Evaluation of the Canada Excellence Research Chairs (CERC) program : Evaluation of the CERC program

Since it is still early in the program’s lifecycle, the assessment of program performance focused on the program’s immediate outcomes, and the assessment of economy and efficiency was limited to the operational efficiency of the program (i.e., the relationship between resources and outputs). [...] The important contribution of host institutions in the success of the CERC program is shown by the fact that host institutions are one of the main sources of funding for CERC units: they provided $40 million between 2010 and 2013 across the 18 CERC units, and have committed a further $24 million, for a total of $64 million over the seven-year period of the awards. [...] Indeed, in addition to the unanticipated delays experienced by some in the early stages of the award period, other challenges were identified with regard to the likelihood that the key elements of the research capacity developed by CERC unit would be adequately supported after the end of the CERC award. [...] In this context, many chairholders, key researchers, and host institutions have advocated for some form of renewal of the CERC award, although the non-renewability of the award has been a feature of the CERC awards since the onset of the program and has been communicated as such by the Chairs Secretariat. [...] Nominations must demonstrate excellence, based on the evaluation criteria, including the world-class excellence of the nominee, the proposed program of research and the fit with the university’s proposal in Phase 1. Phase 1 applications and phase 2 nominations to the CERC program undergo a multilevel peer review.