Conduct Your Research

The Office of Research, Scholarship and Community Engagement (ORSCE) is accepting applications for the Undergraduate Student Research Awards (USRA) Summer 2024 program (May-August). The NSERC USRA is designed to stimulate undergraduate interest in research in the natural sciences and engineering.

To help address the disproportionate underfunding of Black and Indigenous scholars at the undergraduate level the Tri-Agencies are continuing the USRA Black and Indigenous student researcher funding. Successful applications from self-identified Black and Indigenous student researchers for USRAs will be awarded outside of our institutional allocation of seven (7) awards. Applicants must meet the agency’s program eligibility criteria.

Read about the program guidelines for the NSERC USRA here. 

MRU’s institutional allocation is 7 awards. Supervisors must be full-time tenurable or tenured Mount Royal University faculty at the time of application and currently hold a major NSERC grant or are planning to apply for a major NSERC grant in the 2024 - 2025 academic year. 

Supervisors and Students must submit their applications by the deadline at noon, March 1, 2024. 

The Office of Research, Scholarship and Community Engagement (ORSCE) is accepting applications for one (1) CIHR Black Scholars Summer Undergraduate Student Research Award (USRA). The CIHR USRA is designed to stimulate undergraduate interest in research in the health sciences.

To help address the disproportionate underfunding of Black scholars at the undergraduate level the Tri-Agencies are continuing the USRA Black student researcher funding. This funding will contribute to making Canada’s research culture more equitable, diverse and inclusive; and will strengthen Canada’s innovation potential. Applicants must meet the agency’s program eligibility criteria.

Supervisors must be full-time tenurable or tenured Mount Royal University faculty at the time of application and
currently hold a major CIHR grant. Supervisors may only submit one application.

View program guidelines here. 

Supervisors and Students must submit their applications by the deadline at noon, March 1, 2024. 

The Office of Research, Scholarship and Community Engagement (ORSCE) is accepting applications for one (1) SSHRC Black Scholars Summer Undergraduate Student Research Award (USRA). The SSHRC USRA is designed to stimulate undergraduate interest in research in the social sciences and humanities.

To help address the disproportionate underfunding of Black scholars at the undergraduate level the Tri-Agencies are continuing the USRA Black student researcher funding. This funding will contribute to making Canada’s research culture more equitable, diverse and inclusive; and will strengthen Canada’s innovation potential. Applicants must meet the agency’s program eligibility criteria.

Supervisors must be full-time tenurable or tenured Mount Royal University faculty at the time of application and currently hold a major SSHRC grant.  Supervisors may only submit one application.

View program guidelines here. 

Supervisors and Students must submit their applications by the deadline at noon, March 1, 2024. 

 The Internal Research Grant Fund (IRGF) is the main source of internal funds available to eligible faculty at Mount Royal University. This program is designed to support faculty in developing their research programs through the funding of:

• Pilot projects
• Projects designed to lead to larger-scale external funding applications
• Projects that are not well-suited to external funding opportunities

Opportunity Deadlines

Fall Application Deadline: noon Monday, October 2, 2023
Winter Application Deadline: noon Friday, January 19, 2024

Applications to the Internal Research Grant Fund (IRGF) are submitted via ROMEO. The IRGF application is available approximately 3 weeks before the opportunity deadline.

Applications will be accepted until noon on the submission deadline. Opportunity results will be announced 6-8 weeks from the submission deadline.

Click here to view the updated Program Guidelines and Submission Instructions.

NOTE: The Program Guidelines and Submission Instructions are subject to change with subsequent opportunities. Please check the ORSCE website approximately one month prior to the next opportunity to see the newest guidelines.

 The Mokakiiks Centre for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning is in the process of re-branding and movement within the Academic Development Centre, but the grants program will continue to support teaching and learning research at MRU. 

Click here for more information on the funding opportunities.

For Academic Staff and Students

Rolling Intake: Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences - Scholarly Book Awards, Support for Open Access (Publication Grant)
In April 2023, following extensive consultation with members and partners, the Federation announced significant changes to the program, marking a major investment into Canadian scholarly books. The changes include the introduction of supplemental open access grants, and increased funding for translations, including a dedicated Indigenous language grant. The changes embrace open science and equity, diversity, inclusion, and decolonization (EDID) as central to the application and selection process. The Federation introduced two new supplemental grants to support and incentivize OA publishing, in addition to the existing 180 $8,000 publication grants: one for open access books and one for open access chapters. Grants are approved in principle prior to publication of the translation and are paid following publication directly to the publisher.
Amount / Duration: $8,000 for books, $2,000 for chapters; paid directly to the publisher after publication

Contact: Awards to Scholarly Publications Program (aspp-paes@federationhss.ca; (613) 238-6112, ext. 322)

For Academic Staff

Rolling intake: MRU Open Access Fund
The MRU Library offers support for scholarly publishing by MRU authors through the Open Access Fund. This initiative supports authors by reimbursing article processing charges (APCs) for article manuscripts accepted for publication in peer-reviewed open access (OA) journals. The fund provides up to $3000 per author, per year. Please note: this fund does not apply to hybrid journals.
Visit the link above for more information and to apply.


Ongoing: Article Processing Charge (APC) discounts and waivers
MRU Faculty members looking to publish their work Open Access can take advantage of waived publication charges in over 1000 journals (both gold open access and hybrid), as well as discounts from other publishers. Many of these are available through MRU Library subscriptions negotiated by the CRKN (Canadian Research Knowledge Network).

