The Collaborative Centre for Climate, Health & Sustainable Care is an extra-departmental unit type C, established in November 2023 by its four founding faculties: The Dalla Lana School of Public Health, The Temerty Faculty of Medicine, The Lawrence Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing, and The Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy. The mission of the Collaborative Centre is to catalyze research, education, practice & partnerships for positive environmental and social change for health and in health systems, at local and global scales.
The Collaborative Centre is fortunate to be able to partner on a Seed Grant competition with several UofT centres of excellence, including Climate Positive Energy, with interests in health, health systems, climate, environment, sustainability, and sustainable development. Accordingly, some of the available funds will be contingent on relevance to their mandates.
Climate Positive Energy will support a maximum of three (3) seed grants at the intersection of health and climate where at least one of the team members (preferably, one of the PIs) is a CPE member from one of 43 non-health science CPE departments.
SCOPE
Call for Applications – 2024 Seed Grants for Climate, Health & Sustainable Care – PLUS
The Collaborative Centre for Climate, Health & Sustainable Care, in collaboration with partners, is offering Seed Grants to encourage, foster, and support members of our community working collaboratively on research that advances our mission, expands our network, and – as appropriate – advances the missions of our partners.
The 2024 competition will award 4-11 seed grants valued at a maximum of $10,000 each.
All of the seed grants must meet a minimum set of requirements. Seven (7) seed grants are conditional on meeting the additional criteria of one or more of our partners.
The number of grants and funding amount for each award to be supported depends on the mix and quality of applications received.
- Funds may be used to support activities such as data collection, systematic scoping reviews/ environmental scans, workshops/ consensus development processes, research proposal or resource development.
- Research may include but is not limited to policy analysis, quality improvement, health education/ pedagogical development, environmental assessment, clinical epidemiology, community engagement.
- Projects should have the potential to lead to full proposals for Tri-Council or other competitive grants.
Funding will begin October 2024. Funds must be spent by October 2025.
APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS
Minimum requirements for all seed grant applications
All seed grant applications must align with the Mission of the Collaborative Centre.
Team
The Nominated Principal Applicant must be a University of Toronto faculty member (including teaching stream, tenure stream, CLTA and clinical faculty) who is eligible to hold Tri-Council Funds.
- Funds will be transferred to the Fund Centre of the Nominated Principal Applicant. We ask that you submit the NPA’s CFC as part of the application process.
- Only one application per Principal Applicant is permitted.
A core goal of the seed grant competition is to catalyze capacity and collaboration across the Collaborative Centre’s four founding faculties, and beyond. Thus:
- The Nominated Principal Applicant, or one of the Principal Applicants, must be faculty in one of the Collaborative Centre’s four founding faculties.
- The Nominated Principal Applicant must be a member of the Collaborative Centre for Climate, Health & Sustainable Care or eligible to become a member (other applicants are encouraged to become members). If you are not a Collaborative Centre member, please complete this membership form in advance of submission.
- Teams must include faculty from at least two of the Collaborative Centre’s founding faculties (one of whom is a Principal Applicant).
- Teams are encouraged to include faculty from across the faculties and divisions of the University of Toronto, as appropriate.
- Teams are encouraged to include University of Toronto graduate students and research fellows as well as Toronto academic health science network and community members, as appropriate.
Additional requirements for partnered seed grants
With the support of The Institute for Inclusive Health & Wellbeing @iRISE, UTSC, the Collaborative Centre is able to provide additional seed grant opportunities. For applicants wishing to be considered for these partnered seed grants, additional requirements apply. Please specify which, if any, of these partnered seed grants you wish to be considered for, and please address these requirements in your proposal:
TransformHF will support one (1) seed grant on the climate and environmental impacts of digital transformation in health.
The Centre for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety (CQuIPS) will support one (1) seed grant that mobilizes quality improvement in addressing healthcare’s climate and environmental impacts.
Climate Positive Energy (CPE) will support up to three (3) seed grants at the intersection of health and climate where the at least one of the team members (preferably, one of the PIs) is a CPE member from one of 43 non-health science CPE departments.
President’s Advisory Committee on the Environment, Climate Change, and Sustainability will support one (1) seed grant that adopts a regenerative sustainability perspective focused on sustainable practice change (e.g. in the health sector or city).
