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NSERC-SSHRC Sustainable Agriculture Research Initiative

Sponsor/Agency: NSERC-SSHRC

Program: Sustainable Agriculture Research Initiative

Description:

This initiative is a joint effort between the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), in collaboration with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC). This initiative will 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. This partnership will fund multidisciplinary, collaborative networks of researchers, mobilizing expertise and technologies in the social and natural sciences, engineering and in areas that broaden the traditional network of agriculture research partners.

This funding will support both fundamental and applied research to accelerate transformative alternative practices, technologies and their adoptions, as well as to and build reliable and consistent measurement tools and performance metrics.

Research Objectives and Topics

Objectives:

  • Support fundamental and applied research to develop a technical path to a more sustainable and resilient agricultural sector in a net-zero economy.
  • Develop metrics to better understand and report on environment and climate impacts of different production systems and of producers' efforts in adopting innovative practices.
  • Improve ways to transfer science and technology knowledge effectively to the agricultural sector, with a view to accelerate change.

Proposals should focus on developing transformative solutions towards significant reduction of agriculture GHG emissions and propose research required to develop a technical path to a sustainable and resilient sector in a net-zero economy, in research topics such as, but not limited to:

  1. Identification of practices and technologies to enable the sector to sequester carbon effectively (e.g., nature-based climate solutions or technologies that enhance soil carbon sequestration)
  2. Alternative input management tools and technologies (e.g., novel pesticides/fertilizers, improved delivery methods, precision agriculture)
  3. Innovative plant health solutions that reduce the need for added amendments (e.g., biofertilizers, plant gene-editing, nanotechnology)
  4. Diverse production systems (crop, soil, livestock, grassland and nutrient management systems) that maximize environmental outcomes in future climate change scenarios
  5. Development and testing of improved methane and nitrous oxide emission factors, measurement tools and models
  6. Fundamental socio-economic and behavioral research towards increased adoption of practices and technologies that support greenhouse gas mitigation in the agriculture and agri-food sector
  7. Development of metrics to better understand and report on environment and climate impacts, including biophysical and socio-economic

 More detail about the NSERC-SSHRC Sustainable agriculture research initiative and application process can be found in the call for proposals.

Deadline:

Please notify your Grants Officer as soon as possible if you are planning on applying.

Preparatory Funding Requests Internal Deadline: Please send your Grants Officer the application for the Preparatory Funding Request along with the RGA by May 1, 2023.

Full Application Internal Deadline: Please send your grants officer the full application along with the RGA by October 4, 2023.

Preparatory Funding Request:

Sponsor Deadline: May 8, 2023

To facilitate partnerships and build successful multidisciplinary and multi-sectoral collaborations required to establish strong teams and relevant proposals, preparatory funds are available to NSERC- and SSHRC-eligible researchers. Up to $50,000 can be requested to support application-related expenses. Only one application for preparatory funding can be submitted per team and it is expected that ~20 awards will be available. The award start date for preparatory funds is expected to be June 1, 2023.

Preparatory funds may be used for application-related expenses, such as:

  • Meetings costs (the use of conference calls is encouraged whenever possible)
  • Travel and accommodation expenses of academic participants as well as local community advisors, such as Indigenous elders or agricultural producers, for any face-to-face meetings required to develop the proposal (partner organizations are expected to demonstrate commitment to the project by covering their own costs)
  • Communication, secretarial, clerical and coordination services over and above what is available from the universities involved and the partner organizations; salaries of technical writers may be requested but only up to a maximum of $15,000

Preparatory Funding Instructions

Log in to NSERC's online system and choose Create a new form 101.

  1. Select Research partnerships programs, then Alliance grants.
  2. For the Proposal type field, select Letter of intent.
  3. For the Type of call field, select Preparatory funds for sustainable agriculture from the drop-down menu.

Taking into account the information for preparatory funding as outlined in the Funding section, complete the other required sections of your application. Your request for preparatory funding should include:

  • your summary for public release and ten keywords
  • details on fit to the initiative, and the team, including the names of two or more co-applicants and potential partners (maximum 2 pages)
  • a list of other sources of support and the amounts provided (if applicable)
  • how the funds will be used (budget and budget justification)
  • a form 100A and CCV for the applicant

Full Application:

Sponsor Deadline: November 8, 2023

Full Application Instructions
  1. Log in to NSERC's online system and choose Create a new form 101.
  2. Select Research partnerships programs, then Alliance grants.
  3. For the Proposal type field, select Full proposal.
  4. For the Type of call field, select Sustainable agriculture from the drop-down menu.
  5. Following the instructions for completing an Alliance grant application, fill out the proposal template and complete the other sections of your application. Delete the Public impact value proposition section from the proposal template. It does not apply to the Sustainable agriculture research initiative.
  6. Submit your completed application and supporting documents, including a personal data form with CCV attachment for the applicant and all co-applicants, via NSERC's online system. Your partner organization's contact person will be invited through the online system to provide information about their organization following the Alliance grants partner organization instructions.

Value:

Grant support from this initiative will range from $500,000 to $2,000,000 per year, for four years. NSERC and SSHRC will provide support for 100% of the eligible costs of research.

Note: Although partner organizations do not need to provide cash contributions to participate, they must actively play a role in the research project and support it through in-kind contributions.

Duration:

4 years

Applications for projects less than four years will not be accepted.

Partnership Requirements:

Grants awarded as part of this initiative will support large-scale proposals, and so applicants are encouraged to involve researchers across several universities, colleges and disciplines, and to include multiple partner organizations in their application.

To maximize the potential impact, benefits and knowledge mobilization of the research, at least one partner organization is required, however, collaboration with additional partner organizations is encouraged. Even though NSERC and SSHRC will cover 100% of the project's eligible costs, you must include at least one partner organization (from the private, public or not-for-profit sectors) whose cash contributions would have been recognized for cost sharing (see Alliance grants: Role of partner organizations for more details).

How to Apply:

Each applicant and co-applicant must create an account in NSERC's online system if they do not already have one. All applicants and co-applicants must complete and submit a form 100A, following the relevant instructions to be included in the application. Social sciences and humanities researchers may use research subject code 8000 when indicating their expertise.

NSERC and SSHRC will review all proposals to determine which agency's research areas they fall under. NSERC will provide funding for research primarily in the natural sciences and engineering fields, while SSHRC will support research primarily in the social sciences and humanities fields. NSERC funding will be provided as an Alliance grant, while SSHRC funding will be provided as a Partnership-type grant.

Note: It is not necessary to apply for or receive preparatory funding in May to be eligible to put in a full proposal in November.

 

Eligibility:

Canadian university researchers from the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences or engineering fields, may apply for this funding opportunity. Specifically, eligible Canadian university researchers must apply as part of a team with two or more eligible co-applicants. To be an applicant or co-applicant, you must be working in a research area supported by NSERC or SSHRC and you must meet NSERC's eligibility requirements at the time of application. 

You are limited to one application as the applicant, but you can be a co-applicant or collaborator on more than one application.

For More Information:

Contact your Grants Officer or reach out directly to alliance_agriculture@nserc-crsng.gc.ca.