NSERC announces new vice president of research grants and scholarships

Dr. Danika Goosney has been named Vice-President, Research Grants and Scholarships Directorate at the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). Previously, Danika served for two and a half years as Associate Vice-President, Tri-agency Institutional Programs Secretariat, at the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. There, she managed a variety of programs, such as the Canada Research Chairs Program, the Canada 150 Research Chairs Program and the Research Support Fund. She also oversaw the implementation of the New Frontiers in Research Fund, which replaces the Networks of Centres of Excellence (NCE) program. Prior to SSHRC, Goosney held director positions at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), over a period of more than ten years.

In 2001, Goosney was awarded the Governor General’s Gold Medal for PhD research in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology and the Biotechnology Laboratory (now the Michael Smith Labs) at the University of British Columbia, after which she completed her postdoctoral training at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California. Goosney went on to work as a research scientist at two Vancouver-based biotechnology companies, before joining CIHR in 2006.

Goosney replaces Dr. Pierre Charest, the outgoing Vice-President, Research Grants and Scholarships, who recently oversaw NSERC’s investment of more than $558 million in discovery research funding that placed special emphasis on early career researchers.