The Strategic and Large Grant Roadmap is led by OVPRI’s Grant Development Services (GDS) and highlights important collaborations between GDS, other OVPRI teams and the Faculty Research Offices.

1. Establish a framework that enables robust grant development for strategic, large-scale, interdisciplinary peer reviewed funding applications.

GDS Mandate:

1. Comprehensive grant development support for external peer reviewed applications that are:

• Interdisciplinary
• Large-scale
• Significant strategic priority
• Institutional applications

Illustrative examples are the NFRF Transformation; SSHRC Partnership Grants; Team/Network Grants (Tri-Agency and not-for-profit organizations). This suite of competitions led by GDS is complemented by the existing suite of funding opportunities currently managed by other OVPRI teams such as CFI; Canada Research Chairs among others.

Comprehensive grant development support covers the full range of grant development activities, from Letter of Intent through to full application and jury presentation as applicable.

2. Targeted grant development support for select funding competitions identified as gaps or strategic opportunities in the 2024 environmental scan. Illustrative examples are the NFRF Exploration and the Ontario Early Researcher Award. These applications are managed by the Faculty Research Offices; GDS provides targeted support which is in-depth proposal review and editing.

2. Create a state-of-readiness for uOttawa to respond to large-scale, interdisciplinary funding opportunities.

1. Establish an Advisory Community of Expertise by build on existing successes and networks including uOttawa’s Institutes and Centres.
2. Re-affirm existing research strengths and identify emerging strengths in collaboration with RSM Strategic Research Services (Data Analytics) and the Institutional Research and Planning Team.
3. Create Interdisciplinary Hubs of Excellence through Research Forums.
4. Launch biennial Interdisciplinary Pilot Funding initiatives.
5. Build a library of grant support tools/templates.

3. Promote and bolster the uOttawa research community’s excitement for large-scale, interdisciplinary grants.

1. Build a one-stop-shop Grant Development web page.
2. Direct communication channels to researchers.
3. Feature success stories in collaboration with OVPRI Communications.
4. Recognition effort (e.g., recognition awards).

4. Collaborate to further build capacity in large-scale post-award management.

This strategic goal will bring together the expertise of the various OVPRI units, the Faculty Research Offices and the affiliated hospitals’ research support offices to address the complexities of post-award management for large-scale, interdisciplinary grants, including agency compliance and the associated contractual agreements. Current efforts to improve post-award management – with the ultimate goal to streamline processes for researchers – include the Polaris project, Workday enhancement (in collaboration with Finance and Administration), and information sharing through the Ottawa University Research Administrators (OURA) sessions.