Frequently asked questions

The application limit is the maximum an institution can request in total, for both intakes combined. Only the base value of the chair award ($500,000 or $1 million) counts against the application limit. The supplement for Distinguished Chairs and the Emerging Leaders awards are not considered.

While there are fixed budget envelopes per agency, institutions are not required to distribute their applications in alignment with these.

A maximum of 100 Canada Impact+ Research Chairs will be awarded. Approximately 30 chairs, aligned proportionally with the competition budget of each agency, will be reserved for intake two. Should there be insufficient meritorious applications in intake one, unused funds will be available for intake two.

Institutions may decide to resubmit an unsuccessful Canada Impact+ Research Chairs application from intake one at intake two. This second submission would also count against the institution’s application limit.

Only candidates who are internationally based, both working and residing outside of Canada at the time of the intake’s application deadline are eligible to apply. The citizenship or nationality of the nominee is not considered.

Nominees can already have a contract with the nominating institution, but they cannot have started employment in Canada until the day after the application deadline of the intake in which they are nominated.

The salary of the chairholder is an eligible grant expenditure retroactive only to the date of acceptance of the chair.

The person recruited as the Emerging Leader doesn’t need to be identified or recruited at the time of the application for Canada Impact+ Research Chairs. The institution must carry out an open and transparent recruitment process to identify the Emerging Leader. The selected candidate must have an independent program of research in the primary strategic priority area identified in the successful Canada Impact+ Research Chairs application, and begin employment at the institution within 12 months of the acceptance of the Canada Impact+ Research Chairs award.

Institutions will have to attest that the Emerging Leader was recruited from outside Canada and was an early career researcher at the time of the acceptance of the Canada Impact+ Research Chair or when the institution published the job posting for the Emerging Leader position (if the recruitment process started earlier).

To ensure rapid access to the Convergence platform for the institutions, the Canada Impact+ Research Chairs program uses the existing roles of “CERC SO” and “CERC Delegates.” An institution can have multiple senior officials (SOs) and delegates. These are considered institutional roles, and they have access to all applications for both the Canada Excellence Research Chairs (CERC) and Canada Impact+ Research Chairs programs.

Yes. Institutions can nominate candidates identified through their 2026 CERC recruitment processes irrespective of the academic unit listed in the CERC job posting.

Nominees will be asked to confirm that they are nominated in one application process only, across the Canada Impact+ Research Chairs or 2026 CERC competition.

Institutions are invited to indicate their interest in any potential future opportunities by consenting to TIPS sharing their full application, reviews, ratings and ranking with DND and the Bureau of Research, Engineering and Advanced Leadership in Innovation and Science (BOREALIS). No additional justification needs to be provided within the Canada Impact+ Research Chairs application. In the meantime, institutions may wish to familiarize themselves with the activities of Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC) and with Canada’s Defence Industrial Strategy.

Priority processing and dedicated support

Eligible chairs, early career researchers, and their accompanying family members (spouse and dependant children under 22) will be eligible for fast-track work permit approvals under the Global Skills Strategy, with a target of two-week processing.

Additionally, the hiring institutions will receive concierge-level immigration assistance through Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s Dedicated Service Channel, which includes:

• a detailed presentation from the Dedicated Service Channel on the immigration process, once the grants have been awarded;
• a dedicated account manager to guide institutions through the process;
• support for coordinating documentation and resolving issues quickly to avoid delays for any application pertaining to the eligible researchers, their teams and accompanying family members; and
• fast-track work permit approvals under the Global Skills Strategy, with a target of two-week processing.

Clear pathways to permanent residence

Researchers recruited under this initiative will have access to existing economic immigration streams, with accelerated transitions to permanent residency for selected high-skilled workers.

An ECR is a researcher within five years of the start date of their first research-related appointment, minus the length of any eligible delays in research (e.g., illness, maternity, parental), as of the Canada Impact+ Research Chair date of acceptance or when the institution published the job posting for the Emerging Leader position (if the recruitment process started earlier).

• “Research-related appointments” are defined as those where an individual has the autonomy to conduct research independently.
• All eligible leaves (e.g., maternity, parental, medical, bereavement) are credited at twice the amount of time taken.
• Professional leaves (e.g., training, sabbatical, administrative) are not credited.
• Research interruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g., closures) are recognized as, and may be counted as, an eligible delay (credited at twice the amount of time) beginning March 1, 2020, until the research interruptions ended (no later than May 30, 2023).
• If the first research-related appointment was a part-time appointment/position, years of experience are counted at 50%, until the researcher’s appointment to a full-time position.

If a successful nominee is jointly funded, we ask that they put the other funding partner’s name first, followed by “Canada Impact+ Research Chair”, to keep the integrity of the title after the competition results are announced.

When accepting their role on Convergence, nominees are asked to confirm they “are the nominee for only one Impact+ or CERC (2026) application in these competitions.” In the attestation module, the Senior Official attests that, to their knowledge, the nominee is not being nominated by another institution in the current Impact+ and (CERC) competitions.

Emerging Leaders can start employment at a nominating institution as early as the day after the Canada Impact+ Research Chair is accepted, provided the Requirements for Impact+ recruitment have been followed.