The uoConnect Grant Program welcomes researchers from all disciplines.

To be eligible, the applicant must:

• Be a regular full-time University of Ottawa professor, which includes tenure and tenure-track professors, affiliated institute scientists and clinician scientists with an academic appointment at uOttawa at the rank of assistant, associate or full professor.
• Provide evidence that they are leading or playing a significant role in the organization and delivery of the event or outreach activity.  
• Secure at least 50% matching funding from the faculty.
• Propose an event or an outreach activity.
• Not have received funds from this opportunity in the same calendar year. 

Eligible and Ineligible Activities

Examples of eligible activities:

• Conferences and workshops
• Summer institutes
• Audiovisual KMb outputs  
• Community or patient engagement
• Public debates
• Speaker series
• Other knowledge exchange activities to inform policy or practice

Examples of ineligible activities:

• Research activities (e.g., fieldwork, literature reviews, data collection)
• Internal uOttawa training and/or networking activities within a research team, research centre or institute, or department  
• Annual general meetings or any other activity directly related to the business meetings of an association, organization, centre or institute
• For-profit marketing activities (e.g. book launches or similar)
• Receptions for academic association members  
• Any activities normally paid through the operating fees of an organization or association.

For expense eligibility, please see the section on budget justification, eligible and ineligible expenses.   

Selection priorities

Priority will be given to applications and applicants who:

1. Align with one or more of the strategic areas of research
2. Provide evidence of having applied for or acquired new funding from an external source for the activity (including federal granting agency funding, partner-matching funds)
3. Demonstrate meaningful student and/or trainee participation
4. Enhance institutional commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion, integrating people and priorities from Indigenous, equity-deserving, and marginalized groups in alignment with the EDI in Research Action Plan
5. Include activities that enhance the visibility of the impact of the University of Ottawa’s research, knowledge mobilization, researchers and students. For example:  
   • Put forward an event or outreach activity with national and/or international reach
   • Hold an outreach activity in the community
   • Hold an event at uOttawa facilities

These five selection priorities are included as part of the evaluation process (see below).  

Adjudication and evaluation criteria

Funds are awarded through a competitive process. After initially checking the applications for eligibility, the OVPRI will convene a review committee to evaluate the applications and fund them by rank within the available budget envelope.  

The evaluation criteria include:

• Alignment with the five selection priorities listed above  
• Soundness of the planning and organization of the activity
• Strength of the budget justification 

Applications must include the following information:

• Completed application form (PDF), confirming:
  • The candidate meets the eligibility criteria
  • The Faculty supports the candidate in creating the proposed event or outreach activity  
  • The Faculty is prepared to contribute an amount that matches at least 50% of the amount requested through the uoConnect Grant Program. The specific dollar amount of matching funds provided by the Faculty must be stated.
• Summary of the event or outreach activity (maximum 2.5 pages for submissions in English, and 3 pages for those in French). The summary must consist of:
  • The title and theme of the activity
  • The need and significance of the activity for the research area
  • A description of how the activity will improve visibility of the impact of uOttawa’s research, researchers and students
  • The total number of anticipated participants or audience, including those of national or international reach
  • A draft plan for the activity
  • A list of the experts who are expected to be involved, their home institution, and their area of expertise, if applicable
  • Proposed deliverables and/or dissemination plan
  • Projected sources of revenues; (other sources/registration fees revenues/etc.)
• Budget and budget justification (maximum 1 page for submissions in English, and 1.5 for those in French). See the Budget guideline below for more information.
• RE forms. Applicants must submit two RE Forms:
  • In the first RE form, the “Amount Requested” field should define the amount that is being requested from the uoConnect Grant only.
  • In the second RE form, the “Amount Requested” field should define the amount that is being requested from the Faculty only. 

General presentation of the application

Proposals (including supporting documents and attachments) must comply with the formatting and presentation standards generally accepted by funding councils:

• Single-spaced, with no more than six lines per inch
• A sans serif font (such as Arial or other “sans” fonts), in black, 12 points, or any other comparable font – no smaller 

Each uoConnect grant is worth up to $5,000. Applicants must secure 50% matching funds from their faculty. Grants must be used within 12 months of receipt. This grant is intended as one of many sources of funding for the event or outreach activity. The grant value requested from the uoConnect Grant Program should reflect the amount required to undertake the activity, given the faculty contribution  and other sources of funding . The applicant should explain how the uoConnect funding will be spent in the budget justification section, which will be reviewed as part of the evaluation.  

Budget justification (maximum 1 page for submissions in English, and 1.5 for those in French)

• Demonstrate the need for funds from this program relative to other funding available to the applicant (i.e.: other internal competitions, faculty, external sources, registration fees for the conference, etc.) and clearly state how different funding sources will cover different expense items.
• Explain how the costs were established for each item in the budget.
• Describe and justify how the budget items are needed to accomplish the objectives.
• Show how the funds contribute towards the project.
• Show economical use of funds. 

The above list is not exhaustive. Any proposed expenses not included here will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

Application deadlines

The uoConnect Grant Program holds two funding proposal competitions per year. 
The deadlines are: 

• Faculties must review, approve and submit the request to Research Management Services (RMS).    
• Researchers must complete two RE forms to apply for this competition.  
• Results are sent to the uOttawa email address specified in the RE forms.
• RMS encourages applicants to check their Faculty’s submission deadlines, as applicable.  
• RMS will not accept late applications. The research office of the Faculty must submit applications on behalf of their applicants to RMS by 4 p.m. on the deadline date. If the deadline falls on a weekend or statutory holiday, RMS will extend the deadline to 4 p.m. on the next working day. 

Applications must be submitted electronically (in a single PDF file) to:

uoConnect Grant Program

Research Management Services

[email protected]

• Awardees must submit a final, one-page report including the account number and describing the results of the event or outreach activity to Research Management Services (RMS).
• The funds are provided for the specific activity outlined in the application and cannot be used for other activities.  
• If the event or activity does not take place, applicants must inform RMS and the funds will revert back to the program.  
• Any funds remaining at project end date as indicated on official Notification of Decision will revert back to the program.  
• Awardees may be called upon in future to serve on the selection committee for this opportunity.