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Tri-Agency New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF) – 2024 Exploration Competition

Sponsor/Agency: NFRF

Program: Exploration Competition

Description:

The goal of the Exploration stream is to inspire high-risk, high-reward and interdisciplinary research.

Exploration grants support research that pushes boundaries into exciting new areas. Researchers are encouraged to think “outside of the box,” undertake research that would defy current paradigms, and bring disciplines together in unexpected ways and from bold, innovative perspectives. With the Exploration stream, there is recognition that innovation often carries risk; proposals for high-risk research projects that have the potential to deliver game-changing impacts are strongly encouraged.

Exploration stream grants support projects that:

  • bring disciplines together beyond traditional disciplinary or common interdisciplinary approaches;
  • propose to explore something new, which might fail; and
  • have the potential for significant impact.

*NEW this round*

  • There are no notable changes. The 2024 competition will continue with two stages: Notice of intent to apply (NOI) and full application. The Tri-Agency Guide on Financial Administration serves as the general guidelines for eligibility of expenses and use of funds related to the direct costs of research. Exceptions to those policies for Exploration grants are noted in the competition overview.

Deadline:

Notice of Intent (NOI) (not adjudicated):

Mandatory ORS deadline to submit your NOI in the Convergence Portal (no RGA required): Monday, August 19, 2024 at 9 a.m.

Agency Deadline: Tuesday, August 27, 2024 (at 8 p.m. Eastern Time)

 

Full Application:

ORS deadline for comprehensive review: TBD 

ORS deadline for administrative review - mandatory: TBD

ORS deadline to submit in Convergence Portal (and send RGA form): TBD

Agency Deadline: Tuesday, November 5, 2024 (at 8 p.m. Eastern Time) 

 

Value:

Up to $125,000 per year ($100,000 for direct costs; $25,000 for overhead)

Competition Budget:

A minimum of $25M over two years

Duration:

Up to two years

Number of Grants:

A minimum of 100

A proportion of awards equal to the proportion of applications received from early career researchers will be reserved for them.

Results Aannounced:

By March 31, 2025

Grant Start Date:

March 31, 2025

How to Apply:

All applicants must complete the notice of intent to apply and submit a full application.

See the Notice of Intent to Apply Guide and the Full Application Guide for more information. Other useful resources to assist in the completion of your application include Best Practices in Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Research and the evaluation matrices.

For More Information:

Consult the program website, FAQs or contact Raluca Dubrowski

Eligibility:

Researchers at all career stages are invited to apply to this round.

To encourage projects that push the boundaries in terms of interdisciplinarity, proposals must be submitted by research teams with at least two individuals. In addition to a nominated principal investigator (NPI), the team must include either a co-principal investigator (co-PI) or a co-applicant. Teams may include one co-PI and any number of co-applicants and/or collaborators.

To ensure that Exploration grants support high-risk, high-reward projects across the broadest spectrum of disciplines, individuals can participate in only one application of the NFRF Exploration grants stream at a time, as either an NPI, co-PI or co-applicant. If an NPI, co-PI or co-applicant also had such a role on a previous Exploration grant-funded project, they must have submitted their final report for the previous project at least one month before the full application deadline for the present competition. These restrictions do not apply to collaborators, to the NFRF Transformation and International streams, or to special calls. An individual may simultaneously apply for or be an award holder as NPI, co-PI or co-applicant for grants under separate streams (Exploration, Transformation, International and special calls).

A proposal is considered to be led by early career researchers (ECRs) if both the NPI and co-PI (if applicable) are ECRs. An ECR is a researcher within five years from 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 day of the month in which the competition is launched (May 1, 2024, for this Exploration competition).

Subject Matter

Exploration grants support projects that are high risk, high reward and interdisciplinary. They may involve disciplines, thematic areas, approaches or subject areas eligible for funding across the three agencies.  Applications are encouraged from all Faculties.

To meet the minimum requirement to be considered interdisciplinary, a proposed research project must combine elements from at least two different disciplines (as defined by a group-level classification based on the Canadian Research and Development Classification). Note that projects that integrate two disciplines with a long and established tradition of working together (e.g., biology and chemistry or psychology and education) may satisfy the above requirement but not meet the expectations of the program. The onus is on the applicant to explain the novelty of the interdisciplinary approach to justify the fit to program. Interdisciplinarity is evaluated by a multidisciplinary review panel.

Applications for projects that are the same or similar, in whole or in part, to ones that have been funded by other federal research granting agency programs should not be submitted to the NFRF program. Applications for projects the same as or similar to projects that have been unsuccessful in receiving funding from other agency programs may be submitted to the NFRF program in cases where the lack of success is due to the high-risk and/or interdisciplinary nature of the project, rather than limited funds in a highly competitive pool.

Webinar:

In preparation for the NOI deadline, all applicants interested in submitting a NOI are encouraged to participate in one of the two upcoming webinars. Webinars will be recorded and they will be made available along with the presentation slides to the research administrators after the session. 

NFRFE-2024 - NOI Webinar (English)
Wednesday, May 22, 2024, 1 p.m. | (UTC-04:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)
Join link Webinar number: 2346 543 2566
Webinar password: xHQ5D3uX8mm
(94753389 from phones and video systems)
Join by phone: +1 438.797.4001 Canada Toll (Montreal), Access code: 234 654 32566
 
FNFRE-2024 - Webinaire Avis d'intention (French)
Wednesday, May 22, 2024, 10 a.m. | (UTC-04:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)
Join link
Webinar number: 2340 187 8916
Webinar password:  WFwnC7gPr82
(93962747 from phones and video systems)
Join by phone: +1 438.797.4001 Canada Toll (Montreal), Access code: 234 018 78916.
 

Resources: