< Opportunities | Monday, January 24, 2022

Ignite Grant

3 students at a laptop in a study room Opportunity Overlay

The Ignite grant is an initiative of U of T’s Black Research Network (BRN) developed to provide annual small-scale research funding to support Black faculty, librarians, and post-doctoral scholars working broadly in any disciplinary category at the University of Toronto.

The Ignite grant will offer awards of $5,000 – $10,000 towards research training, research dissemination and research support. Please see examples of expense items eligible and ineligible for the IGNITE grant below:

Eligible:

  • Research training and networking e.g. professional development offerings for trainees
  • Research dissemination e.g. publications, workshop and academic conference participation fees
  • Research support e.g. travel costs to academic/research conferences, travel for invited speakers or visiting scholars, consumables and supplies for research activities, trainee (student or postdocs) stipends/fellowships are eligible

Ineligible:

  • Equipment for training or research 
  • Teaching relief
  • Contract research (i.e. fees paid to outside organizations to pay for research activities
  • Admin fees, salaries or overhead payments

Eligibility for the Ignite grant

  • The award is open to all faculty, librarians, and postdoctoral scholars at the University of Toronto:
    • Who identify as Black
    • Work in any disciplinary category (any research discipline) 
    • Based in any of the UofT campuses
  • Funding requests must be within the award range of $5,000 – $10,000
  • Funding requests must fall within the following categories: 
    • research support
    • research dissemination
    • research training and networking
  • Planned activities must be scheduled to take place or be completed within one year of receipt of the award
  • If applying for travel support that involves travelling outside of Canada, ensure compliance with the Government of Canada travel advice on the Global Affairs Canada website and U of T policies and procedures.

Evaluation 

Applications that meet the eligibility criteria above will be adjudicated through a competitive review process and funding decisions will be based on recommendations of the adjudication committee. 

Evaluation Criteria and Scoring 

  • Purpose for funding (50%): relevance of the requested funding to applicant’s research outcomes must be clearly articulated 
  • Budget (25%): a detailed budget outline along with clear justifications for planned expenses in relation to the research, must be provided on the application form  
  • Timelines (25%): feasibility of timelines of activities 

Application Process 

All interested applicants are required complete the Black Researchers Ignite Grant: Online Application Form by the deadline on Monday, February 21, 2022 by 11:59pm EST 
The online form will include the following: 

  • 1000-word (max) description of your research 
  • Purpose for requested funding 
  • Budget outline and justification 
  • Activity timelines 
  • Current CV 

 Important dates:
Application opens: January 28, 2022
Application closes: 11:59pm ET on February 21, 2022
Results announced: April

Contact Us:
If you have any questions or require any clarifications, please do not hesitate to email us at BRN@utoronto.ca

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