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New Frontiers in Research Fund - Transformation 2026 Competition

Please notify Raluca Dubrowski of your intent to submit an NOI by March 14, 2025.

Description:

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:

  1. Tackle a well-defined problem or challenge;
  2. Propose a novel world-leading approach that is different from the current state-of-the-art approaches to the issue;
  3. Are interdisciplinary, bringing different perspectives to the defined problem; and
  4. 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.

Deadlines:

The Transformation competition has three stages:

  1. Notice of Intent to Apply (NOI) with a deadline of April 15, 2025 (at 8 p.m. ET)
  2. Letter of Intent (LOI) with a deadline of June 17, 2025 (at 8 p.m. ET)
  3. Full Application – by invitation only – with a deadline of March 3, 2026 (at 8 p.m. ET)

Value:

Transformation grants are valued at between $2,000,000 and $4,000,000 per year (including indirect costs) for six years. The minimum budget for the direct costs of the research project is $1,600,000 per year, and the maximum budget is $3,200,000. Applicants must request a budget (value and duration) in line with the objectives of the project.

Indirect Costs:

Applicants may request up to 25% of the value of the direct costs of research to cover indirect costs and include this in their total funding request.

Duration:

6 years

How to Apply:

To apply for a Transformation grant, an NOI must be submitted by April 15, 2025. This is a mandatory step in the application process. The team must then complete and submit an LOI by June 17, 2025. Selected teams will be invited to complete and submit a full application by March 3, 2026. Applicants must complete the NOI, LOI and full application using the Convergence Portal following the accompanying NOI, LOI and full application submission guides.

To start the application process, please notify Raluca Dubrowski (Raluca Dubrowski) of your intent to submit an NOI by March 14 2025.

Program Information:

Applicants are encouraged to attend the Transformation webinars to learn more about the Transformation stream and the overall application process. Webinars are recorded and shared with the research grants offices at the institutions.  

Notice of Intent Webinar

French Webinar: March 11, 2025 at 10 a.m.(eastern) -  Join webinar

English Webinar: March 11, 2025 at 1 p.m.(eastern) -  Join webinar

Letter of Intent Webinar

French Webinar: May 6, 2025 from 10 a.m. to noon (eastern) - Join webinar

English Webinar: May 6, 2025 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. (eastern) - Join webinar

Eligibility:

Subject Matter

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.

Project team

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. 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.

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 (February 2025 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.

Resources:

Contact:

Please direct any questions to Raluca Dubrowski