Government phasing out NCE program

On December 6, 2018, the federal government of Canada announced that the Networks of Centres of Excellence (NCE) program—the program that has supported AllerGen since 2005—will be phased-out over the next several years.

“The NCE has been a ground-breaking program fostering innovation that has drawn international attention to the excellence of Canada researchers and their cross-sectoral, multidisciplinary, high-impact research results,” comments Dr. Judah Denburg, AllerGen’s Scientific Director.

“Since 1989, Networks supported by the NCE program have been tasked to overcome the barriers of Canada’s vast geography, and barriers between disciplines and sectors, by mobilizing the talents and resources of the academic, government, private and not-for-profit sectors to work in partnership to tackle national challenges of importance to Canadians’ social and economic well-being.

“There is much to be learned from the accomplishments of the networks established through this innovative program, and AllerGen is committed to ensuring that Canadians continue to benefit from the investment in, and achievements of, its research and capacity-building efforts, as well as those of other Networks created under the auspices of the NCE.”

Funding for NCE program will be gradually transferred to the newly created New Frontiers in Research Fund, according to the government announcement. This new fund “will support international, interdisciplinary, fast-breaking and higher-risk research.”