Internal Call for Proposals: Inaugural Robbins-Ollivier Award for Excellence in Equity

Lakehead University has been invited by the Canada Research Chairs program (CRCP) to submit nominations to the new Robbins-Ollivier Award for Excellence in Equity.

About the Award 

This new annual award recognizes the contributions that Marjorie Griffin Cohen, Louise Forsyth, Glenis Joyce, Audrey Kobayashi, Shree Mulay, Susan Prentice, Michèle Ollivier and Wendy Robbins have made through their 2003 Canadian Human Rights complaints and related efforts.  Their efforts have resulted in an increase in the level of equity both in the CRCP and Canada’s research ecosystem more broadly. 

The objectives of the annual Robbins-Ollivier equity award are as follows:

• fund bold and potentially game-changing projects that will challenge the status quo, spark change and take action to address persistent systemic barriers in the research ecosystem and academia;
• recognize faculty members who contribute their time, expertise and lived experience to help address inequities in their institution, the research ecosystem and academia; and
• provide opportunities for students and trainees to contribute to this important work.

Value of the Award

The award provides a total of $100,000 over one year to a faculty member or a team of faculty members nominated by their institution, to fund the implementation of bold and potentially game-changing research led by the nominated individual or team that:

• contributes to the understanding of the persistence of systemic barriers in the nominating institution and/or the research ecosystem and academia more broadly; and
• identifies innovative measures that could be implemented to change the status quo and break down those barriers in the long term.

Eligibility

To be eligible for nomination, the faculty member(s) must:

• be eligible to receive grant funding from the tri-agencies;
• be holding a full-time academic appointment at the institution at the time of nomination and for the duration of the award; and
• be in good standing with CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC (e.g., they cannot have eligibility limits placed on them due to not meeting grant reporting requirements for the CRCP or have sanctions in place tied to the agencies’ responsible conduct of research policy).

Current and former Canada Research Chairs (CRCs) are eligible, as are individuals who are not CRCs. Institutional administrators who are eligible to hold grant funding from the agencies are also eligible to be nominated.

Internal Procedure 

As institutions may only submit one nomination for this award per year, faculty members who are interested in being nominated for this award are asked to submit the following parts of the registration package to Andrew Hacquoil, Institutional Research Facilitator, by email (ahacquo1@lakeheadu.ca):

• a) Description of the proposed project (4 pages maximum for English; 5 pages maximum for French); 
• b) Budget (1 page maximum); 
• c) Short summary of each of their overall contributions to and leadership in addressing inequities at Lakehead and/or the research ecosystem and academia more broadly, in alignment with the program's selection criteria; and
• d) At least one Letter of Support providing evidence in support of (c)

The deadline for the submission of these components will be May 30, 2022.  The Vice-President Research and Innovation will establish an internal peer review committee to determine which applicant or team will be nominated.  The internal peer committee will include individuals representing equity seeking groups and representation from the Office of Human Rights and Equity.

For More Information (Including Upcoming Webinars)

For additional information on the award and nomination requirements, please see the following link.

The CRC Secretariat will host webinars on the following dates to answer questions.  Interested researchers are encouraged to attend the webinar.