Global Centres aim to encourage and support international, interdisciplinary collaborative research centres that will develop use-inspired research to address global challenges. The topic for the 2024 competition is addressing global challenges through the bioeconomy.

This is a joint initiative between the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), the National Science Foundation of the United States of America (NSF), the National Endowment for the Humanities of the United States of America (NEH), the Research Council Finland (RCF), the Innovation Funding Agency Business Finland (BF), the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF), the Ministry of Science and Information and Communication Technology of the Republic of Korea (MSIT), and the United Kingdom Research and Innovation (UKRI) Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).

Global Centres proposals should be focused on cutting-edge, interdisciplinary and use-inspired research on the bioeconomy with international collaborations that foster breakthroughs in knowledge. This initiative supports researchers from Canada and the US, and optionally from Finland, Japan, Republic of Korea and/or the UK, in forming collaborative research partnerships to address themes related to the bioeconomy (see Research topics). NSF Global Centres grants will support the creation of international hubs of research excellence that advance knowledge, empower communities, and generate discovery and innovative solutions at a regional and/or global scale.

These international hubs are expected to be driven by a bold vision for high-impact, use-inspired research, as well as a strategy to integrate diverse perspectives from different disciplines, international partners and other stakeholders into the research over the course of the project.

Through a lead agency model, the US Principal Investigator (PI) will submit a single collaborative proposal on behalf of the research team, which will undergo a review process by NSF, the lead agency. In parallel, the participating Canadian researchers on the team must submit one simplified application to NSERC. Please refer to the Apply section for more details.

• Create physical or virtual international research centres that advance innovative, interdisciplinary, use-inspired research and education on the bioeconomy to address societal challenges through international collaboration and multi-stakeholder engagement.
• Promote international collaboration to obtain advantages of scope, scale, flexibility, expertise, facilities and/or access to specific geographic locations to enable advances that could not occur otherwise.
• Expand opportunities for students and early career researchers to gain education and training in world-class research while enhancing diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility. Where possible, provide opportunities for workforce training in bioeconomy that does not require advanced degrees but the training of a competitive workforce.
• Integrate stakeholders and community members into the planning of the research so that centres reflect a co-designed and co-developed work plan that results in the co-generation of results likely to be taken up by relevant groups to solve urgent societal challenges at a regional or global scale to support the communities that they serve.

 For more information, please contact Jill Sherman at intl.research@lakeheadu.ca.

Researchers are invited to apply for a new grant funding opportunity sponsored by Canadian Forces Health Services Director of Women and Diversity Health (D WDH) to conduct a focused, comprehensive and/or multivariable analysis using the Canadian Armed Forces Health Survey (CAFHS 2019) data to examine health trends and factors affecting Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) women and gender-diverse members. There is potential for up to three research proposals to be funded.

The Institute is pleased to announce the re-launch of our flagship Rapid Response program, which is designed to provide seed funding to catalyze novel, high-risk, high-reward translational research for neurodegenerative disease of aging (NDAs).  

Eligible projects should:

• Be translational research that can accelerate therapeutic or tool development for NDAs, as defined by the Institute.
  • Therapeutics should address unmet needs in the prevention, treatment and/or symptomatic management of NDAs. 
  • Tools should address challenges in translational research to accelerate the development and/or clinical implementation of therapeutics for NDAs (e.g., biomarkers, drug delivery systems).  
• Have preliminary data to support the hypothesis and feasibility of the project.

Funding per project: Up to $300,000 over 18-24 months

Important dates:

• Program information session:  April 2, 2024 (register here).
• Letter of Intent deadline: April 30, 2024 (Apply here: https://westonfdn.smartsimple.ca/)
• Award announcement: November 2024

For more information about this program, including details on project and applicant eligibility, Institute definitions, program review criteria and expected project outcomes, please visit our website to access the RFA, the Program Details document and the Letter of Intent template. 

Blood transfusions are used as a life-saving intervention in military and civilian health care systems. On the battlefield deaths are classified as non-survivable or survivable, with hemorrhage being the leading, preventable, cause of death in the latter category. The ability to resuscitate a traumatic hemorrhagic soldier as fast as possible is crucial for survivability. Blood transfusion is vital to this resuscitation.

A critical requirement in any blood transfusion is to match the blood types of the donor and recipient to avoid fatal ABO incompatibilities. While A and B blood can only be donated to people of the same type, O type blood can be given to anyone without significant concerns of hemolytic reactions. This results in high demands on O type blood, often resulting in short supply. Ways of improving the supply of O type blood are urgently needed to address this problem.

Veterans Affairs Canada is seeking proposals for research focused on the experiences and impacts of interpersonal violence affecting Veterans and their families. The proposed research should consider the unique experiences of military members, Veterans and their families as well as how mental health-related factors may intersect with these experiences.

The following factors should be central to the proposed investigation: how military service-related factors may be associated with the occurrence and impacts of interpersonal violence, the impacts of interpersonal violence within familial relationships, and considerations of sex, gender, and other intersectionality factors.

As part of its efforts to foster the next generation of defence and security scholars, MINDS supports undergraduate and master’s students interested in defence and security through the Young MINDS Initiative.

These grants are valued at $10,000 and must be linked to the MINDS policy challenges.

Interested candidates must be enrolled in an undergraduate or master’s program at an accredited university, and  pursuing a degree in political science, history, international relations, public policy, economics, or be able to demonstrate that their field of study is relevant to defence and security studies. Applicants should be sponsored by a professional academic or recognized expert in the field.

MINDS supports the development and provision of timely, relevant and well-rounded policy advice based on insights from the expert community to better anticipate and understand potential threats to Canada and Canadian interests.

The Targeted Engagement Grant Program provides non-recurring financial support, up to a maximum of $50,000 to fund projects such as conferences, roundtables, workshops, research, and publications. There are two competitions every year, generally in the Spring and Fall.

Requests for funding are assessed primarily on relevance to DND/CAF defence policy challenges, the use of Gender-Based Analysis Plus (GBA+), as well as innovation and the creative use technology.

In support of Canada’s Methane Centre of Excellence, the Energy Innovation Program’s Methane Measurement and Mitigation Call responds to the urgent need to reduce methane emissions in this decade, alongside deep cuts in CO₂, to achieve the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global temperature increases to 1.5^oC above pre-industrial levels. It will invest in Canadian expertise to accelerate development of more effective knowledge and technologies for methane measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV), as well as the mitigation or elimination of methane emissions in Canada. The Call has two focus areas: