the nominee’s activities (nominators are encouraged to include specific measures of impact)
   • the content, originality and target audience of the nominee’s activities
3. Three signed letters of recommendation, dated within six months of the nomination deadline. Letters from individuals with first-hand knowledge of the nominee’s activities, especially participants in the outreach activity, are strongly encouraged. Letters must demonstrate the impact of the activities.
4. Supporting documentation, such as promotional material, participant feedback, media coverage, publications or awards (maximum four pages)
5. A terms and conditions form for nominees, signed by the nominee or the representative of the nominated group
6. A terms and conditions form for nominators, signed by the nominator

The documents described in points 2 and 3 above should not include hyperlinks. All relevant information must be included directly in the nomination documents. Committee members are expected to disregard any hyperlinks.

Nominators are responsible for assembling the required documentation, which must follow the general presentation guidelines. Documents that do not meet these standards may be rejected or may be at a disadvantage compared to documents that meet the standards. Only the documents requested by NSERC will be provided to the selection committee.

Nominations must be submitted electronically through NSERC’s ICSP Secure Submission Site. All parts of the nomination package must be combined into a single Portable Document Format (PDF) file. Do not upload PDF portfolios or zip files.

Save a copy of the submission confirmation generated by the secure site and the automatically generated confirmation email for your records. Note that the secure site cannot determine whether a nomination is complete or incomplete, and NSERC will not contact nominators about missing information.

The nomination package and all supporting materials become the property of NSERC upon submission and will not be returned.

SUPPORT Review deadline (optional): October 15, 2025

Your Faculty or Associate Dean (Research) must submit the request for review to researchawards@ucalgary.ca.

1. Nomination Letter- max. 3 pg. document that addresses:
   • the nominee’s sustained efforts and involvement in inspiring public understanding and developing abilities in science and engineering in Canada
   • the impact and duration of the nominee’s activities (Note: Nominators are encouraged to include specific measures of impact.)
   • the content, originality and target audience of the nominee’s activities
2. Supporting documents (if applicable) - promotional material, participant feedback, media coverage, publications, awards (four pages maximum).
3. Each submission must include a SUPPORT Review Form.
4. Each faculty must submit a short statement describing how equity, diversity and inclusion were considered in the internal Faculty selection process.