Eligibility
Applicants:
To reflect the expertise required to deliver on the ambitious and interdisciplinary nature of the project, proposals must be submitted by teams. Teams must include an NPI and may include co-principal investigators (co-PIs), co-applicants and/or collaborators. Individuals who are not academic researchers are eligible for all roles except NPI. At the NOI stage, a minimum of five confirmed members (excluding collaborators) is required. Additional members can be added at each stage of the competition process and throughout the term of the grant. All core members of the team are expected to be confirmed when the LOI is submitted.
To ensure that teams awarded a Transformation grant have sufficient time to dedicate to the project, award holders may serve as an NPI or co-PI on only one Transformation grant. It is, therefore, recommended that individuals limit their participation as an NPI or co-PI to a single application. If an individual is listed as an NPI or co-PI on more than one application, they will be required to remove themselves from all but one at the full application stage. After the removal of the individual as NPI or co-PI, the application could potentially be removed from competition if the team’s minimal eligibility requirements are no longer met. These restrictions do not apply to co-applicant and collaborator roles. An individual’s status as an applicant or grantee of other NFRF competitions (Exploration, International or special calls) does not affect their eligibility for the Transformation stream.
The appropriate team size and composition will depend on the requirements of the proposed project. The NPI and team members can be from any discipline(s). The NPI should be the most appropriate Canadian researcher to lead an interdisciplinary project of this scale, which requires integration and coordination beyond usual disciplinary perspectives. Team members may be from any sector to ensure that all required sectors and disciplines are represented in the team and to provide an integrated interdisciplinary—and, if applicable, intersectoral—approach to the project. The focus should be on assembling a coherent team of experts to execute the project rather than on establishing a network.
National, international and cross-sector (private, public or other) collaborations are encouraged, as needed, to ensure that the most appropriate individuals and/or organizations are involved and that team composition reflects best practices in equity, diversity and inclusion. To support collaborations, funds from Transformation grants can be transferred to any organization within Canada or internationally except for-profit companies or federal, provincial or municipal governments.
Early career researchers
Early career researchers (ECRs) must be included as confirmed members in all teams. For competitions under the Transformation stream, an ECR is defined as a researcher within five years of the start date of their first research-related appointment, minus the length of any eligible delays in research (e.g., illness, maternity, parental), as of the first of the month of the competition launch (August 2023 for this competition), where:
- “research-related appointments” are defined as those where an individual has the autonomy to conduct research independently;
- all eligible leaves (e.g., maternity, parental, medical, bereavement) are credited at twice the amount of time taken; and
- professional leaves (e.g., training, sabbatical, administrative) are not credited.
Research interruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g., closures) are recognized as, and may be counted as, an eligible delay (credited at twice the amount of time) beginning March 1, 2020.
If a first academic appointment was part time, years of experience are counted at 50% until the researcher’s appointment to a full-time academic position.
Additional details are available in the FAQs.
Nominated principal investigator
The NPI:
- is responsible for the direction of the project and the coordination of proposed activities, in conjunction with the co-PIs (if applicable);
- completes the NOI, LOI and full application in the Convergence Portal and submits them through the portal to the research administrator at their institution;
- assumes administrative and financial responsibility for the grant; and
- receives all related correspondence from the agencies.
The NPI must be considered an independent researcher at their primary affiliation. A primary affiliation is defined as the primary organization at which an individual is employed or appointed or where they conduct research.
An independent researcher is an individual who:
- engages in research-related activities that are not under the direction of another individual; and
- has an academic or research appointment that:
- begins by September 5, 2024;
- allows the individual to pursue the proposed research project, engage in independent research activities for the entire duration of the funding, supervise trainees (if applicable, as per their institution’s policy) and publish the research results; and
- obliges the individual to comply with institutional policies on the conduct of research, supervision of trainees (if applicable) and employment conditions of staff paid with tri-agency funding.
Full- or part-time students, postdoctoral fellows or research associates are not eligible to apply as NPIs, regardless of whether they also meet the definitions of an independent researcher.
