Proposal Guidelines for NRC-IRAP Projects

Proposal Guidelines for NRC-IRAP Projects

NRC-IRAP must have a good understanding of your firm your business, your resources and your track record in past research and development projects. This proposal provides an NRC-IRAP representative with a summary of your firms profile and your proposed project/activity. This is not a guarantee of approval. All material/information clearly marked Proprietary Business Information will be treated as commercially confidential under the terms of the Access to Information Act.

1. Organization Information

1.1 Legal Name

Provide the full legal name of your firm. Also provide the firms operating name if different from the legal name.

1.2 Firms Contact Information

Provide the firms full address, phone number, fax number, e-mail address and website. If the firms mailing address differs from the physical address, provide this information as well.

1.3 Legal Status

Indicate the firms date of legal creation or incorporation and its legal status. State if your firm is a for-profit organization. Only for-profit organizations established in Canada are eligible for NRC-IRAP contributions. This requirement refers to the legal jurisdiction of the firms, not the nationality of the firms owners.

1.4 Products and services

Provide a brief description of the firms products and services.

1.5 Financial year-end

Specify the firms financial year-end.

1.6 Registration Numbers

Provide your GST/HST number and your Business Registration Number.

1.7 Number of employees

Indicate the level of employment in your firm. Express employment in terms of full-time-equivalent employees. Only firms with 500 or fewer full-time-equivalent employees are eligible for NRC-IRAP. The term full-time equivalent is used to properly account for part-time and seasonal workers. For example, a firm with 800 half-time employees would be eligible for the NRC-IRAP Program because it would only have 400 full-time-equivalent employees. Technically, a full-time equivalent employee is an employee who works 1600 hours per year. However, for practical purposes, and where hourly data are not available, it is sufficient to count each full-time employee as one full-time equivalent and estimate the fraction of a full-time equivalent represented by each part-time or seasonal employee. Breakdown full-time equivalent into number of Engineers, Scientists, Technicians and Other employees.

1.8 Organization Description

Address the following in this section:

Nature of firms business, main products;

Affiliations to other companies;

Main customers and competitors;

Mission and corporate strategy, include key business challenges, plans for expansion;

Commitment to operations in Canada;

Does the firm have a business plan? Is it available for consultation by an NRC-IRAP representative?

1.9 Innovation Background

Address the following in this section:

Technical capability, staff, facilities, plans (including proposed project);

Key project contacts (business, technical and financial, as appropriate);

Previous R&D projects;

Supported by the firm (past two years); and Government supported.

2. Project Information

To facilitate the preparation of your proposal and to ensure that information necessary for the technical review and approval process is provided, the following format is recommended for the written description. The information contained in each section serves as guidelines; they need not be rigidly followed, nor must all the issues mentioned be addressed, especially for small projects.

2.1 Proposed Project Start Date

What is the estimated project start date?

2.2 Project Title

Provide a brief and descriptive project title.

2.3 Quantified Technical Objectives

Address the following in this section:

Overall objective: what is the project outcome?

Sub-objectives: what performance targets must be met to reach the desired outcome? The sub-objectives should list and quantify the key steps or sub-targets in the proposed research.

Objectives should be quantified. In the case of a product or process, the overall objective should provide proposed or desired specifications and includes comparisons with existing products or processes.

2.4 Plan of Work

Provide an overall description of the methodology to be used in the project. This section should clearly indicate the major activities to be undertaken in order to achieve the desired technical objectives of the project.

More detailed information on the project activities, results and costs will be covered under the Phases section of this document.2.5 Anticipated Challenges and Difficulties

Describe anticipated challenges and difficulties in meeting your objectives and related tasks.

2.6 Technological Environment

Address the following in this section:

Current industrial practice - problems and opportunities;

Need for the product, improvements provided by the product, key innovative aspects of the product or service;

Is this a preliminary investigation or a continuation of an earlier IRAP project?

2.7 Description of Work to Date

Include a description of work already completed leading up to this project, including literature and patent searches and associated projects. Describe the current stage of development of the project.

