Sponsor

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC)

Program

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Network on Sustainable Agriculture in a Net-Zero Economy [1]

Description

Budget 2022 [2], in support of the 2030 Emissions Reduction Plan – Canada’s Next Steps for Clean Air and a Strong Economy [3], included a commitment to engage farmers in building a clean and prosperous future as part of immediate action towards climate mitigation.

On March 20^th, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada [4] (NSERC) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council [5] (SSHRC), in collaboration with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada [6] (AAFC), launched the NSERC-SSHRC Sustainable agriculture initiative [7] to help reinforce, coordinate and scale up Canada's domestic agriculture research capabilities through partnerships among universities, colleges and organizations from the private, public or not-for-profit sectors. 

In addition, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and Agriculture and Agrifood Canada (AAFC) have announced the launch of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Network on Sustainable Agriculture in a Net-Zero Economy.

This funding opportunity will support the establishment of a national research network that brings together social sciences and humanities researchers and practitioners from all sectors to enhance learning, expertise and knowledge sharing across Canada on studies in agriculture, climate change and environment. Its main objective is to support knowledge mobilization and partnership research on the social and socio-economic impacts of policy actions in agriculture pertaining to net-zero, behavioural and societal influences on agricultural practices and to inform approaches to scale up adoption of practices that support Canada’s environment and climate goals.

Eligibility

Please review Eligibility [8] for more information on subject matter, applicants, institutions, co-applicants, collaborators and partner organizations. 

Maximum Project Value

Value and Duration 

The grant offered under the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Network on Sustainable Agriculture in a Net-Zero Economy is valued at up to $300,000 for the first two years and up to $400,000 for the third and fourth years, followed by up to $600,000 for the last year for an overall total maximum of $2 million over five years. A one-year automatic grant extension without additional funding is also available under this joint initiative.

Institutional and partner organization contributions

Applicants must include a proposed plan to secure, over and above the budget requested from SSHRC, additional cash and/or in-kind contributions [9] from sources other than SSHRC during the life of the grant. SSHRC recognizes that the project can grow beyond the original planned amount as additional partner organizations become involved over the life of the grant.

For more information, see SSHRC’s Guidelines for Cash and In-Kind Contributions [10].

Indirect Costs

0% 

Project Duration

5 years

Special Notes

Equity, diversity and inclusion

All applicants to SSHRC opportunities are encouraged to consider equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in both research practice (EDI-RP) and research design (EDI-RD) [11].

EDI-RP involves promoting diversity in team composition and trainee recruitment; fostering an equitable, inclusive and accessible research work environment for team members and trainees; and highlighting diversity and equity in mentoring, training and access to development opportunities.

EDI-RD involves designing the research so that it takes EDI into account, through approaches such as intersectionality, antiracist frameworks, gender-based analysis plus (GBA+) and disaggregated data collection, and analysis that includes consideration of diversity and identity factors such as, but not limited to, age, culture, disability, education, ethnicity, gender expression and gender identity, immigration and newcomer status, Indigenous identity, language, neurodiversity, parental status/responsibility, place of origin, religion, race, sexual orientation and socio-economic status.

AAFC and SSHRC encourage projects to use GBA+ [12] and welcome applications involving Indigenous research [13] as well as those involving research-creation [14].

COVID-19

Please note that research activities carried out in the context of COVID-19 need to adhere to the University of Guelph COVID-19 research principles, policies, guidelines and processes as they may be updated from time to time and communicated on the Office of Research web-page [15].

How to Apply

See Completing the Application [16] for information on the application sections in the Convergence Portal. 

Information For Co-applicants

If you need to meet a deadline set by the lead institution for this opportunity, please ensure that you provide the Research Services Office with at least five days in advance of the lead institution’s deadline, to review the application, or your proposed component of the project. Please be in touch with the Research Services Office (contact information below) ahead of the deadline if it looks like it will be difficult for you to submit all the required documentation on time (i.e. budget, proposal, OR-5 Form).