Funder’s website
The funder’s website can be found HERE.
Funding Value and Duration
Up to $150,000 for 1 year.
Overview
Research Tools and Instruments (RTI) grants foster and enhance the discovery, innovation and training capability of university researchers in the natural sciences and engineering by supporting the purchase of research equipment.
The RTI grants program provides the primary avenue for university researchers in the natural sciences and engineering to obtain up to $150,000 in support for research tools and instruments with a net cost between $7,001 and $250,000. Net cost is defined as the purchase cost of the equipment after any discount from the vendor and before taxes, customs and importation fees, transportation and shipping charges, and assembly and installation costs. The vendor discount must be free of conditions, restrictions or limitations (e.g., cannot be offered in exchange for services from users benefiting the vendor company). The research community is also encouraged to explore other avenues for funding research tools and instruments, including NSERC’s other programs that allow the purchase of equipment as eligible expenses.
NSERC will only accept the following requests:
- for tools and instruments that form a comprehensive system intended to support NSERC-funded research in the natural sciences and engineering:
- a comprehensive system is one in which each tool or instrument forms part of an integrated system of operation to support the research program(s)
- requests that bundle unrelated tools and instruments together will not be accepted
- for the purchase of new, used or refurbished equipment, for the repair, upgrade or rental of equipment or for the fabrication of equipment that is not readily available off the shelf
- for equipment that is purchased or rented after the application deadline
Note: Equipment and items that are part of laboratory infrastructure or intended to render other equipment compliant with health and safety standards are ineligible for RTI support.
For more information on eligible expenses under the RTI program, see the instructions on how to complete an RTI application.
Eligibility Criteria
To be eligible to apply for and to hold RTI funds, applicants and co-applicants must each
- meet NSERC’s eligibility criteria for faculty
- hold at least one of the following NSERC research grants (either as an applicant or co-applicant): *
- Alliance grant
- Canada Excellence Research Chairs
- Canada 150 Research Chairs
- Canada Research Chairs
- Collaborative Research and Development grant
- Discovery Development grant
- Discovery Grant
- Discovery Horizons grant
- Industrial Research Chairs grant
- Strategic Partnership grant
*Applicants and co-applicants may apply for any of the above grants while concurrently applying to the RTI program. However, if any applicant or co-applicant does not hold one of the above grants by the RTI award start date or is not successful in obtaining one of these grants while concurrently applying to the RTI program, the applicant and/or co-applicant will be deemed ineligible and removed from the application.
New: Beginning with the 2023 competition, (which had a deadline of October 2022,) Research Tools and Instruments (RTI) grants applicants and co-applicants who were successful in the previous year’s RTI competition are ineligible to apply for one year. Eligibility will be reinstated the following competition year. This change is being implemented to increase access to the RTI program to the largest number of eligible researchers. This decision, as well as the changes to the selection criteria for this year, are informed by the recent evaluation of the Discovery research program and the results of the gender-based analysis plus (GBA+) of the RTI program.
Internal Contacts
Potential applicants are encouraged to discuss this funding opportunity with their Faculty Research Facilitator.
Deadlines
| Faculty Deadline | Consult your Faculty Research Facilitator. |
| OVPRI Approval Form Deadline | October 18, 2025 (Anticipated) |
| Submission to Sponsor | October 25, 2025 (Anticipated) |
Submitting Your Application
- Step 1) Submit an internal Carleton Approval Form
Submit an internal Approval Form through our central awards management database CUResearch:
https://ovpri.research.carleton.ca/Romeo.Researcher/Administrator/Default.aspx
For a user’s guide on submitting an Approval Form, click HERE. - Step 2) Submit an external application to the granting agency
Submit an external application to the corresponding grant or award agency. To navigate to the funder’s website, click HERE