The CSER
Consortium
To gain advantages beyond what is possible with simple one-company/one-university
relationships, CSER employs a decentralized scientific and management
structure. The number of companies involved change based on their focus
and the economic climate and, hence, the structure must be flexible enough
to cope with this change, without being unduly cumbersome and without
compromising NSERC’s mission. CSER is a consortium and is incorporated
as a not-for-profit corporation. All industrial members pay an
annual membership fee (i.e., contribute research funds) approved by the
membership. A two level organization was developed with a Board making
decisions concerning the budget and the overall direction of CSER and
a Technical Steering Committee to monitor progress and provide technical
direction to the research projects.
Requiring voting majority representation from industry enforces the industrial
emphasis on both the Board and the Steering Committee. The Chairman of
the Board also must be from industry; while the Steering Committee has
co-chairs: one from industry and one from academia. The Board has two university
members, who are not principal investigators and thus do not directly participate
in the research activities. Day-to-day operations are managed by a Research
Director and an Operations Manager.
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