Partnership Development Grant Program (Canada)

Partnership Development Grants are expected to respond to the objectives of the Research Partnerships program.

These grants provide support over one to three years to teams/partnerships, led by a project director, to:

• develop research and/or related activities in the social sciences and humanities—these can include knowledge mobilization and the meaningful involvement of students and emerging scholars—by fostering new partnerships with existing and/or potential partners; or
• design and test new partnership approaches for research and/or related activities that can result in best practices or models—these can either be adapted by others or have the potential to be scaled up to a regional, national or international level.

Partnership funding is intended for formal partnerships between postsecondary institutions and/or organizations of various types. The quality of training, mentoring and employability plans for students and emerging scholars will be evaluated as an important part of the proposed initiative.

The intellectual leadership and governance for the creation of a formal partnership can come from the research community and/or from partner organizations from the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. However, only an institution that meets the institutional eligibility requirements can administer the grant funding, once awarded.

Goal

• The goal of SSHRC’s Research Partnerships program is to realize social sciences and humanities research’s potential for influence, benefit and impact, within and beyond postsecondary institutions, by supporting research and related activities and tools that facilitate co-creating and exchanging research knowledge.

Objectives

• The objectives of the Research Partnerships program are to:
  • strengthen knowledge and understanding by leveraging perspectives from across multiple disciplines and sectors;
  • support collaboration among postsecondary institutions, and between postsecondary institutions and organizations from the public, private and not-for-profit sectors, to co-create knowledge and increase use of research outputs;
  • mobilize research knowledge, within academia and other sectors, that can lead to intellectual, cultural, social and economic outputs and outcomes;
  • increase the accessibility and use of research knowledge within and beyond the postsecondary sector; and
  • support a high-quality training experience for students and/or postdoctoral researchers.

Types of Partnerships

• There are two categories of partnerships that can request support:
  • existing partnerships to foster new research and/or research-related partnership activities that are distinct from the partnership’s previous/ongoing partnership activities; and
  • new partnerships to foster new research and/or research-related partnership activities that are undertaken by partnerships in their initial stages.
• Following is a list of possible formal partnership approaches. Applicants are in no way limited to these approaches, and are welcome to combine some of the features described below.
  • Disciplinary and interdisciplinary research partnerships: Interinstitutional research initiatives designed to make a significant contribution to advancing knowledge and understanding in the social sciences and/or humanities. While SSHRC welcomes proposals for interdisciplinary research partnerships involving natural sciences, engineering and/or health partner organizations, partnerships of this nature must follow SSHRC’s subject matter eligibility.
  • Cross-sector co-creation of knowledge and understanding: Partnerships to foster innovative research, training and the co-creation of new knowledge on critical issues of intellectual, social, economic and cultural significance.
  • Networks for research and/or related activities: Networks designed to advance the innovative co-creation of knowledge, as well as training and mobilization of research, on critical issues of intellectual, social, economic and cultural significance.
  • Partnered knowledge mobilization: Partnerships designed to synthesize, apply and mobilize new and existing social sciences and humanities research knowledge in accessible ways to build institutional capacity and to increase the national and international impact and stature of Canadian research.
• SSHRC welcomes applications involving Indigenous research, as well as those involving research-creation.

Funding Information

• Partnership Development Grants are valued at $75,000 to $200,000, over one to three years.

Ineligible Funding

• Tri-agency grant funds cannot be used to remunerate team members (applicant, co-applicant, co-director or collaborator). This includes postdoctoral fellows serving in any of these capacities.
• Partnership Development Grant funds cannot be used to provide salaries or stipends to applicants, co-directors, co-applicants or collaborators, regardless of an individual’s eligibility to apply for grants.
• Partnership Development Grant funds cannot be used to provide salaries or stipends to the grantee or to other individuals whose status would make them eligible to apply for grants from the agency.
• Course release time to allow an individual to engage in research is not an eligible expense.

Eligibility Criteria

• Applicants
  • Applications can be submitted by a team of researchers (consisting of one applicant / project director and one or more co-applicants and/or collaborators). The applicant / project director prepares the application on behalf of the partner organizations of the formal partnership.
  • Applicants (except postdoctoral researchers and students) must be affiliated with a Canadian institution that meets the institutional eligibility requirements at the time of application and before funding can be released. Researchers who maintain an affiliation with a Canadian postsecondary institution, but whose primary affiliation is with a non-Canadian postsecondary institution, are not eligible for applicant status.
  • Applicants who have received a SSHRC grant of any type but have failed to submit an achievement report by the deadline specified in their Notice of Award are not eligible to apply for another SSHRC grant until they have submitted the report.
  • Postdoctoral researchers are eligible to be applicants if they have formally established an affiliation with an eligible institution within five months of the grant start date, and maintain such an affiliation for the duration of the grant period. Before applying, postdoctoral researchers must confirm with their institution, usually through the research grants office, that the institution can administer the funding if awarded.
  • Students enrolled in a program of study are not eligible to apply. However, a PhD candidate is eligible to apply if they:
    • will have met all requirements for the PhD before the grant is awarded, including all course work and successful defence of their dissertation; and
    • establish a formal affiliation with an eligible institution within five months of the grant start date, and maintain such an affiliation for the duration of the grant period.
  • Applicants who are postdoctoral researchers or students, and who do not have an affiliation at the time of the grant application, are asked to communicate with SSHRC at least five business days before the deadline to confirm how to forward their application.
  • Federal scientists who are affiliated with a Canadian postsecondary institution must demonstrate that their proposed research or research-related activity is not related to either the mandate of their employer or the normal duties for which they receive payment from that employer.
  • If the proposal falls within the mandate of the federal government and the research or research-related activity is performed in government facilities, funding can only be allocated for student salaries, stipends and travel costs.
• Institutions
  • Grant funds can only be administered by an eligible Canadian institution.
• Co-directors and co-applicants
  • Individuals are eligible to be co-directors or co-applicants if they are formally affiliated with any of the following:
    • Canadian: eligible postsecondary institution; not-for-profit organization; philanthropic foundation; think tank; or municipal, territorial or provincial governments.
    • International: postsecondary institution.
  • Postdoctoral researchers who are affiliated with a postsecondary institution are eligible to be co-directors or co-applicants.
  • PhD candidates are eligible to be co-applicants and co-directors under the same conditions as those described for an applicant.
• Collaborators
  • Any individual who makes a significant contribution to the project is eligible to be a collaborator. Collaborators do not need to be affiliated with an eligible Canadian postsecondary institution.
  • Individuals from the private sector or federal government can participate only as collaborators.
• Partner organizations
  • Partner organizations can be Canadian or international institutions or organizations (public, private, not-for-profit) of any type.
  • Under a Partnership Development Grant, an applicant affiliated with a postsecondary institution is not required to enter into a partnership agreement with another postsecondary institution.

For more information, visit SSHRC.