Partnership Engage Grants 2023-24 competitions

On this page

• Funded projects
• Description
• Value and duration
• Eligibility
• Application process
• Merit review
• Regulations, policies and related information
• Contact information

Funded projects

The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) awarded a total of 12 grants in April 2024 to researchers at Canadian universities from across the country. The purpose of the grants is to advance socio-economic research for evidence-informed public health decision-making on selected public health priority topics in Canada.

Successful applicants will engage with PHAC on partnered research activities between April 2024 and March 2025, to inform PHAC planning and decision-making.

For details on each grant recipient, visit SSHRC's Award Recipients webpage.

The 2023-24 grant application deadline was December 15, 2023. The following information (published originally in April 2023) is for information purposes only.

Description

This joint initiative is a partnership between the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) to support research opportunities entitled "Advancing Socio-Economic Research for Evidence-Informed Public Health Decision-Making". The overall goal of this joint initiative is to identify and advance socio-economic research for evidence-informed public health decision-making on selected public health priority topics in Canada. The objectives of the joint initiative include:

• Supporting evidence-informed public health policy making
• Addressing horizontal public health policy needs
• Broadening the understanding of socio-economic impacts of public health interventions
• Examining issues related to data sources, gaps and potential remedial strategies

The joint initiative provides short-term and timely support for partnered research activities that will inform public health decision-making and are grouped under 6 broad categories with specific research themes in each category. Applicants are required to apply to 1 of the 12 specific themes:

Costs and benefits of public health policies/interventions

1. Advance the state of evidence on the return on investment of public health interventions and policies in Canada. This would encompass a holistic public health approach that would not be limited to specific diseases, conditions and/or populations.
2. Explore the association of health and social spending in Canadian jurisdictions with targeted population health outcomes (for example, avoidable mortality, life expectancy at birth, health-adjusted life year, disability-adjusted life year, etc.).

Economic and social impacts of health inequalities

3. Identify the health and social impacts of health inequalities in Canada and explore how have these impacts changed through the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Data gaps and methodologies

4. Explore indirect costs and direct costs of illness and methodologies to overcome data gaps for certain vulnerable populations in Canada, such as Indigenous communities (for example, pre-pandemic, during and post-pandemic).
5. Calculate how hospitalization and physician health care costs have evolved over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic (for example, pre-pandemic, during and post-pandemic).

Applying One Health approaches to examining the social and economic impacts of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR)

6. Explore the impacts of investing in AMR initiatives that improve the lives of Canadians.
7. Identify and explore the costs of AMR to the Canadian healthcare system (especially projected savings of preventative measures in healthcare and/or community settings).

Social and economic impacts of climate change on public health

8. Exploring how public health and climate change interventions can be improved by taking a multi-sectoral approach to address the root drivers of climate change or health impacts – Explore upstream factors (for example, market conditions, food security, transportation access, public policy, burden of infectious and chronic illnesses, international regulations, access to health care and services, inequities) that can affect health vulnerability and adaptation, particularly in rural, northern, remote, coastal, or isolated regions.
9. Investigating the influence of climate stressors on increasing the dual and often simultaneous burden of chronic and infectious disease in vulnerable populations, focusing on exploring the socioeconomic determinants of health and adaptation capacity.
10. Integrating social and economic analyses and modeling into climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts: Innovate, improve and/or evaluate approaches that incorporate health and equity considerations into socioeconomic analyses, modeling and forecasting of climate change adaptation and mitigation measures, as well as the costs of inaction and co-benefits of action.

Examining the socio-economic benefits of a One Health approach

11. Explore the return on investment associated with taking a One Health approach to prevent public health risks emerging in humans, animals and their shared environment.
12. Identify synergies and co-benefits between health, animal and environmental actions including activities that innovate, improve and/or better incorporate diverse types of knowledge to prevent or reduce risks emerging at the human, animal, environment interface

In addressing PHAC's short-term needs for robust evidence in selected public health priority areas, the Joint Initiative will allow PHAC, SSHRC and participant researchers to access each other's unique knowledge, expertise and capabilities on these topics.

Value and duration

Partnership Engage Grants are valued at $7,000 to $25,000 for 1 year.

Salary research allowance

Co-applicants from eligible not-for-profit organizations can request a salary research allowance to release them from duties to their organization.

