LINCS: Learning through Interactive Networked Collaboration and Simulation

Letter from NCE, October 19, 1994

The Selection Committee for the Networks of Centres of Excellence (NCE) Program has now completed its review of the letters of intent submitted in the competition. As a result of this review, your group is invited to submit a full proposal for the deadline date of January 13, 1995.

The Selection Committee evaluated sixty- five letters of intent with respect to their relevance to the designated target area and five selection criteria, as stated in the NCE Competition Announcement. The fifteen groups invited to prepare full proposals are shown on the attached listing. These groups were deemed to best respond to the challenge of mobilizing a national research effort crossing traditional sectoral and disciplinary boundaries, demonstrating the potential for economic? social and environmental benefits within the context of the chosen target areas.

The Selection Committee wishes to provide all groups with information to help them in the preparation of the full proposals. In this respect, the Selection Committee emphasizes the importance of the involvement of relevant stakeholders and prospective network partners from all across the country in the preparation of these proposals. This includes private sector companies ranging from very large to very small; key stakeholders with policy and regulatory responsibility in relevant federal, provincial and municipal government departments; other interest groups such as professional associations, consumer or environmental organizations. Their participation will be essential to define and focus the research program from the outset, which in turn will help to strengthen the commitment of these partners to ensuring that Canadians derive maximum economic and social benefits from the results of network research.

Once the network research program has been focused and defined with the input from stakeholders, it will be important to select the best possible team from across Canada to carry it out. Therefore, the researchers and partners listed in the letter of intent may not necessarily be those participating in the full proposals.

All groups must submit realistic and well-justified budgets in their full proposals. The NCE Phase 11 Policies and Guidelines brochure contains crucial information for the preparation of the proposals, particularly with respect to network management structure. In addition, the Selection Committee hopes that the following comments will help your group to strengthen the full proposal:

• What is the focus of the research program and what are the areas of roles of the researchers?
• Is the proposal focusing on computer science or network learning?
• The list of research questions needs to be prioritised and focused. A methodology for linking these questions together needs to be addressed
• What is the value- added in adopting a network approach? How are the projects and researchers to be integrated?
• There is no distinction made between the training and education environments.
• The issue of "training the trainers is an important one that will need to be addressed in the application .
• The application will need people who can develop educational products.
• The Committee would like to see a clarification of the definition of the intended deliverable "a learning layer".
• A specific discussion of the applications that are the deliverables are required. What will be the value- added to the substantial efforts at Ontario Hydro and the CSA?
• Responsibility for the different research themes must lie with designated theme leaders who report to a Research Management Committee that will recommend the allocation of financial resources rather than taking a Centre-based approach.

Yours sincerely,

Janet Walden

Director, Networks of Centres of Excellence Program