NSERC John C. Polanyi Award

Eligibility

Candidates may be nominated by any individual or group. Self-nominations will not be accepted. In the case of individual candidates, posthumous nominations will also not be accepted. Current NSERC Council members are not eligible for nomination.

The research that led to the advance described in the nomination must be in a field of natural sciences or engineering.

Candidates can be at any stage in their career.

For individual nominations, the nominee must be eligible to hold NSERC grant funds.

For team nominations, at least one of the team members must be eligible to hold NSERC grant funds. The team can be part of an international effort, but the majority of the nominated team members must be employed at a Canadian university or at a public or private organization in Canada. Members of the team may be from academia, government or industry, and may be research associates, postdoctoral researchers or students. If a team is awarded a prize, the team spokesperson will receive the funds on behalf of the team. This spokesperson must be eligible to hold NSERC grant funds.

Summary

The NSERC John C. Polanyi Award was created to recognize and support a university researcher or team of researchers whose work has led to a recent outstanding Canadian advance in a field of the natural sciences or engineering. The research leading to the advance must have been funded at least partially by an NSERC grant. The award is open to all researchers, regardless of their career stage.
As part of the award, the winning individual or team will receive a research grant of up to $250,000.

Nomination Package

The nomination package must include:

1. A letter of nomination signed by one or more nominators. The letter must be no more than four pages if written in English and five pages if written in French. It must also include a title describing the advance.

   The letter must clearly describe the recent advance using the following points as headings:

   • the nature of the advance
   • the novelty and quality of the advance (refer to selection criteria below)
   • the impact and significance of the advance within its field (refer to selection criteria below)
   • a summary of the advance for public release
2. Up to four documents related to the recent, outstanding advance that provide evidence of how it meets the selection criteria.
   • At least one of these must be a peer-reviewed article.
   • The other documents may include testimonials and publications such as journal articles, workshop papers or posters, communications, preprints, monographs, memoirs or special papers, review articles, conference or symposia proceedings and abstracts, government publications, and reports documenting contributions to engineering practice, among others.
3. The names, organizational affiliations and email addresses of six researchers who could be contacted by NSERC to conduct an impartial review of the nomination.
   • Reviewers must not be in conflict of interest (see the Conflict of Interest and Confidentiality Policy of the federal research funding organizations ).
   • NSERC strongly recommends that nominators suggest a cross-section of reviewers with expertise in the nominee’s area of research, such as:
     • Canadian or international researchers from established to early-career stages
     • individuals from underrepresented groups, including women
     • researchers in academic and non-academic settings
   • Nominees must not contact suggested external reviewers in advance.
   • NSERC reserves the right to select all or none of the suggested reviewers.
4. A brief letter from the team identifying one of the members as the spokesperson (for team nominations only). This individual must be eligible to hold NSERC grant funds and will serve as the contact person for NSERC for matters related to the outcome of the competition (see NSERC's eligibility requirements for faculty to apply for or hold grant funds). The letter must also include the name, title, affiliation and email address of each team member.
5. A terms and conditions form for nominees  signed by each nominee (do not use the encrypted digital signature function). 
6. A terms and conditions form for nominators  signed by each nominator (do not use the encrypted digital signature function). 

Pre-application deadlines

RSO internal deadline

Application deadlines

Program application deadline

No institutional approvals are required for this award nomination. 

The RSO Pre-Application deadline listed as noon, October 19, 2026 is for an optional review by the SUPPORT: Research Awards Committee.

SUPPORT: Research Awards Committee

The SUPPORT: Research Awards committee is available to review and provide feedback to strengthen nominations for this award. This committee is comprised of distinguished University of Calgary faculty who have won major national awards and sat on national award selection committees.

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

1. Draft letter from the nominator (see item 1, above)
2. The supporting documents (see item 2, above) - or as much of these as are available by the SUPPORT deadline

If additional components of the nomination package are available by the SUPPORT deadline, the committee would be pleased to review all available materials.

SUPPORT Nomination Review Deadline (optional): October 19, 2026 by 12pm.

All feedback from the SUPPORT: Research Awards committee will be compiled and shared with the nominee and faculty by November 6, 2026.