The NPI’s primary affiliation must be with a Canadian institution currently holding full institutional eligibility with one of the agencies. See the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) or Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).
Co-principal investigators and co-applicants
Co-PIs share responsibility with the NPI for the direction of the proposed activities, and their research activities related to the project may be supported by grant funds.
Co-applicants contribute to the execution of the research project, and their research activities related to the project may be supported by grant funds.
The eligibility requirements for co-PIs and co-applicants are the same, however, their roles are different: co-PIs work with the NPI to direct the project in addition to contributing to its execution, while co-applicants contribute to the execution of the project.
Co-PIs and co-applicants can be practitioners, policy-makers, educators, decision-makers, health-care administrators, Indigenous Elders, Indigenous Knowledge Keepers, patients, community leaders, individuals working for a charity, and a range of other individuals. To be eligible as a co-PI or a co-applicant, researchers and professors must be considered independent researchers.
The co-PIs’ and co-applicants’ affiliation may be a Canadian postsecondary institution, a Canadian institution or organization that does not have full institutional eligibility with one of the three granting agencies, or an international institution outside of Canada. However, it may not be a federal, provincial, territorial or municipal government department or a for-profit organization.
A federal government employee who is formally affiliated with a Canadian academic institution as an adjunct professor is eligible to be a collaborator. In cases where students registered at the academic institution and formally supervised by the adjunct professor will be participating in the research project, the adjunct professor is eligible to be a co-applicant. In such cases, the use of funds is limited to salaries or stipends and travel costs for the students under the adjunct professor’s supervision. Adjunct professors are also eligible to be co-PIs or co-applicants in exceptional cases where their planned contributions to the project do not fall within the mandate of their federal organization and will not be performed within their employer’s facilities or with their employer’s resources.
Individuals whose primary affiliation is with an Indigenous government are eligible to be co-PIs, co-applicants or collaborators, with eligible expenses limited to those related to the execution of the project that are not within the mandate of the Indigenous government.
Students, postdoctoral fellows, and research associates are not eligible to participate as a co-PI or co-applicant.
Collaborators
Collaborators contribute to the execution of research activities, but their research activities may not be supported by grant funds.
Collaborators do not need to be affiliated with a Canadian institution that has full institutional eligibility with one of the agencies; they may be affiliated with another Canadian or international organization. Any individual who will contribute to the project is eligible to be a collaborator. Collaborators may include individuals affiliated with a federal, provincial, territorial or municipal government department or a for-profit company. Students, postdoctoral fellows, research associates and such positions are eligible to participate as a collaborator if they are not supervised by the NPI, co-PI, co-applicant and/or another collaborator.
Subject matter (fit to program)
Transformation grants support projects that propose a world-leading interdisciplinary approach with the potential to have a significant impact in addressing a well-defined challenge. Projects must be well-defined with specific objectives. Transformation grants are not intended to support a program of research, research centres, or research networks.
Projects may involve any discipline, thematic areas, approaches or subject areas eligible for funding across the three federal research funding agencies (CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC). Projects should engage the full range of disciplines required to achieve the project goals.
To meet the minimum requirement to be considered interdisciplinary, the proposed research project must include elements from at least two different disciplines (as defined by a group-level classification based on the Canadian Research and Development Classification codes. Projects that fall under the mandate of only one federal research funding agency are not eligible.
Proposed projects may address fundamental or applied challenges.
Summary
The objective of the New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF) Transformation stream is to support large-scale, Canadian-led interdisciplinary research projects that address a major challenge with the potential to realize real and lasting change. The challenge may be fundamental, leading to a scientific breakthrough, or applied, with a social, economic, environmental or health impact. Projects are expected to be world-leading, drawing on global research expertise, when relevant.
Transformation stream grants will support projects that:
- tackle a well-defined problem or challenge;
- propose a novel world-leading approach that is different from the current state-of-the-art approaches to the issue;
- are interdisciplinary, bringing different perspectives to the defined problem; and
- have the potential to be transformative, defined as the potential to create a significant and real change or impact—a noticeable leap or tangible breakthrough rather than an incremental advance.