In preparation for the 2027 competition, Lakehead University is holding an internal competition to support one student’s submission to SSHRC's Storytellers Challenge. 

The SSHRC Storytellers Challenge is an annual competition that asks postsecondary students to demonstrate to Canadians, in up to three minutes or 300 words, how Social Sciences and Humanities research is affecting our lives, our world, and our future for the better. 

Who is Eligible to Apply? 

All Lakehead University undergraduate and graduate students who are Canadian residents, 19 years of age or older, and who are working on a SSHRC-funded research project (either their own or their professor’s/supervisor’s) conducted at Lakehead University at the time of submission are eligible to apply. These requirements are determined by SSHRC. 

NOTE: The Storyteller’s Challenge is only open to postsecondary students (i.e., undergraduate or graduate level). It is not open to postdoctoral researchers. It is also not open to SSHRC employees and their immediate family members and those living in the same household (whether legally related or not). 

Previous winners are eligible to enter the Storyteller’s Challenge if: 

1. the research featured in their submission is materially different, as determined by SSHRC, from that of their previous winning submission(s); and 

2. they meet all other eligibility requirements. 

What is Required to Apply? 

Eligible students must create a video or audio clip of up to three minutes or a text or infographic of up to 300 words that showcases the SSHRC-funded research in a compelling, creative, and clear manner. 

Lakehead University’s Internal Call for Applications 

In preparation for the 2027 competition, Lakehead University is holding an internal competition to support one student’s submission to SSHRC's Storytellers Challenge. 

Some funding will be available to support one student’s submission. A review committee will consider all eligible applications, and recommend one submission for internal funding and support. Funds can be used to help in the filming and production of either a three minute video, text, infographic, or audio file.

Support will also be available for planning and producing the final submission, including script development and, for videos, filming support on campus (if required). 

Internal Application Process and Requirements: 

Please complete the application, linked here, by Friday, June 19, 2026 at 11:59 PM. 

Selection Process 

A review committee will be established to evaluate and rank internal applications according to the three areas outlined by SSHRC: 1) Creativity/Engagement (compelling your audience), 2) Persuasiveness (communicating the impact), and 3) Clarity (explaining the research). The committee will make a final recommendation to the Vice-President, Research and Innovation. 

The successful applicant will be notified by early July. It is expected that the recipient will begin working on the project in the spring/summer term and complete the project by the beginning of November 2026. The SSHRC Storyteller’s Challenge submission period will open in November 2026 and is expected to close in mid-January 2027. 

For questions regarding this opportunity, please contact Melissa Burton, Coordinator of Communications and Special Projects, Research and Innovation at: communications.research@lakeheadu.ca.

NOHFC Research Internships:  One Position Available

Overview

• Workforce Development Stream:  The intent of the Workforce Development Stream is to strengthen and develop Northern Ontario’s workforce through business partnerships by offering internships.  

• Indigenous Workforce Development Stream:  The intent of the Indigenous Workforce Development Stream is to strengthen and develop Northern Ontario’s Indigenous workforce through business partnerships by offering internships to Indigenous persons.

Under this program, covering both streams, Lakehead University has a quota of five research-related placements.  Of these five, one internship position will become available at the beginning of July 2026. Faculty members are invited to submit applications for a research internship.  The internal deadline for the submission of internship applications to the Office of Research Services is June 22, 2026.   Please note that you will need to create an account on the NOHFC website in order to create an application, however please do not submit your application to the NOHFC.   Instead,  please email a copy of your application to Andrew Hacquoil, Research Facilitator (Institutional Programs), Office of Research Services, at ahacquo1@lakeheadu.ca. 

If more than one internship application is received, an internal competition will need to be held.   Applications will be reviewed and ranked by the Senate Research Committee (SRC).  The SRC will then make a recommendation to the Vice-President, Research and Innovation regarding which application should be submitted to the NOHFC. Please note that preference will be given to applicants who have not held an NOHFC research internship in the past three years.

Eligible Candidates/Costs

Salaries/wages and employer’s portion of Mandatory Employment Related Costs (MERCs) (e.g.: Canada Pension Plan, Employment Insurance, mandatory minimum vacation pay) for a limited-term internship position of 52 weeks (with at least 35 hours of work per week) for candidates that:

• Are new entrants into the workforce, are transitioning to a new career, or the unemployed or underemployed who are entering a new field;

• Have not previously participated in a NOHFC-funded internship;

• Are at least 18 years of age; and

• Reside, and be legally entitled to work, in Canada.

• For the  Indigenous Workforce Development Stream:  Identify as an Indigenous person, including First Nation, Metis, or Inuit.  

