SSHRC Partnership Grants—Stage 1

Aboriginal Peoples

Arctic and Northern Regions

Community, Regional & Enterprise Development

Creative Arts, Culture and Heritage

Environment, Energy and Natural Resources

Governance and Public Policy

Information and Communication Technology

Oceans, Fisheries and Aquaculture

Social Justice

Well-being, Health and Biomedical Discovery

Deadlines

Academic Unit: Inquire with unit

Memorial Deadline: Tuesday 3rd, February 2026

External Deadline: Tuesday 10th, February 2026

Description

RIS will be offering support with application development for this opportunity. Prospective applicants are encouraged to contact Jennifer Stevens (v5js@mun.ca) or Amanda Crompton (ajcrompt@mun.ca) early during the development process to discuss the services available to them.

Partnership Grants are expected to respond to the objectives of the Research partnerships program. Proposals exclusively for partnered research training initiatives are expected to respond, instead, to the objectives of the Research training and talent development program.

These grants provide support for new and existing formal partnerships over four to seven years to advance research, research training and/or knowledge mobilization in the social sciences and humanities. This is done through mutual cooperation and sharing of intellectual leadership, as well as through resources such as cash and/or in-kind contributions.

Partnership Grants are intended for large teams of postsecondary institutions and/or organizations of various types that work in formal collaboration.

The quality of training, mentoring and employability plans for students and emerging scholars will be evaluated as an important part of the proposed initiative. SSHRC’s Guidelines for effective research training explain how students and emerging scholars can meaningfully participate in proposed initiatives.

The intellectual leadership and governance for a new or existing formal partnership can come from the research community and/or partner organizations from the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. However, only an institution that meets the institutional eligibility requirements can administer the grant funding. For more information, see Eligibility.

SSHRC’s Partnerships Tool-Kit offers tools and resources to assist in the planning and implementation of your partnership.

Types of partnerships

There are two categories of partnerships that can request support:

• existing partnerships to foster new research and/or research-related partnership activities that are distinct from the partnership’s previous/ongoing partnership activities; and
• new partnerships to foster new research and/or research-related partnership activities that are undertaken by partnerships in their initial stages.

Here is a list of possible formal partnership approaches. Applicants are not limited to these approaches and are welcome to combine some of the features described below:

• Disciplinary and interdisciplinary research partnerships: Interinstitutional research initiatives designed to make a significant contribution to advancing knowledge and understanding in the social sciences and/or humanities. While SSHRC welcomes proposals for interdisciplinary research partnerships involving natural sciences, engineering and/or health partner organizations, proposed partnerships must follow SSHRC’s subject matter eligibility guidelines.
• Cross-sector co-creation of knowledge and understanding: These partnerships use ongoing collaboration and mutual learning to foster innovative research, training and the co-creation of new knowledge on critical issues of intellectual, social, economic and cultural significance.
• Networks for research and/or related activities: These networks are designed to advance the innovative co-creation of knowledge, as well as training and mobilization of research, on critical issues of intellectual, social, economic and cultural significance.
• Partnered knowledge mobilization: These partnerships are designed to synthesize, apply and mobilize new and existing social sciences and humanities research knowledge in accessible ways to build institutional capacity and increase the national and international impact and stature of Canadian research.
• Partnered chairs: These partnerships nominate research chairs designed to advance research and/or related activities in a specific social sciences and/or humanities area. Partner organizations pool financial resources and suggest an amount of funds required from SSHRC. Proposals must show that a formal agreement exists between the partner organizations to maintain the chair position for a minimum of four years. Proposals must include the name of the suggested chairholder. For more information, see SSHRC’s Guidelines for partnered chairs.
• Partnered research centres: These partnerships create or support a research centre designed to advance research and/or related activities in a specific social sciences and/or humanities area. Partner organizations pool financial resources and suggest an amount of funds required from SSHRC. Proposals must demonstrate that a formal agreement exists between the partner organizations to maintain the centre for a minimum of four years.
• Partnered research training initiatives: These partnerships are designed to support the creation of innovative approaches that enrich research training experiences for students and postdoctoral researchers while enabling their transition to academic or non-academic workplace settings. For more information, see SSHRC’s Guidelines for partnered research training initiatives. These guidelines apply only to proposals that focus primarily on research training and must respond to the objectives of the Research training and talent development program.

Partnerships Grants—Stage 1 application form

See here for more information.

Funding Sources

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)