No restrictions were placed on the Canadian industrial sector eligible to apply for a Business-Led Network (BL-Network). However, as established in the S&T Strategy and the Budget 2007, the research undertaken by the proposed BL-NCEs must align with one or more of the five (5) priority research areas, namely:

Environmental science and technologies;
Natural resources and energy;
Health and related life sciences and technologies;
Information and communications technologies; and
Management, business or finance.

Program Requirements

Below is a list of the key requirements for the BL-NCE program competition:

Letters of Intent must be submitted by not-for-profit consortia (who must be federally incorporated to receive funding) who represent the interests of private sector enterprises who have substantial R&D operations in Canada or the potential to benefit from R&D (ideally comprising a mix of SMEs, large companies, research providers and research-users).
The Canadian private sector represented by the above have a clear vision of their sector/cluster's shared needs over the next 5-10 years, the major R&D and commercialization challenges and barriers to that vision, and present a comprehensive plan that shows how the proposed network will address these challenges and barriers to ultimately enhance their innovativeness and competitiveness.
Significant investment and strong support for the proposed initiative by the private sector partners.
A well described and managed collaborative research program involving the most suitable expert researchers from academia, government and/or the private sector.
A cohesive plan that clearly describes the path for the commercialization of the research results generated from the BL-NCE.
The research undertaken must be in the priority areas listed above.