2022 Horizon Global Platform: Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, as long as you still meet the eligibility criteria and the institution supports your application and submits it to the agency.

A researcher who is a nominated principal investigator (NPI), co-principal investigator (co-PI) or co-applicant on an NFRF grant cannot be paid from CFREF and also receive NFRF grant funds to support their research. If a CFREF-funded researcher becomes a grant holder or co-grant holder of an NFRF grant, they must be paid from another source as of the start date of the NFRF grant. It is not possible to defer the start date of the NFRF grant to maintain CFREF salary support (or for any other reason).

Individuals indirectly employed by a federal, provincial or municipal government are eligible to be co-applicants. Their eligible expenses are limited to those that are related to the execution of the project that are not within the mandate of the individual’s organization of employment.

Adjunct professors are eligible to be a co-PI in exceptional cases where their planned contributions to the project do not fall within the mandate of their federal organization and will not be performed in their employer’s facilities or with their employer’s resources. In such cases, there are no restrictions on the adjunct professor’s use of funds.

Yes. Individuals participating on applications to, or projects funded through, other NFRF streams can apply to this competition. Individuals can only participate on a single application to the 2022 Horizon Global Platform funding opportunity, however.

An early career researcher (ECR) is a researcher within five years of the start date of their first research-related appointment, minus the length of any eligible delays in research (e.g., illness, maternity, parental), as of the first day of the month in which a competition is launched.

An ECR must also be considered an independent researcher.

The research administrator at the NPI’s primary affiliation institution will confirm the ECR status of the NPI (if applicable) and co-PI (if applicable). At any point, NFRF staff may request additional information to verify an applicant’s ECR status.

All eligible leaves (including parental, medical, bereavement and family care) that occurred after your first academic appointment will be considered, as long as they adhered to the requirements of your institution. The amount of time deducted for eligible leaves will be doubled, prolonging the period for which you remain eligible as an ECR.

For example, if the date you use for calculating ECR eligibility is January 1, 2019 (see the competition overview for the actual ECR eligibility date for your competition), your first academic appointment was on September 1, 2012, and in 2014 you began a parental leave for one year, your calculation for ECR eligibility would be as follows:

Since the maximum allowable duration to have ECR status since your first academic appointment is five years (or 60 months), you would, in the above example, be eligible to apply to this funding opportunity as an ECR.

Professional leaves (administrative, training and sabbatical) are not credited.

Research interruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g., closures) are recognized, and may be counted, as eligible delays (credited at twice the amount of time) beginning March 1, 2020.

The agencies defer to institutional policy on what is considered a part-time appointment. Contact the institution where the appointment is or was held to confirm whether it was part- or full-time.

Individuals who conduct research independently, as per the Tri-agency Guide on Financial Administration definition, are researchers with a status/position that gives them autonomy to design and direct their own research/activities. Researchers who are under the direction or supervision of another (e.g., research technicians, postdoctoral fellows and research associates) are not considered to conduct research independently.

Evidence demonstrates that documents written in French require approximately 20% more space than similar documents in English. Therefore, a provision has been made to increase the page limit for French applications, to ensure an equitable amount of space for applications written in either official language.

Funding decisions will be communicated to applicants through Notifications of Decision, accessible through the Convergence Portal.

The reviewers will be provided with the following sections of the application:

• summary (from the registration)
• equity, diversity and inclusion in research design (EDI-RD) section (referred to as GBA+ in previous NFRF competitions)
• equity, diversity and inclusion in research practice (EDI-RP) section
• early career researchers (ECRs) section
• description of the potential outcomes of the project, including the benefits to Canada
• Horizon Europe research proposal
• budget justification

They will evaluate the application according to the high reward, feasibility and EDI and ECR selection criteria.

No. There are no quotas or limits to the number of applications from one institution, but research administrators are expected to only submit applications that comply with eligibility requirements and fit the program.

The list of registrations and applications a research administrator can view is based on the affiliation the NPI selected in their eligibility profile. Before contacting the Helpdesk, confirm with the NPI that they selected your institution as their primary affiliation in the Participant Eligibility section.

If the status of the registration or application is:

• “in progress,” there is no need to return it, as the NPI has not yet submitted it to the research administrator;
• “received by administrator,” you can return the application by clicking Return to applicant;
• “received by agency,” it can no longer be returned to the applicant, as it has already been forwarded it to the agencies.

Options include:

• contacting the co-PI for the necessary information; or
• asking the co-PI’s research administrator to confirm the individual’s ECR status.

In the Convergence Portal, the Terms and Conditions for Research Administrators state that, “prior to submission of the application, the institution has obtained written approval from any other institutions involved in the application process.” What do we need to do?

The same terms and conditions are used in the Research Portal. There is no formal mechanism for notifying institutions if any of their employees are co-PIs or co-applicants in an application. An NPI’s research administrator is responsible for informing the institutions. Each institution can develop their own processes to address this clause. No copies of the written approval will be requested from the agencies for submission.

The NFRF program uses the Tri-agency Guide on Financial Administration as its guidelines for eligibility of expenses and use of funds related to the direct costs of research. Exceptions to these for the Horizon Global grants are listed in the competition overview.

Yes. The NFRF program follows CIHR’s Considerations when paying patient partners in research.

Indirect costs can equal up to 25% of the direct costs of the proposed research. For more information, see the indirect costs section of the Tri-agency Guide on Financial Administration, and the Research Support Fund’s list of eligible and ineligible expenditures.

A breakdown of the indirect costs is not required, but these costs must be included as an amount in the budget table. The NPI’s research administrator will need to confirm that the indirect costs are appropriate before they forward the application.

The amount of indirect costs funding requested is allocated to the NPI’s primary affiliation (the administering organization) to offset the indirect costs of proposed research. It is not possible to increase the amount of direct costs requested by reducing the amount of indirect costs.

Indirect costs are incurred where the research is done. Accordingly, indirect costs are expected to be shared among applicants in the same proportion that the direct costs would be shared (if applicable). The administering organization (the NPI’s primary affiliation) will administer the process. The total amount of indirect costs cannot exceed the amount requested in the application (maximum of 25% of the direct costs of research).

The NPI and co-PIs only have authority to expend the funds supporting the direct costs of research. The host institution has the authority to expend the funds for the indirect costs. It is expected that the host institution may distribute a portion of these costs to the institutions of the co-PIs.

The Statement of Account Form (Form 300) is to be used to report the annual financial expenditures for NFRF grants.

Only one Statement of Account Form (Form 300) per grant is required to report expenditures. The expenditures of indirect funds, therefore, must be included. This is to be captured on line item 11 (Other Expenditures) as a single value. A breakdown of expenditures is not required for indirect costs. It is expected that the expenditure of indirect funds will be proportional to the expenditure of direct research funds, as reflected in the application.

For example, if an NPI was awarded $100,000 for direct costs and $25,000 for indirect costs in Year 1 and they only spent $50,000 for direct costs, the amount charged for indirect costs would be: ($25,000 ÷ $100,000) × $50,000 = $12,500.

In cases where the NPI’s new primary affiliation is with a Canadian institution currently holding full institutional eligibility with one of the agencies (see the list of eligible institutions for the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council or the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council), the NPI would retain their grant and it would follow them to the new institution.

In cases where the NPI’s new primary affiliation is not with a Canadian institution currently holding full institutional eligibility with one of the agencies, it is expected that the NPI will continue to be involved in the project as a co-PI or co-applicant, insofar as this is possible, to continue to provide the expertise needed to complete the project (international co-applicants are eligible to use grant funds).

If there is:

• a co-PI who meets the eligibility requirements to be the NPI, the grant can be transferred to the co-PI (the co-PI becomes the NPI, and the original NPI becomes a co-PI or co-applicant, if eligible);
• no eligible co-PI, the grant cannot be transferred and will be terminated.

In all cases, the co-PI must have been named as such in the original application; they cannot have been added after the grant was awarded. The team must also demonstrate that the required expertise is still available, address the question of project leadership, and explain how the planned work will be completed.

There are two reporting requirements. Financial reporting must be done annually by submitting Form 300. NPIs must also submit a final report to NFRF program staff after the conclusion of the project. The final report details the project’s outcomes regarding program criteria, and provides information on individuals who contributed to the research (highly qualified personnel employed by the project).

The NPI must submit the final report through the Convergence Portal. A link will appear under the Awards section of the portal before the deadline.

Final reports are due three months after the end date for the use of funds.

We value our community’s feedback, and it helps us shape future competitions. Direct your feedback to NFRF-FNFR@chairs-chaires.gc.ca.