Research Support Fund – Supporting the indirect costs associated with research

Additional Budget 2024 Incremental Project Grants funding—2024-25 application process

As recently announced, the Incremental Project Grants (IPG) stream of the Research Support Fund program has received additional funding through Budget 2024. For the 2024-25 fiscal year exclusively, the application process for these additional funds will occur outside of the regular IPG application process.

Application requirements

Institutions eligible to receive these additional funds will be invited to complete a new IPG application through the Convergence Portal. The application process is anticipated to open on December 11, 2024, with applications due on January 22, 2025.

Use of grant funds, and reporting requirements

Institutions will be able to apply expenses retroactively to April 1, 2024. A three-month extension has been put in place to allow institutions to use the additional Budget 2024 IPG funds until June 30, 2025. Institutions will be required to report on the use of these grant funds.

Reporting requirement update 2024

End of grant period reporting requirements

New this year, the Statement of Account and the Outcomes Reports for the Research Support Fund, Incremental Project Grants, and research security are available on the Convergence Portal, rather than SharePoint and Voxco. This is to facilitate this process for institutions.

Because of the migration to Convergence, these reporting requirements have been extended and will now be due November 29, 2024.

What is the Research Support Fund?

The Research Support Fund assists Canadian postsecondary institutions with the costs associated with managing their research enterprise, helping them to maintain a world-class research environment. Grants can be used to:

maintain modern labs and equipment;
secure research from threats;
provide access to up-to-date knowledge resources;
provide research management and administrative support;
meet regulatory and ethical standards; or
transfer knowledge from academia to the private, public and not-for-profit sectors.

Over $450 million is invested each year through the Research Support Fund to support researchers, collaboration and breakthrough science. This includes the Incremental Project Grants and research security.