Review Criteria

Applications will be reviewed according to the following criteria:

• The extent to which the position addresses a labour shortage or supports the development of a skilled trade or profession in Northern Ontario;

• The opportunity for the placement to result in a full-time, permanent job with the applicant or another Northern Ontario business;*

• The quality of the skill development opportunity and the potential for the position to provide specific and recognizable transferable skills, and 

• The quality of the position’s work/training plan and direct onsite supervision methods   

*Please note that applicants, in order to demonstrate the possibility of the internship resulting in permanent employment, must outline in their application:

• How the internship could result in a permanent job with the applicant, or

• How the skills and training acquired by the intern by working with the faculty member on the proposed project will make them more employable in a certain field or industry (please give specific examples from your project that will show what skills and training will be acquired by the intern).

Applications that indicate no employment opportunities will result, will be declared ineligible and removed from the internal competition.

Funding

For eligible municipalities, Indigenous communities and not-for-profit organizations, funding is in the form of a conditional contribution of up to 90% of an intern’s salary and employer’s portion of MERCs to a maximum of $35,000 per year. 

It is important to note that the applicant must provide the remaining 10% of the costs for the intern.  Therefore, when submitting your internship application to the Office of Research Services, a Research Proposal Approval Form (RAPF) must be included in the package.  A statement of where the required matching funds (including MERCs) will come from must be included in, or attached to the signed and completed RPAF as well (including the related internal budget code).  Applications submitted by the June 22, 2026 internal deadline without an RPAF will be considered ineligible in the internal competition. 

An Important Note on Research Internships

Please note that for a proposal to be considered as being a research internship, the application must be written so as to meet the NOHFC's definition of research:  

Q:  What is a research intern under the Internship Program?

A:   An employer applying for a research internship must engage in research activities as part of their mandate. NOHFC considers both pure (scientific) and applied research positions.

• Pure (scientific) research internships must contribute to the development of documents that are generated for public consumption and peer review.

• Applied research internships involve conducting studies and research that seeks to solve practical problems and find solutions to everyday problems. This often involves original investigation into the development of new technology, products, and services.

For the purpose of defining an applied research internship the following criteria must be met:

a)   The applicant must be involved in research aimed at developing a new technology and or products (i.e. a solution to everyday problem)

b)  The internship duties will focus on assisting the applicant organization in development and research of a new technology, products, or service.

Applicants are required to state in their submissions how they meet the NOHFC's criteria for a research internship. This would include a description regarding where the results of the research generated by the intern will be made available (i,.e, in a journal publication).  Applications that are not deemed to be research-related (i.e., the duties of the intern will be more administrative in nature instead of involving a research activity) will be considered ineligible in the internal competition. 

For More Information

 For more information about the NOHFC internship program, please click here.

 
Normally, one (1) prize is awarded annually in each of five (5) disciplines. The Killam Prize is valued at $100,000 CAD.  They are awarded annually, on a competitive basis, for research done in any of the following disciplines:

• Engineering
• Health sciences
• Humanities
• Natural sciences
• Social sciences

NSERC's Collaborative Research and Training Experience (CREATE) program supports the training and mentoring of teams of highly qualified students and postdoctoral fellows from Canada and abroad through the development of innovative training programs that:

• encourage collaborative and integrative approaches between large and medium or small sized institutions to address significant scientific challenges
• facilitate the transition of new researchers from trainees to productive employees in the Canadian workforce

For this year's competition, it is anticipated the NSERC CREATE program will include both the regular and international streams (please note that it is anticipated that as in the past, the international stream is linked to collaborating with researchers in Germany as well as the German research foundation, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)).* 

Institutions are all given an allotment of regular CREATE LOIs (the international stream will not count towards this allotment) that they can submit and that go directly to the full application stage.  Lakehead has one regular stream LOI in its allotment. However, when an institution submits a number of LOIs greater than its NSERC program allotment,  their LOIs will be evaluated by NSERC to determine which LOI will advance to the application stage. 

NEW - For the 2027 competition, NSERC will fund one additional CREATE initiative through quantum funding announced in Budget 2025 as part of the upcoming Defence Industrial Strategy (DIS). This initiative aims to advance the strategy’s workforce development priorities by supporting training opportunities that result in skilled and technologically proficient research trainees in areas including, but not limited to, quantum communications, quantum sensing, quantum materials, quantum computing, and quantum software. Applications will be evaluated through the normal CREATE peer review process, but applications should include "Quantum" in the title. LOIs submitted to the Quantum call are not included in each university’s allotment of LOIs advancing to the application stage. Each university can submit up to one LOI for the Quantum call. If more than one quantum expression of interest is received, an internal competition/review will need to be held to determine which Lakehead quantum LOI is submitted under Lakehead’s quota. All other quantum LOIs will be submitted under Lakehead’s regular stream (see above information).

