The Office of Research Services has received the following information which we are forwarding to our e-mail list members:
Please see the below message from Dr. Lisa Shapiro:
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In early December, I attended the SSHRC Leader AGM in Ottawa. SSHRC Leaders serve as liaisons between universities and SSHRC, helping to keeping the lines of communication open. I'm writing to share with you some highlights of the meeting, and some indication of what can be expected to being coming forward from SSHRC in the near future.
The first thing to note is that the mood of SSHRC executives was very positive. There is a general sentiment that the current government understands both the work that researchers in the social sciences and humanities do and its value. In particular, with a keynote from Science Minister Kirstie Duncan, it was made clear that the government is placing a premium on evidence-based policy.
While there was nothing official, there was an expectation that the SSHRC funding envelope would be increasing in the coming several years.
SSHRC is aiming to develop some new streams of funding within existing programs. Part of the aims of these programs is to increase success rates and encourage scholars to apply for funding.
Let me mention two new streams that are intended to be announced in Summer 2017.
1. A new stream of the SSHRC Insight program with a smaller budget envelope ($7-100K over up to five years). This new stream will co-exist with the current stream (with a higher budget line). Part of the goal here is to ensure real costing (rather than inflated budgets) and to increase the success rate.
2. A new stream of Partnership Development Grant program (likely to be called Engage). Again, the grant will be smaller ($7-25K), and require that the partner be non-academic. These grants will be a shorter term (maximum 18 months all together).
There was continuing discussion of requiring that SSHRC sponsored research include a data-management plan. The SFU library has been proactive around providing tools for developing such plans, and implementing them. You can find out more at http://www.lib.sfu.ca/data.SSHRC is revamping its reporting mechanisms -- including achievement reporting, and reports on adjudication and competition results -- and is articulating its standards of service.
Efforts continue in the articulation of the domains of CIHR and SSHRC. Except with regards to clinical research (CIHR), the two councils are aiming to keep an open mind about which agency is the appropriate source of funding.
Other topics that were foregrounded include: evaluating Canada Graduate Scholarship programs, promoting Undergraduate Research, and best practices in Indigenous research
Cheers,
Lisa
Dr. Lisa Shapiro ..............................................................e: lshapiro@sfu.ca
Associate Dean, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences......o: 778-782-9982
Professor, Department of Philosophy ............................. f: 778-782-3033
Simon Fraser University
8888 University Drive
Burnaby, BC V5A 1S6
CANADA
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