Eligibility

Subject matter

Most SSHRC funding is awarded through open competitions. Proposals can involve any disciplines, thematic areas, approaches or subject areas eligible for SSHRC funding. See the guidelines on subject matter eligibility for more information.

The Joint Initiative aims to fund up to 12 research projects under the 6 broad categories. Researchers with prior or current interest and experience in these areas are encouraged to apply.

Projects whose primary objective is curriculum development, preparation of teaching materials, program evaluation, organization of a conference or workshop, digitization of a collection, or creation of a database are not eligible for funding under this funding opportunity.

Applicants

Applications can be submitted by an individual researcher or a team of researchers (consisting of 1 applicant and 1 or more co-applicants and/or collaborators).

Applicants must be affiliated with a Canadian postsecondary institution that holds institutional eligibility at the time of application. 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 at the time of application and maintain such an affiliation for the duration of the grant period.

Before applying, postdoctoral researchers must confirm with their institution's research grants officer that the institution can administer the funding if awarded.

Students are not eligible for applicant or co-applicant status on a Partnership Engage Grant.

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 be administered only by an eligible Canadian postsecondary institution. Institutions proposing to administer a grant awarded under this funding opportunity must hold or obtain institutional eligibility.

Institutions must contact institutional.eligibility@sshrc-crsh.gc.ca to begin the institutional eligibility application process, or if they have questions about institutional eligibility.

Co-applicants

Individuals are eligible to be 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 government.
• International: postsecondary institution.

Postdoctoral researchers who are affiliated with a postsecondary institution are eligible to be co-applicants.

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

Only 1 Canadian or international organization from the public, private or not-for-profit sector can be involved as a partner organization. Postsecondary institutions and scholarly associations are not eligible as partner organizations. Organizations collaborating with postsecondary institutions (for example, a network) can be considered eligible as long as they are a separate entity from the postsecondary institution (that is, a stand-alone organization in the not-for-profit, private or public sector). The partner organization must be at arm's length (independent) from the academic institution and the applicant. A partner organization is not at arm's length if the applicant:

• has an ownership position in the partner organization.
• is employed by the partner organization in any role, whether salaried or not; or
• is related (that is, connected by blood relationship, marriage or common-law partnership or adoption) to a person who controls, or who is a member of a governing board that controls, the partner organization.

The partner organization must be under the effective day-to-day management control of someone other than the postsecondary institution, applicant, co-applicant(s) or other participant with financial authority on the grant (in a private sector organization this precludes these individuals from holding key executive positions, such as president, CEO, chief scientific officer or vice-president R&D).

While cash and/or in-kind contributions are not mandatory, partner organizations are expected to support the activities of the partnership through these contributions.

Researchers involved in formal partnerships that have more than 1 partner organization are encouraged to apply for Partnership Development Grants or Partnership Grants.

Multiple applications and holding multiple awards

See SSHRC's regulations regarding multiple applications and holding multiple awards for more information.

Monitoring

Grant holders will be expected to report on the use of grant funds, on funded activities undertaken during the grant period and on outcomes. PHAC will organize a brief virtual program kickoff meeting to meet with researchers and establish a communication channel to exchange ideas and share progress. PHAC will encourage and facilitate an internal forum for researchers to share their preliminary and final findings with Agency staff. Successful applicants will be informed of reporting requirements when they receive their Notice of Award.

Application process

Applicants must use the title of the joint initiative to identify their application: "Advancing Socio-Economic Research for Evidence-Informed Public Health Decision-Making".

Applicants must also add the title of the joint initiative ("Advancing Socio-Economic Research for Evidence-Informed Public Health Decision-Making") as a keyword in the application.

Applicants must complete the SSHRC application form in accordance with accompanying instructions. Applications must be submitted electronically by an authorized research grants officer, or equivalent, from the applicant's institution.

Applicants needing help while preparing their application should communicate with SSHRC well in advance of the application deadline.

Once the 8 p.m. (eastern) application deadline has passed, the application server will be offline for 2 business days and unable to accept applications.

Merit review

Applications are reviewed, and available funds awarded, through a competitive merit review process. SSHRC bases funding decisions on the recommendations of the merit review committee and on the funds available. Committee discussions are guided by the principle of minimum essential funding.