If you intend to submit an LOI to this program, you  must notify the Office of Research Services (ahacquo1@lakeheadu.ca) by February 13, 2026 of your intention to apply to this opportunity

Given the highly competitive nature of the NSERC CREATE program and the requirement for institutional support, Principal Investigators will be required to work closely with assigned research facilitators from the conceptualization of the project proposal to final submission (this includes seeking support from co-applicant institutions).

The NSERC LOI submission deadline is May 1, 2026, and the full application deadline is September 22, 2026.

More details about the 2027 CREATE competition will be communicated at the information session for potential applicants on February 13, 2026. Updates to the CREATE program website for the 2027 CREATE competition will be posted in February 2026.

*International Research Training Groups (IRTG) – with DFG (Germany)

Submitting an application for the IRTG for a German-Canadian bilateral training program takes time but can be very rewarding, and the CREATE grant can be extended up to 9 years.  However, given the NSERC and DFG timelines, to apply to the NSERC Create competition in 2026, you will need to have an approved pre-proposal to DFG before the LOI deadline.  If you are starting now to develop the DFG proposal, you should expect to apply to the CREATE program next year at the earliest. The steps are:

1. Establish a collaboration with a research university in Germany
2. RECOMMENDED:  Team applies for a DFG grant (matching funds required) to conduct an IRTG preparatory workshop (either in Germany or Canada)
3. Team submits a pre-proposal (DFG calls it a “draft application”) to DFG at any time (no deadline) – review takes several months
4. If the DFG pre-proposal is successful: Submit the LOI to NSERC by the deadline of the next cycle.
5. If the LOI is successful: Submit full proposal to both DFG and NSERC. Both agencies must approve the proposal to be successful.

The Office of the Vice-President, Research and Innovation is inviting Expressions of Interest (EOIs) from faculty members interested in applying to the anticipated Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) Innovation Fund program call for applications.

CFI Innovation Fund - Overview
The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) Innovation Fund (IF) "supports a broad range of research programs including those in natural sciences and engineering, health, social sciences, humanities and the arts, as well as interdisciplinary research. Projects funded through the Innovation Fund will help Canada remain at the forefront of exploration and knowledge generation while making meaningful contributions to generating social, health, environmental and economic benefits and addressing global challenges, such as the ones defined by the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals."

Anticipated 2027 IF Competition/Institutional Allocations
It is anticipated that the CFI will release their full Call for Proposals for the 2027 Innovation Fund in the Spring of 2026.  Therefore, in order for Lakehead to maximize proposal development time and support for potential Innovation Fund applicants, in advance of the CFI Call for Proposals, the Office of Research Services is inviting Expressions of Interest (EOIs) from faculty members for potential CFI IF projects.  EOIs are being requested for both projects where Lakehead University is the lead applicant, as well as projects where Lakehead University researchers have been invited to participate in another university's application as co-applicants. Please note that this internal call for ideas is based on current information from the CFI and is therefore subject to change as new information is provided by the CFI in the future.  

The CFI limits the amount of funding an institution may request for the IF competition by providing each institution with a specific  envelope/allocation (for example, Lakehead University was allocated an institutional envelope of $4 million in the most recent IF competition). Although Lakehead’s allocation is not known at this time, it is anticipated that the allocation will be insufficient to allow the submission of all Lakehead's proposals. As a result, Lakehead University will therefore undertake an internal selection process which will begin with the submission of Expressions of Interest (EOIs).

Background on the Previous CFI Competition

In the previous IF 2025 competition, the main objectives of the IF were to:
• Enable internationally competitive research or technology development through the equitable participation of expert team members.
• Enhance the capacity of institutions to conduct the research or technology development program over the useful life of the infrastructure.
• Generate benefits for Canadians.

Under the previous IF call, an eligible infrastructure project involved the acquisition or development of research infrastructure for the purpose of increasing research capacity as well as supporting world-class research.  As well, under the previous IF call the CFI introduced three streams:

• Stream 1: Leading edge of exploration and knowledge generation (open) - This stream was open to proposals from all disciplines.
• Stream 2: Leading edge of exploration and knowledge generation in the social sciences, humanities and arts (SSHA) - To access this stream, the primary field of research had to be in the SSHA.
• Stream 3: Creation, renewal and upgrade of core facilities

It is not known if these previous streams will be used by the CFI in the next IF competition, but they are being included here for planning purposes.

