Large Infrastructure Fund FAQ
- Why is the Ministry’s Notice of Intent (NOI) deadline not in line with the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI) NOI deadline?
We have been working very closely with the Ontario First Working Group to align the Ontario Research Fund Large-Infrastructure (ORF-RI) program with Ontario’s Innovation Agenda. The Ontario First Working Group is comprised of representatives (VPs Research) from universities, research hospitals and colleges of applied arts and technology. The key objective identified by the group was that the Ministry provide early feedback to institutions on Ontario’s strategic value criterion so they can use this feedback to develop their full applications. Therefore to meet this requirement the NOI deadline is December 7, 2011. This allows sufficient time for our Strategic Value Review panel to meet and provide feedback before the full application deadlines.
- How will the NOI be used by the Ministry?
In response to the Ontario First Working Group’s request that institutions be provided with early feedback on the Strategic Value of proposals, the Ministry will coordinate a strategic value review of the NOIs. Feedback on the NOIs will be provided to applicants prior to the Ministry’s and CFI’s full application deadline. The Ministry is not using the NOI stage to determine priority projects. All submitted NOI proposals are allowed to apply at the application stage. The NOI strategic review is an opportunity for institutions to receive early feedback on the strategic value of the project and use this information as they develop their proposal.
The NOI includes a one paragraph (500 words) project overview that will be posted on the ORF-RI website to help institutions and potential partners identify opportunities for meaningful collaboration.
- Is the Notice of Intent Binding?
No. A NOI is not required in order to submit a full proposal. After the NOI deadline, institutions may choose to submit alternate applications, however, these applicants will not benefit from a strategic value review prior to the application deadline and these applicants will not have their NOIs posted on the ORF-RI website.
- Why has the Ministry placed a 20% cap at the NOI Level?
In order to provide feedback to institutions a Strategic Value Review meeting will take place at the NOI stage. This feedback can be incorporated into the final application stage. To make this task feasible we need to manage the volume of NOIs for the panel members to review.
- My project involves High Performance Computing do I need to obtain a signed letter from all three Ontario High Performance Computing Consortia?
Only projects being submitted by one of the three Ontario High Performance Computing (HPC) Consortia [HPCVL (High Performance Computing Virtual Laboratory), SciNet, and SHARCNET (Shared Hierarchical Academic Research Computing NETwork)] require a signed letter from all three members. Proposals to the Ministry outside these three groups that contain a HPC component, as defined in the CFI Guidelines, do not need to obtain a letter.
