Collaborative Research and Training Experience (CREATE) program

NSERC's 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

For this year's competition, the NSERC CREATE program will still include the regular and international streams (as in the past, the international stream is linked to the German research foundation, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)). The 2026 CREATE competition will also involve a special theme area related to genomics.

Even though NSERC CREATE Letters of Intent (LOIs) will no longer be adjudicated and will proceed directly to the full application stage, the CREATE program for the 2026 competition year has been modified as follows: even though an unlimited number LOIs can be submitted by an institution, the LOI stage will be semi-competitive. NSERC will admit, via peer review using established criteria, a specific number of LOIs from each institution to the application stage. Lakehead's allotment for the present competition is one LOI (international stream and up to two genomics-related LOIs will not count towards this allotment). Only when an institution submits a number of LOIs greater than their allotment will their LOIs be evaluated to determine which LOI (in Lakehead's case) will advance to the application stage. As well, NSERC has established that the total number of new CREATE grants that can be awarded to an institution is capped at 3 per competition year.

If you intend to submit an LOI to this program, you  must notify the Office of Research Services (ahacquo1@lakeheadu.ca) by March 3, 2025 of your intention to apply to this opportunity.     If more than one team indicates that they are submitting an LOI to the CREATE program (again, under the regular stream (non-genomics)), an internal competition will need to be held to determine which LOI may be considered for submission to NSERC. If it is determined that an internal competition needs to be held, further information on the specific materials that are required to be submitted by internal applicants will be provided at that time.