 As well, in the previous competition, the CFI specified that total project costs were required to be greater than $1 million for proposals to be considered by the CFI.  For that competition, the CFI stated that it would fund up to 40 percent of a project’s eligible infrastructure costs with the Province of Ontario through the Ontario Research Fund contributing an additional 40% of eligible costs.  The remaining 20% was to be found from other sources by the researcher. Funds from CIHR, NSERC, SSHRC, as well as Tri-Council programs (e.g. the Networks of Centres of Excellence and the Canada Research Chairs) were not considered to be acceptable funding partners.

Submission of CFI IF EOIs

Interested teams are invited to submit their EOIs for potential IF projects  to the Office of Research Services (ahacquo1@lakeheadu.ca) by February 17, 2026. 

EOIs for potential IF project ideas should be no longer than three pages and contain the following information:

• Information on the lead institution, the proposed Principal Applicant and their proposed research team (including any potential team members at other institutions).
• The research to be undertaken as part of the proposed initiative, why it is innovative and how it would meet the criteria of the CFI IF program.
• Link of the proposed research to the priority areas of the Lakehead University Research Plan.
• In general, the proposed infrastructure, collaborating institutions and potential facility/space requirements of the proposed infrastructure. 
• Approximate cost of the proposed infrastructure.
• The space requirements of the requested infrastructure need to be described as well, whether the space has been secured or will need to be secured through the Faculty Dean or Lakehead University Space Committee.  In addition, teams are required to indicate if any renovations/new construction to the proposed space will be necessary (which will also therefore require matching funds).

Project Meetings

Upon receipt of the completed EOI package, a meeting will be arranged with each proposed research team and Lakehead University research administration to discuss:

• how the team's CFI IF proposal is innovative and timely;
• how the team intends to apply principles of equity, diversity and inclusion to all components of the proposal, including research design, team composition, and benefits to Canadians;
• why Lakehead should lead, or participate in (if led by another institution), this proposal; and
• next steps in Lakehead’s internal selection process.

For further information, please review the previous CFI IF call for proposals or contact  Andrew Hacquoil (ahacquo@lakeheadu.ca) in the Office of Research Services.

Lakehead University is pleased to again announce two programs in support of community-engaged research with community organizations, not-for-profit partners, as well as Indigenous communities and partners. We invite all tenure-track, tenured and three-year limited-term appointment Lakehead faculty members who are eligible to apply to the disciplines supported by SSHRC to submit applications to the 1) Community-Engaged Research Grant (CERG) Program, or 2) Indigenous Research Capacity Development Grant (IRCDG) Program. Applicants are not eligible to submit applications to both programs.  The deadline for applying is March 2, 2026.

The Vice-President, Research and Innovation (VPRI) is pleased to announce another call for proposals through the LUARS Agricultural Research Capacity Development Program.

Specific priority areas have been identified for this competition. While applications from outside these areas will be accepted, priority will be given to proposals that address one or more of the following topics:

• Best management practices (BMPs) in Northern Ontario Agriculture

• Greenhouse gas emissions, climate change, and the circular economy

• Increase of farm lands and farm viability

• Agricultural research and knowledge transfer co-developed with Indigenous communities

• Northern environmental sustainability

• Soil health

• Agri-business

Research projects that are based at LUARS and address the emerging regional research needs of the economy of Northwestern Ontario will receive priority.

Eligibility: The LUARS Agricultural Research Capacity Development Program is open to all full-time, tenure-track and tenured faculty members.

Grants Available: Up to $40,000 total per project will be available for projects ranging from 1-2 years. Projects that leverage matching funds from industry and community organizations are highly encouraged. Both cash and in-kind contributions will be considered eligible for matching.

Funds may be used to support the following:

1.    Research expenses, including supplies, materials, equipment, and travel;

2.    Stipends or salary support for the training of students; and

3.    Organization of workshops and conferences involving community partners with the goal of expanding LUARS-relevant research.

Deadline: Friday, January 9, 2026

All applications must be submitted through the Romeo Research Portal. Additional details and requirements can be found here. 

This program is funded in part by the governments of Canada and Ontario under the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership (Sustainable CAP), a five-year, federal-provincial-territorial initiative.

The annual Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Research Award recognizes outstanding research projects that promote equity, diversity and inclusion principles and activities.  Equity Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) in research is defined as the practice of ensuring that all individuals are respected and have equal opportunity to fully participate throughout the research process. EDI best practices are defined as the strategies and actions that researchers implement to create a fair, welcoming, and respectful environment for all research team members and partners, regardless of their background, identity, or personal characteristics. EDI best practices aim to ensure that everyone has equal opportunities to thrive, that diverse perspectives are valued, and that inclusive cultures are fostered.  This award recognizes initiatives advancing EDI strategies within a research project.  Deadline for applications: January 8, 2026.  For more information, please click here.