SSHRC's Guidelines for the Merit Review of Indigenous Research are relevant for researchers (applicants and project directors) and students preparing SSHRC applications related to Indigenous research. SSHRC provides these guidelines to merit reviewers to help build understanding of Indigenous research and research-related activities, and to assist committee members in interpreting SSHRC's specific evaluation criteria in the context of Indigenous research. SSHRC relies on a community of merit reviewers with experience and expertise in Indigenous research to judge the extent to which the guidelines can be applied to a particular research proposal. The guidelines may also be of use to external assessors, postsecondary institutions and partner organizations that support Indigenous research.

Evaluation criteria and scoring

The following criteria and scoring scheme are used to evaluate the applications:

1. Challenge—The aim and importance of the endeavour (60%)
   • The research's relevance to needs, challenges and/or opportunities facing the partner organization.
   • Originality, significance and expected contribution to knowledge and, more specifically, to the partner organization.
   • Appropriateness of the literature review.
   • Appropriateness of the methods and theoretical approach.
   • Quality of training and mentoring to be provided to students, emerging scholars and other highly qualified personnel, and opportunities for them to contribute; and
   • Potential for the project results to have influence and impact within the partner organization and beyond.
2. Feasibility—The plan to achieve excellence (20%):
   • Probability that the objectives will be met within the timeline proposed.
   • Involvement of the partner organization in the design and conduct of the research and/or related activities.
   • Appropriateness of the requested budget and justification of proposed costs.
   • Indications of other planned resources, including leveraging of cash and in-kind support from the host institution and/or from the partner organization; and
   • Quality and appropriateness of the knowledge mobilization plans, including effective dissemination, exchange and engagement with the partner organization and other stakeholders within and/or beyond the research community.
3. Capability—The expertise to succeed (20%):
   • Quality, quantity and significance of past experience and published and/or creative outputs of the applicant and any co-applicants relative to their roles in the partnership and to the stage of their career.
   • Evidence of other knowledge mobilization activities (for example, films, performances, commissioned reports, knowledge syntheses, experience in collaboration / other interactions with stakeholders, contributions to public debate and the media) and of impacts on professional practice, social services and policies, etc.
   • Evidence of past contributions to the training and mentoring of students, postdoctoral researchers and highly qualified personnel.

Scoring table

Merit review committee members assign a score for each of the 3 evaluation criteria, based on the following scoring table. The appropriate weighting is then applied to arrive at a final score. Applications must receive a score of 3.0 or higher for each of the 3 criteria to be recommended for funding.

Communication of results

SSHRC makes competition results available to applicants (via the SSHRC Extranet for Applicants) and institutions (via the Grants and Scholarships Administration Portal).

All applicants will be provided, in addition to SSHRC's notice of decision, a summary of the merit review committee's evaluation of their proposal, where applicable.

Regulations, policies and related information

SSHRC reserves the right to determine the eligibility of applications, based on the information included. SSHRC also reserves the right to interpret the regulations and policies governing its funding opportunities.

All applicants and grant holders must comply with the regulations governing grant applications and with the regulations set out in the Tri-Agency Guide on Financial Administration.

Grant holders must also comply with the Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications (see the Open Access overview for more information) and the Tri-Agency Research Data Management Policy, which, as of April 1, 2021, has replaced SSHRC's Research Data Archiving policy for all active grants.

Specific rules for the use of grant funds

• SSHRC grant funds cannot be used to provide salaries or stipends to applicants, co-applicants or collaborators, regardless of an individual's eligibility to apply for grants.
• SSHRC 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.
• SSHRC grant funds cannot be used for course release time to allow an individual to engage in research.
• Tri-agency grant funds cannot be used to remunerate team members (applicant, co-applicant or collaborator). This includes postdoctoral researchers serving in any of these capacities.

Guidelines and related support material

All applicants for SSHRC funding should consult the following guidelines while preparing their applications:

• SSHRC's Definitions of Terms for terms used in the grant application process.
• The Guidelines for Effective Research Training, which can also be useful to reviewers and postsecondary institutions
• SSHRC's Indigenous Research Statement of Principles and Guidelines for the Merit Review of Indigenous Research for applications involving Indigenous research.
• SSHRC's definition of knowledge mobilization and its Guidelines for Effective Knowledge Mobilization for guidance on connecting with research users to create impact; and
• SSHRC's Guidelines for Support of Tools for Research and Related Activities, for clarification on how applicants can include up to $7,000 of funding for research and research-related tools in any SSHRC grant application.

Contact information

For more information:

Email: partnershipengagegrants@sshrc-crsh.gc.ca
Toll free: 1-855-275-2861