SJRI/ORS Grants Info Session [May 9]

An “upcoming grants” information session was hosted by the Social Justice Research Institute (SJRI) and the Office of Research Services (ORS) on May 9th from 9 to 10:30 a.m. for both an online and in person audience. The purpose of this session was to provide timely information about upcoming internal and external funding opportunities and to consider how the long-term sustainability of the Institute could be factored into such grants. Mary Breunig (SJRI Director), Rachel Hirsch (SJRI Projects Facilitator), Carolyn Paterson (ORS Research Officer), and Tressie Dutchyn (ORS Research Officer) provided general information and fielded questions about SJRI grants, the Ontario Research Fund, SSHRC Partnership Development Grants, SSHRC Insight Grants, and other upcoming opportunities to fund social justice research projects.

Included in this post, you will find:

  1. a video recording of the session
  2. links to resources and documentation from the session
  3. general descriptions of the funding opportunities discussed at this information session

Grants Info Session Video

Additional Resources

Funding Opportunity Descriptions

Social Justice Research Institute Grants

The SJRI has developed a grants program to help support affiliated faculty members in their transdisciplinary social justice research. Affiliated members are eligible to serve as principal applicants for either grant program:

  1. SJRI Seed Grants (up to $7 000 value) are designed to support transdisciplinary social justice research in its initial stages and help researchers to leverage funding for larger external grants.
  2. SJRI Local Engagement Grants (up to $2 000 value) support transdisciplinary social justice- focused collaborations, partnerships, events, performances and outreach activities in the Niagara community between Brock researchers and Niagara community partners.

The next round of applications are due May 30, 2014 to Mary Breunig, SJRI Grants Adjudication Committee Chair and Director, SJRI, mbreunig@brocku.ca

Ontario Research Fund: Research Excellence (ORF-RE)

The ORF-RE provides research institutions with funding to support the operational costs of large-scale, transformative research of strategic value to the province.  The ORF-RE provides up to 1/3 of the total value of the research project, with the remaining 2/3 coming from cash and in-kind contributions from the applicant institution(s) and private sector and community partners.

The Ministry of Research and Innovation expects to launch a Social Sciences, Arts, and Humanities (SSAH) round of the ORF-RE in 2014.  In the last SSAH round, which was launched in 2011 but cancelled due to a government spending freeze, the minimum project cost over 3-5 years was $600,000 and the maximum was $3 million. Projects can be multi-institutional, however ORF-RE funds cannot flow to partners or institutions outside Ontario.

SSHRC Partnership Development Grant (PDG)

Partnership Development Grants support formal partnerships between academic researchers, community organizations and other partners that will advance knowledge and understanding on critical issues of intellectual, social, economic and cultural significance. PDGs provide support ($75,000 to $200,000) over one to three years to teams/partnerships, led by a project director, to either 1) develop research by fostering new partnerships or 2) design and test new partnership approaches for research. The project director must normally be affiliated with a SSHRC-eligible Canadian institution at the time of application.

There is no minimum contribution required from partners; however, applicants and partners are expected to demonstrate that a formal partnership exists or will be developed, in part through the financial and nonfinancial commitments made by partners. The PDG competition deadlines are to be confirmed this spring/summer but would be approximately the end of November 2014.  SSHRC CVs are required for the project director and co-applicants but not partners. Partners must provide a letter of support/engagement confirming their cash/in-kind contributions.

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