Discounts and waived fees are available to MRU-affiliated corresponding or contributing authors. Specific instructions and exclusions may apply, depending on the publisher. See specific details for each publisher below.

Waived article processing charges (APCs) for MRU authors:

Canadian Science Publishers, Cambridge University Press, PLOS. SAGE, Wiley

Discounted article processing charges (APCs) for MRU authors:

American Chemical Society, Taylor & Francis. Canadian Science Publishers, Elsevier ScienceDirect. MDPI

For more information contact: your Subject Librarian or librarycollections@mtroyal.ca


Rolling Intake: NSERC-National Science Foundation – Collaboration on quantum science and artificial intelligence
This is the first joint collaborative research opportunity focusing on discoveries and innovations in the areas of quantum science and artificial intelligence. The work funded through this call is expected to push the boundaries of new knowledge and provide a rich training experience for young researchers. The NSERC-NSF opportunity will support collaborations between members of the research community in both countries through a flexible, streamlined application process. Through a lead agency model, U.S. and Canadian research teams will submit a single collaborative proposal that will undergo a single review process at the NSF, which will be the lead agency. Canadian academic researchers may receive funding from NSERC and U.S. researchers may receive funding from the NSF. 
The Canadian researcher or team of researchers must submit a letter of intent (LOI) to NSERC using the NSERC online system at least eight weeks prior to the planned submission of the full proposal to the NSF. Only accepted LOIs will be invited to submit a full proposal.

Amount / Duration: $20,000 to $1 million per year for up to 5 years
Contact: RP-Initiatives-PR@nserc-crsng.gc.ca

Rolling Intake: NSERC Alliance Quantum Grants
The National Quantum Strategy (NQS) will amplify Canada’s significant strength in quantum research and science; grow national quantum-ready technologies, manufacturing and talent; and solidify Canada’s global leadership in this fast-growing field. The Alliance Quantum Grants will reinforce, coordinate and scale up Canada’s domestic research capabilities in quantum science and technology through partnerships with organizations in the private, public or not-for-profit sectors.

Amount / Duration: $50,000 to $300,000 / year for up to 5 years
Contact: alliance_quantumquantique@nserc-crsng.gc.ca; 1-855-275-2861


Rolling Intake: NSERC Alliance Consortia Quantum Grants
The National Quantum Strategy (NQS) will amplify Canada’s significant strength in quantum research and science; grow national quantum-ready technologies, manufacturing and talent; and solidify Canada’s global leadership in this fast-growing field. These grants will develop large-scale domestic research collaborations and enable improved synergy across Canada’s regional quantum research and innovation hubs, federal laboratories and other centres and stakeholders. These grants will enable a strengthened national quantum research and innovation community that is connected to industry applications and government needs.

Amount / Duration: $500,000 to $1M / year for 3 to 5 years
Contact: alliance_quantumquantique@nserc-crsng.gc.ca; 1-855-275-2861


Rolling Intake: NSERC Alliance International Catalyst grants 
Catalyst grants will provide funding for one year to support Canadian researchers in initiating international research collaborations in the NSE disciplines. These grants will allow Canadian researchers to identify and initiate the first stage of collaboration with the intent of: 1) supporting exploratory research activities, and 2) initiating exchanges for Canadian personnel where appropriate.

Amount / Duration: $25,000 for 1 year 
Contact: 1-855-275-2861; allianceinternational@nserc-crsng.gc.ca


Rolling Intake: NSERC Alliance International Collaboration grants 
Collaboration grants will allow Canadian researchers to participate in international projects and leverage the best international expertise in the NSE disciplines to help address research challenges of impact and benefit for Canada. International academic collaborators are expected to have already secured funding from their own national funding agency for the collaborative project and identified the Canadian academic researcher(s) in their proposal. This proposal must have been peer-reviewed. The eligible Canadian researchers participating in the international project can then apply for a Collaboration grant to cover the costs of their participation in the global-scale project. The funding obtained by the international academic collaborator(s) will be recognized for cost sharing. This funding must be at least equal to the amount requested from NSERC.

Amount / Duration: $100,000  for up to 3 years
Contact: 1-855-275-2861; allianceinternational@nserc-crsng.gc.ca

Rolling Intake: NSERC Alliance Advantage
Alliance grants encourage university researchers to collaborate with partner organizations, which can be from the private, public or not-for-profit sectors. These grants support research projects led by strong, complementary, collaborative teams that will generate new knowledge and accelerate the application of research results to create benefits for Canada. Alliance Advantage grants (formerly Alliance cost-sharing option 1) are for partner-driven projects. They fund projects focused on the partners’ goals, with at least one partner sharing in the costs of research.

Amount / Duration: $20,000 to $1 million per year for 1 to 5 years (NSERC may provide funding up to twice that of the partner’s contribution)
Contact: alliance@nserc-crsng.gc.c; 1-855-275-2861

Rolling Intake: NSERC Alliance Society
Alliance grants encourage university researchers to collaborate with partner organizations, which can be from the private, public or not-for-profit sectors. These grants support research projects led by strong, complementary, collaborative teams that will generate new knowledge and accelerate the application of research results to create benefits for Canada. Alliance Society grants (formerly Alliance cost-sharing option 2) fund projects with societal impact as the main driver.

Amount / Duration: $20,000 to $1 million per year for 1 to 5 years (NSERC may provide up to 100% of the project’s costs)
Contact: alliance@nserc-crsng.gc.c; 1-855-275-2861

For Everyone