Details

Total Maximum Amount: $35,000
Maximum Duration: 1 year
Grants per Funding Cycle: Up to 2
Application Deadline: July 20, 2015

Purpose & General Guidelines

Project Grants will support an individual or a group of individuals led by a Principal Applicant. The purpose of these grants is to support small projects of high scientific quality that may not be eligible for funding from external sources and are of direct relevance to the mandate and priorities of the Centre.

A maximum of $35,000 per award will be awarded in Project Grants in 2015. This total amount can be awarded either to one applicant or to several applicants, depending on the merit of the proposals submitted. These grants are designed to defray the normal direct costs of research including personnel costs, supplies and expendable materials, equipment, computing costs, research travel (to a maximum of 20% of the total budget), and dissemination and communications.

Grant funds will be released only upon the receipt of a letter of approval from the appropriate ethics review committee (see Ethics). Once a proposal has been funded, major changes in the project design or major departures from the budget will require the prior approval of the Centre.

An applicant may apply for more than one Project Grant in any year but will be allowed to accept only one Project Grant as Principal Applicant or as Co-Applicant. Recipients of a Project Grant from NLCAHR as a Principal Applicant in the previous year are not eligible to apply during the current cycle, but are eligible to act as Co-Applicants. Applicants may apply for both a Project and Development Grant during the same funding cycle, but cannot be awarded both research grants concurrently in a given year.

Please note that all NLCAHR funding programs, including multi-year commitments, are subject to availability of funds.

Eligibility

The Principal Applicant(s) for an NLCAHR Project Grant must:

• Be employed by a post-secondary academic institution or by a health or community services institution in Newfoundland and Labrador and have dedicated time for research
• Have a Ph.D. or a health professional degree and a Master’s degree in research
• The Principal Applicant is the person who will take primary responsibility for the intellectual direction of the research and assume administrative responsibility for the funds. Project Grant funds are not intended to supplement the salary of the Principal Applicant or Co-Applicants; only research assistants may be paid salary from these grants.

Co-Applicants (s) do not need a doctorate but they should be trainees or independent researchers with Master’s qualifications in a field relevant to health research. Researchers employed at institutions elsewhere in Canada may be a ‘Co-Applicant’ (persons playing a substantial role in the project’s design and execution) but not a Principal Applicant. Researchers from non-Canadian institutions may be ‘Associates’ but not Principal Applicants or Co-Applicants.

Selection Criteria for Project Grants

Applications for Project Grants will be judged according to the following selection criteria:

• Relevance of the proposed research to the Centre's mandate and priority research themes;
• Expertise and research experience; and past contributions to applied health research and related fields;
• Merit of the proposal, based on: originality; potential contribution to applied health research;
• clarity of presentation and appropriateness of design and research plan; feasibility of the proposed work; and appropriateness and justification of the budget.

Priority will be given to recently established researchers (within the first five years of a first full-time appointment) and researchers who do not currently hold a major grant from an external funding agency.

Role of Host Institutions

Institutions that employ holders of Project Grants are called host institutions. NLCAHR requires signatures from host institution representatives on all grant application forms. NLCAHR expects host institutions to accept the responsibilities outlined below on behalf of their award or grant-holding employees:

• The financial administration of awards and grants
• Reporting to NLCAHR any change in the funding recipients’ status that may affect the fulfillment of their research commitment, for example resignation or termination
• Submission of an annual financial statement covering the period from April 1 to March 31 for each award or grant; the statement(s) are due no later than May 1 of each year

Application Process

When completing your application, be sure to download the BLANK form to your hard drive first. Then, complete the form and save it to your hard drive using Adobe Acrobat; if you work on the forms online (e.g., fill them out in Safari or Google Chrome), changes will not be saved when the forms are downloaded for emailing.

The following information is to be submitted to NLCAHR by 4:30pm NST on July 20, 2015:

• Application Form (electronically)
• Your Common CV (in .pdf format) and, if appropriate, Common CVs for all of your coinvestigators (electronically)
• Authorization Form (hardcopy)