2.8 Proposed Technical Solutions

Address the following in this section:

The firms strategy in selecting the technology to be developed and the primary applications;

Competitive advantages expected;

Scientific basis for proposed technical advance;

Source and ownership of technology, if external to firm; the possibility of acquiring the technology through licensing; and

Other resources pursued.

2.9 Business Opportunity

This section describes the potential applications and uses of the project results in the context of your firm's business model.

Describe:

The innovative characteristics which will give your firm a clear competitive an advantage in the market. What makes your product or process different from existing ones in the market and what makes it superior? What will it do that other products or services in the market cannot do?

The economical advantages of the product (pricing aspects);

What leads you to believe that this project will generate sufficient income to make it profitable. Explain and quantify the profits and rate of return for the project, if possible; and

The commercial risks and the anticipated competition.

A comparative table of existing and anticipated products or services characteristics would be welcome.

If need be, complete with the following information:

The relevance of this project with the actual positioning of the firm and its strategic plan;

The reasons why this project represents a business priority for your firm;

Other advantages to the project: positioning in the market place, new generic technology, etc.; and

Summary of the marketing plan, if one exists.

2.10 Technology and Market

Describe the precommercialization activities that your firm must successfully carry out once the project is completed, before the new technology can be exploited commercially. The precommercialization activities may include:

Process or product certification testing;

Other trials designed to determine and/or improve the technology's performance;

Engineering to meet user and usability requirements;

Pilot facilities;

Scale-up; and

Technical and production support.

Describe the sub-contractor programs or your firm's production capabilities in Canada;

Describe the commercialization activities in terms of commercial objectives, main target market, proposed method of commercialization, distribution channels that will enable your firm to exploit the new technology commercially. State the planned start date of the commercial application and sales; and

Briefly describe your firms marketing management capabilities in relation with the results of the proposed project.

3. Resources

Identify internal and external resources including any Related Parties assigned to the project and their roles.

Provide brief rsums of key staff and descriptions of collaborators (universities, laboratories of government departments or agencies [e.g. NRC], research organizations, etc.) and their roles in the project (e.g. the collaborator's proposal or work statement). These can be provided to your Industrial Technology Advisor (ITA) under separate attachment. Repeat as necessary for all the internal resources and contractors working on the project.

3.1 Internal Resources

Internal Resources are employees who will receive a salary from your firm to work on the project. These employees must be on your payroll.

Provide the name, project role, phone number, e-mail..

3.2 Contractors

A contractor is a person or organization hired by your firm under contract to perform a task, provide expertise or advice required to achieve the objectives of the project.

Identify if the contractor is a Related Party. Two or more parties are considered to be related parties if one of them is controlled, directly or indirectly in any manner whatever, by the other. Where two unrelated parties are related to the same third party as described above, they will also be deemed as related parties. A non arms length relationship covers people acting in concert without separate interest, including individuals who are related to each other by blood, marriage, adoption, common-law relationships, or close business ties. Such a relationship may also exist between individuals and partnerships or corporations.

Provide the contractors name, postal code, phone number, the contractors labour fee. Note: if the Contractor is a Related Party, then the costs charged must be actual costs incurred by the related party and not the charge-out rate.

Describe why the proposed contractors are best suited to perform the work. Note that fees charged by a contractor should be reasonable meaning that they fit with current market rates and/or that it is a comparative fee paid by the firm to contractors in the past for similar work.

4. Phases

Divide the work into a number of logical phases. Every phase should include: objectives, planned activities, desired results, duration in weeks and estimated phase costs. For each phase, provide a breakdown of internal resources and/or contractor costs as per the following format.

