Eligible Institutions and Application Limits for the 2026 CERC Competition

The following table lists institutions that are eligible for the 2026 Canada Excellence Research Chairs (CERC) competition and the maximum dollar value per year for which they may apply.

The CERC program limits how many applications eligible universities can submit. As with previous competitions, the process to determine the institutional application limits is based on the average value of grants received by a university from the three federal research funding agencies—the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (the agencies)—in the three years prior to the launch of the competition.

To provide more flexibility in choosing the value and number of applications universities can submit, the institutional application limits are expressed in dollar value. Eligible institutions may apply for any combination of $500,000 and $1 million per year award values (for a total of $4 million and $8 million over eight years, respectively), up to the dollar limit below.

Institution Maximum dollar value per year
Acadia University $1 million
Algoma University $1 million
Athabasca University $1 million
Bishop's University $1 million
Brandon University $1 million
British Columbia Institute of Technology $1 million
Brock University $1 million
Canadian Mennonite University $1 million
Cape Breton University $1 million
Carleton University $1 million
Concordia University $1 million
Concordia University of Edmonton $1 million
Dalhousie University $2 million
École de technologie supérieure $1 million
École nationale d'administration publique $1 million
Emily Carr University of Art + Design $1 million
HEC Montréal $1 million
Institut national de la recherche scientifique $1 million
Kwantlen Polytechnic University $1 million
Lakehead University $1 million
Laurentian University $1 million
MacEwan University $1 million
McGill University $4 million
McMaster University $2 million
Memorial University $1 million
Mount Allison University $1 million
Mount Royal University $1 million
Mount Saint Vincent University $1 million
Nipissing University $1 million
NSCAD University $1 million
OCAD University $1 million
Ontario Tech University $1 million
Polytechnique Montréal $1 million
Queen's University $1 million
Royal Military College of Canada $1 million
Royal Roads University $1 million
Saint Mary's University $1 million
Saint Paul University $1 million
Simon Fraser University $1 million
St. Francis Xavier University $1 million
St. Thomas University $1 million
Université TÉLUQ $1 million
The King's University (Edmonton) $1 million
The University of British Columbia $4 million
The University of Winnipeg $1 million
Thompson Rivers University $1 million
Toronto Metropolitan University $1 million
Trent University $1 million
Trinity Western University $1 million
Université de Moncton $1 million
Université de Montréal $3 million
Université de Saint-Boniface $1 million
Université de Sherbrooke $1 million
Université du Québec à Chicoutimi $1 million
Université du Québec à Montréal $1 million
Université du Québec à Rimouski $1 million
Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières $1 million
Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue $1 million
Université du Québec en Outaouais $1 million
Université Laval $2 million
Université Sainte-Anne $1 million
University of Alberta $3 million
University of Calgary $3 million
University of Guelph $1 million
University of Lethbridge $1 million
University of Manitoba $2 million
University of New Brunswick $1 million
University of Northern British Columbia $1 million
University of Ottawa $3 million
University of Prince Edward Island $1 million
University of Regina $1 million
University of Saskatchewan $1 million
University of the Fraser Valley $1 million
University of Toronto $4 million
University of Victoria $1 million
University of Waterloo $2 million
University of Windsor $1 million
Vancouver Island University $1 million
Western University $2 million
Wilfrid Laurier University $1 million
York University $1 million
Yukon University $1 million