Transcript Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada An Overview of Standard Research Grants Prepared by the Office of Research Trent University Office of Research, Trent University.

Social Sciences and
Humanities Research
Council of Canada
An Overview of
Standard Research Grants
Prepared by the Office of Research
Trent University
Office of Research, Trent University
What does SSHRC Do?
 SSHRC does not conduct research itself;
 The council distributes funds to Canadian
researchers, scholars, and universities
through highly competitive, peer adjudicated
granting programs
 The budget for 2004-2005 was $230M for all
programs
 In 2004-2005 the % of successful
applications was 43%
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SSHRC: The Broad Objective
 The purpose of the Standard Research
Grants program is to support research and
develop excellence in research activities in
both the social sciences and the humanities
 At present, SSHRC supports over 30
disciplines in the social sciences and
humanities
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Specific Objectives:
 To support highly qualified, independent
programs of research;
 To provide training opportunities for HQP
 To enhance and develop new theoretical and
methodological approaches to research;
 To encourage collaborative, multidisciplinary
activities amongst researchers;
 To support wide-spread dissemination of
research outcomes
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What is a program of research?
 A sustained research enterprise that includes
one or more projects or other components
and which is shaped by broad objectives for
the advancement of knowledge
 A program of research can involve primarily
one investigator focused on a single research
career or mobilize a team of researchers for a
specific period
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What do programs of research
include?
 Research tools may be included if there are
deemed to be a priority for advancing
research in a specific field
 Tools include: bibliographies, indices,
catalogues of research collections
 Concordances & dictionaries
 Materials which access archival
holdings/collections
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SSHRC does not fund:
 Description of any original holdings of any
federal agency
 Conversion of records into machine-readable
formats
 Document conservation
 Records management or the arrangement of
documents
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Value and Duration
 SRG’s are available for periods of 1 to 3
years
 Maximum value per year is $100K up to a
total of $250k over 3 years
 Each year must have a minimum budget of
$7k (not including RTS)
 Average award in 03-04 was $82K
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Eligibility:
 Most SRG’s are submitted by one
Applicant/principal investigator
 Adjuncts are eligible to apply for SRG’s
 If unclear about your status or that of your coapplicants, please contact the ORGS for
clarification
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SSHRC SRG’s Deadlines:
 Internal deadline is October 7th, 2005
 External deadline is October 15th, 2005
 Results are anticipated by late March, early
April 2006
 The Office of Research does not receive any
information regarding adjudication or
evaluation during this time
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Adjudication Committees
 STG’s are adjudicated by committees
comprised of scholars from the research
community
 Applications are ranked by the committees
 Two external written assessments are
normally obtained for each application prior
to adjudication at the committee level
 Each applicant is invited to select the
committee to adjudicate their application
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Evaluation Criteria
 Record of research achievement
 Program of research
 Regular Scholar: research achievement = 60%,
program of research = 40%
 New Scholar: the record of research achievement
and the program of research are weighted in the
overall score such that either 60/40 or 40/60 will
apply *which ever produces the most favorable
overall score
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Assessing Program of Research:
 The degree of originality and expected
contribution to the advancement of
knowledge;
 Significance of the research, understood to
encompass scholarly or intellectual
significance as well as social and cultural
significance;
 The suitability of theoretical perspectives
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Assessment (con’t)
 The appropriateness and expected
effectiveness of the research strategies or
methodologies;
 The suitability and expected effectiveness of
plans to communicate research findings both
within and beyond the academic community
 The nature and extent of research training
(HQP)
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Scoring of Applications
 A score, based on committee consensus,
ranking from 1 – 10 is assigned for both the
record of research achievement and the
program of research
 A minimum score of 6/10 is required on each
of these two components for an application to
qualify for a grant (4A or 1 Status)
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New vs Regular Scholar
 A new scholar is someone who has not yet
had the opportunity to establish an extensive
record of research
 Cannot have been a PI on a SSHRC grant
previously; have completed highest degree
less than five years before the year of the
competition deadline OR held tenure-track
appointments in a university for less than five
years OR experienced delays for family
reasons
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How to Apply:
 Applications must be prepared using the
online module
 Once the application is complete, 4 copies
plus the original must be submitted to the
Office of Research, Suite 344, Gzowski
(Symons) by October 7th
 PI’s are responsible for departmental
signatures; the Office of Research will secure
institutional signatures
Office of Research, Trent University
Need help?
 Should you require assistance preparing your
grant application, please don’t hesitate to
contact:
Cathy Smith 748-1011 ext. 7496
[email protected]
Or
James Parker 748-1011 ext. 7935
[email protected]
Office of Research, Trent University