Internal Resources (salary net of any incentive or bonus)

NameRateFrequencyNumber of unitsTotal

e.g. Internal resource A$50Hour200 hours$10,000

e.g. Internal resource B$100Daily15 days$1,500

TOTAL$11,500

Contractors Labour Fee (exclude all other fees)

NameRateFrequencyNumber of unitsTotal

e.g. Contractor A$1500Day10 days$15,000

TOTAL$15,000

Total cost of the phase$26,500

5. Costs

5.1 Project Costs breakdown

The level of support provided by NRC-IRAP will be determined under the Contribution Agreement. NRC-IRAP Project Costs is the sum of salary costs, contactor labour fee and overhead costs associated with the Work to be carried out over the project period. Although NRC-IRAP may only support a percentage of salaries and contractor labour fees, for evaluation purposes, you are required to provide a project costs breakdown as follows:

Internal Costs

Internal Resources (Salaries)$

Overhead (% of salaries)$

Other internal costs*$

Total Internal Costs$(A)

External Costs

Contractor Labour Fee$

Other external costs*$

Total External Costs$(B)

TOTAL PROJECT COSTS$(A)+(B)

Some examples of overhead costs are (but not limited to): supervisory costs; accounting expenses; office personnel; purchasing; computer support; leasing of materials; location, and maintenance and materials handling.

*Provide a detailed breakdown of what encompasses Other Costs.6. Financing

One of the elements taken into consideration when establishing the level of financial contribution is the influence the NRC-IRAP contribution will have on the technological innovation capacity of your firm. In regards to this criteria, we will evaluate the influence of our financial contribution on factors such as: the choice of the project and the activity, the magnitude of the project, the reach, the acceleration in time, the choice of resource, the quality of potential results and the importance of the financial assistance.

6.1 Sources of funds for the project: Complete the following table, showing the projected sources of financing for the project. The Firms share of the cost of the project must be at least 25 per cent. The Firms share does not include R&D tax credits and federal, provincial and municipal support (grants, contracts, etc.) received as part of the project. Note that the total government support from the NRC-IRAP contribution, R&D tax credits related to the project and all other government financial assistance (federal, provincial and municipal) may not exceed 75 percent of the total eligible costs.

Sources of funds for the projectAmount

Requested NRC-IRAP Contribution $

Other government assistance$

Firms contribution $

Total project costs$

6.2 Firms financial contribution to the project

Provide details on how the firm will finance its share of the project costs. Include any involvement by third parties and specify the conditions for this support.

6.3 Need for financial assistance

Describe why NRC-IRAP assistance is necessary.

6.4 Additional expenses to reach commercialization

Identify the additional expenses required to reach commercialization. How will the firm finance these additional investments?

7. Impact

7.1 Direct impact of the project on the firms competitiveness

How will the increased technical ability affect the firm's competitive position relative to the leaders and/or main competitors in its field? What intellectual property will be developed as a result of this project? How will it be protected? How will this project help your firm's chances in obtaining additional investment? Are there any Benefits to Canada expected to result from this project other than the projects direct commercial benefits?

7.2 Impact of the project on the firms capacity for technological innovation

How will the project improve the firm's innovation capability? (R&D staffing, R&D activity, etc.). How will the new technical capability affect the firm's ability to undertake research after NRC-IRAP support ceases? Is there a potential for further innovation or spin-off of new products as a result of the supported research? Describe how will this project enable the firm to attract additional investment to the firm?

7.3 Related project considerations

This section should address issues such as the effect of the project on the environment, occupational health or safety and experiments with human or animal subjects. If none of the above applies, a sentence stating so is all that is required. The potential environmental impact of both the research phase (short-term effect) and the resulting product or process (longer-term effect) should be assessed. If there are any concerns regarding the effect of the proposed project on the health or safety of firm employees, these should be discussed. Research involving testing of human or animal subjects must follow established ethical protocols. If you are not already aware of the relevant protocols, the ITA can provide information.

8. Declaration

If NRC-IRAP does subsequently provide financial support, the firm will be required to sign a Contribution Agreement which contains the attached Conditions of Contribution. State whether the firm accept the following statements:

Yes/noThe firm declares that all information provided to NRC-IRAP related to this project proposal is true and correct. The firm further declares that it is not withholding any information that may materially affect this project application. The submission of false or misleading representation of information is grounds for immediate termination of this project application.

Yes/noI have read the Conditions of Contribution.

Yes/noI accept the Conditions of Contribution.

Proposal Guidelines for IRAP Projects (2005-06-13)

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