New Initiative Offers Grants for Canadian Research on Research

Canada’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the British Columbia-based Michael Smith Health Research BC have launched a joint initiative to support research on research in conjunction with the London-based Research on Research Institute, or RORI. The initiative aims to enhance Canada’s capacity for research on research, known as meta-research, and to bring Canadian expertise and perspectives into the international dialogue on improving research funding.

Through the initiative, the three agencies expect to fund nine grants up to C$200,000 each over three years for applicants affiliated with eligible Canadian institutions. The deadline to apply is February 20, 2025.

The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) website defines metaresearch (also known in different contexts as research on research, metascience or the science of science “as a field of research that draws on old and new disciplinary and methodological approaches to test, evaluate and experiment with different aspects of research systems, cultures and decision-making. It aims to ensure the full potential of research can be realized in ways that are rigorous, transparent, fair and evidence-informed.” It adds that metaresearch can be conducted in any discipline or field.

As a guide to the sorts of research the initiative might fund, several possibilities are offered:

• research on talent and professional development, including studying the effectiveness of interventions in: training and skills, talent retention, encouragement of entrepreneurship, and/or training and professional development assessment methods in research contexts
• research on allocation of research funding, including different peer review methodologies and different modes of funding (e.g., scholarships, fellowships, research grants), and their impacts on the distribution of research funds and associated research and career outcomes
• research integrity, including issues of reproducibility and the impact of interventions such as preregistration, open data, research data management, and reproducible code
• research on research infrastructure, including physical, digital and human infrastructures
• improving the dissemination of research outputs and their impact, including the role of technology transfer offices, varying publication practices, conferences and knowledge dissemination platforms
• understanding research impact, including improving the nuance with which the impact of research projects and programs can be defined and measured, and under what conditions various approaches to research facilitate meaningful use of evidence
• understanding the impacts of AI on the research ecosystem
• research conducted by, grounded in or engaged with First Nations, Inuit, Métis or other Indigenous nations, communities, societies or individuals
• research on research creation

However, the initiative will not offer grants to projects whose primary objective is curriculum development, preparation of teaching materials, organization of a conference or workshop, digitization of a collection or creation of a database.