Research Support Fund

• The applicant must be a Canadian postsecondary institution or its affiliated research hospital or institute.
• The institution must have received research funding from one of the three federal research funding agencies (CIHR, NSERC, or SSHRC) in one of the three most recent fiscal years.
• The institution must be authorized by a provincial or territorial government to grant its own university degrees, applied degrees, or postsecondary diplomas.
• The institution must have conferred degrees in the two years before applying, or will confer degrees in the application year or the following three years.
• The applicant institution must be not-for-profit and must not receive operating funding through any other institution.

Who is eligible?

• Canadian postsecondary institutions
• Affiliated research hospitals
• Affiliated research institutes

Who is not eligible

• For-profit organizations and private companies.
• Organizations that are not Canadian postsecondary institutions or their affiliated research hospitals and institutes.
• Institutions that receive operating funding through another institution.
• Institutions that are not authorized to grant their own degrees or diplomas.

Eligible expenses

• Salaries for staff or students providing administrative support to research projects.
• Training costs related to workplace health and safety, and the promotion of equity, diversity and inclusion initiatives.
• Costs for the maintenance and operation of libraries and laboratories.
• Administrative costs for obtaining patents for inventions.
• Expenses for research facilities and equipment necessary for federally funded research.
• Costs for up-to-date knowledge resources and research databases.
• Management and administrative expenses tied to the institution’s research enterprise.
• Costs to meet regulatory and ethical standards.
• Expenses for intellectual property management and knowledge transfer to external sectors.

Eligible geographic areas

• Canadian postsecondary institutions and their affiliated organizations.

• The RSF program is administered by the Tri-agency Institutional Programs Secretariat (TIPS) within SSHRC.
• Institutions must re-apply annually to receive continued funding support.
• The RSF grants are awarded for a single year and institutions must meet reporting requirements to remain eligible.
• Affiliated organizations must have formal agreements in place to be included in the grant calculation.