Call for applications – Robbins-Ollivier Award for Excellence in Equity: 2024 Competition

The three federal research funding agencies—the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) (the agencies) have launched the annual Robbins-Ollivier Award for Excellence in Equity. 

Awarded through the tri-agency Canada Research Chairs Program (CRCP), the award recognizes the significant and impactful contributions that Marjorie Griffin Cohen, Louise Forsyth, Glenis Joyce, Audrey Kobayashi, Shree Mulay, Susan Prentice, Michèle Ollivier and Wendy Robbins have made to increase the level of equity in the CRCP and Canada’s research ecosystem more broadly, by way of their 2003 Canadian Human Rights complaints and their concerted efforts in the mediation processes, which led to both the 2006 Settlement Agreement and its addendum in 2019.

The objectives of the annual Robbins-Ollivier equity award are to:

• fund bold and potentially game-changing institutional-level initiatives that will challenge the status quo, spark change and take action to address persistent systemic barriers within the institution research ecosystem and academia more broadly;
• recognize faculty members who contribute their time, expertise and lived experience to help address inequities in their institution, the research ecosystem and academia; and
• provide opportunities for students and trainees to contribute to this important work.

The objective of the award is not to fund research in equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) disciplines, but rather to fund initiatives to be implemented within the institution to identify and/or address systemic barriers.

The award provides a total of $100,000 over one year, with the potential for a one-year no-cost extension, to a faculty member or a team of faculty members nominated by an eligible institution, to fund the implementation of bold and potentially game-changing initiatives led by the nominated individual or team that:

• contribute to the understanding of the persistence of systemic barriers in the nominating institution and, by extension, the research ecosystem and academia more broadly; and/or
• identify innovative measures that could be implemented within

To be eligible for nomination, the faculty member(s) must:

• be eligible to receive grant funding from the agencies;
• be holding a full-time academic appointment at the institution at the time of nomination and for the duration of the award (adjunct professors are not eligible); and
• be in good standing with CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC (e.g., they cannot have eligibility limits placed on them due to not meeting grant reporting requirements for the CRCP or have sanctions in place tied to the agencies’ responsible conduct of research policy).

Institutional administrators who are eligible to hold grant funding from the agencies are also eligible to be nominated.

As the CRCP is an institutional program, the Robbins-Ollivier award does not accept applications from or fund individuals directly. A senior manager responsible for the administration of the CRCP at the institution, at the vice-president level, must submit the nomination.

Details about eligible expenses, the assessment process, selection criteria, and past awardees can be found on the Canada Research Chairs program website.

The deadline to submit nominations to the tri-agency is Nov. 5, 2024, 8 p.m. (eastern)

Institutions may submit one nomination per year. An internal selection process will be used to select the proposal to be nominated. Applications will be evaluated by a multidisciplinary selection committee whose members are appointed by the Interim Vice-President, Research and Innovation (VPRI) or a person delegated by the VPRI. The selection committee will include faculty representatives, administration staff, and students; community members; as well as members of equity-deserving groups.

Internal applications are due Thursday October 24, 2024, by 5 p.m. (eastern) to: [email protected]

All interested candidates must submit an application package for the internal selection. Please provide a maximum five-page document (six pages in French) that includes:

*Note: The requirements below are the same as those required in the nomination package to the competition. Please note that sections c) and d) will be provided by the Office of the Vice-President, Research and Innovation (OVPRI), and are thus not required for the internal submission.

The selected expression of interest will be invited to submit a full application by the Tri-Agency due date. Full application requirements can be found hereunder the nomination package heading.

Thank you for sharing this information within your Faculty, Center or Institute. Please do not hesitate to contact Research Management Services if you have questions.

For questions please contact: [email protected]