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Funding Opportunities

SSHRC Institutional Grants (SIG)

Regulations Governing Grant Applications
Definitions

Next application deadline Value Duration Results announced Apply
December 1, 2010

Minimum of $5,000 per annum

3 years

End of March 2011

Application form not available

Objectives
Description
Value and Duration
Eligibility
Evaluation and Adjudication
Administrative Regulations
More Information


Objectives

The purpose of this program is to assist Canadian universities to:

  • develop, increase or strengthen research excellence in the social sciences and humanities;
  • assist, in particular, researchers embarking on their research career to become competitive in grant competitions at the national level;
  • assist established researchers with modest funding requirements or those wishing to reorient and strengthen their research programs; and
  • support national and international dissemination and collaboration.

Description

Under this program, SSHRC helps eligible Canadian postsecondary institutions fund small-scale research activities by their faculty in the social sciences and humanities.


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Value and Duration

SSHRC provides annual block grants for three-year terms. The annual grant to each institution is calculated according to this formula:

  • $50 for each faculty member whose discipline falls within SSHRC's mandate; plus
  • a payment based on the university's average performance in all SSHRC research support programs in the previous three years of competitions, and calculated at the rate of:
    • 23 per cent of the first $100,000 awarded;
    • 20 per cent of the next $400,000 awarded;
    • 14 per cent of the remainder.

The method of calculation recognizes multi-institutional grants in order to distribute credit for performance to all co-applicants. Although the awards are granted for a three-year period, SSHRC will make the calculation annually, and will adjust the value of the grant accordingly.

SSHRC guarantees a minimum grant of $5,000 to each eligible institution.

The institutions use these funds to award, through their own competitive process, individual grants of less than $7,000 per annum to support research activities such as short-term research projects, research-related conference travel (including international travel) and the holding of small seminars.


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Eligibility

The university determines the number of competitions it will hold annually, establishes deadlines that best suit the needs of its researchers, and sets the application procedures. However, in awarding funds the university must adhere to the following restrictions:

  • applicants must be Canadian citizens or permanent residents of Canada;
  • visiting fellows and scholars are not eligible, nor are the costs incurred for their travel and residency; however, postdoctoral fellows affiliated with the institution are eligible to receive support provided they meet the other eligibility criteria;
  • students are not eligible to hold their own award (but SSHRC encourages the employment of students in SIG-funded research); and
  • support must be for scholarly activity in the humanities and the social sciences.

To be eligible for this program, an institution must:

  • be an institutional member of the AUCC (including all private universities that are institutional members of the AUCC); and
  • have active degree-granting status in at least one of the social sciences and humanities disciplines

or

  • be an institutional member of the AUCC and be affiliated or federated with an eligible institution, but grant their own degrees, receive their own operating budget directly from the provincial government and have their own board of directors; and
  • offer programs in at least one of the social sciences and humanities disciplines.

Evaluation and Adjudication

Regular evaluation and adjudication procedures do not apply to this program. SSHRC awards SIGs according to the formula set out in the Eligibility section above.


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Administrative Regulations

All applicants and grant holders must comply with the Regulations Governing Grant Applications and with the regulations set out in the Grant Holder's Guide.


More Information

Contact the research office at your institution for more information or please address questions concerning the SSHRC Institutional Grants program to:

Lorraine Anderson
Team Leader

Research and Dissemination Grants Division
SSHRC
350 Albert Street
PO Box 1610
Ottawa, ON  K1P 6G4

Tel.: 613-947-4233
Fax: 613-992-7635
Email: lorraine.anderson@sshrc-crsh.gc.ca