The SDG@UofT will support one (1) seed grant that:
- addresses at least one research theme of the SDGs ISI; see the 4 themes here: https://sdg.utoronto.ca/research-themes/, and
- where at least one team member is affiliated to the SDG ISI
Application timeline
- June 10, 2024 – Call for applications posted
- August 30, 2024, 5pm ET – Deadline for applications
- October 2024 – Notification of funding decision
- Public announcement of successful applicants at Inaugural Symposium, October 22, 2024
- October 30, 2024 – Funding period begins
- October 30, 2025 – Funds must be used
Application details
Proposal Title & Description
Applicants must briefly describe their project and planned activities, illustrate alignment with the minimum requirements of the call, and any additional requirements relevant to one or more funding partners, and explain how the Seed Grant funds will be used.
Research proposal, maximum 3 pages including figures and tables (not including
references)
- Objectives of the project,
- Project’s significance and relationship to the mission of the Collaborative Centre,
- Research plan and methods, including theoretical or conceptual framework, where appropriate,
- How the project addresses EDI and Indigenous reconciliation,
- Nature of the team, including brief description of roles and the ways in which the team enables new or strengthened cross-faculty relationships,
- Project timeline,
- Future plans for knowledge outputs (publications, policy briefs, etc) and research.
Relevance to partnered seed grants
- While relevance to partnered seed grants is likely to be clear in the overall research proposal, we will provide applicants with an additional 250-word section to permit them to clearly identify the project’s relevance to one or more partners.
Include CVs for Principal Applicants(s), maximum 5 pages each
Budget & Budget justification, maximum 2 pages
Eligible Expenses
- Funds for research staff, including trainees (post-doctoral, graduate, undergraduate)[1]
- Supplies and services relating to the research project, including to support the participation of community or patient partners, Indigenous elders or knowledge keepers, etc.
- Purchase or lease of equipment up to $5,000 (if clearly justified)
- Note: Tri-council conditions on funds apply.
Expenditures: Expenditures on the submitted budget will be approved by the review committee. Once the “Notice of Award” NOA is accepted, your team will be issued the funding and will have 12 months from the issue date to spend the funds as noted and approved in your submission.
Payment Details: Funds will be transferred to the Fund Centre of the Nominated Principal Applicant.
Sponsorship & Industry engagement Policy: Please note, the Collaborative Centre has adopted a sponsorship and industry engagement policy to maintain the credibility of our work and a high degree of public assurance in our mission. Where members of the Collaborative Centre engage in activities that are publicly-associated with the Collaborative Centre – as is the case for Collaborative Centre Seed Grants – engagements with commercial entities, including their foundations or the third-parties that act on their behalf, must yield greater benefits than risks (i.e., to credibility, governance, etc.), using established risk assessment frameworks. Applicants will be asked to indicate whether their proposal involves engagement and/or sponsorship with such entities, so that benefits and risks can be clearly identified and assessed.
Reporting
You will be required to complete a written Progress Report and Financial Report. Submission of this report on project activities, expenditures and outputs or results will be expected before the deadline of October 30, 2024.
Knowledge Sharing
Successful applicants will be featured in Collaborative Centre communications and reporting.
Successful applicants of partnered seed grants may also be feature in relevant partner communications and reporting.
We will ask each project team to present their work at the next annual symposium of the Collaborative Centre held in fall 2025. Acknowledgement of the support of the Collaborative Centre for Climate, Health & Sustainable Care is required for all reports and publications. Seed grants that are co-funded by partners must also acknowledge the support of the partner organizations, and teams may also be invited to present their work at partner-relevant events.
How to apply
Submit the completed Application Form by August 30, 2024 at 5:00 pm Eastern as a single PDF document via email to climate.health@utoronto.ca
Receipt of complete/on-time submissions will be acknowledged. Incomplete or late applications will not be accepted.
Evaluation of applications
Applications will be evaluated according to their alignment with the Collaborative Centre’s mission, ability to expand the network, and justification of funding utilization. Applications that are to be considered for partner-supported funding will also be evaluated for their alignment with the requirements specified by each partner.
Note 1: The Principal Applicant is responsible for obtaining the necessary ethics approvals as appropriate prior to starting this research project.
Note 2: All standard University of Toronto Policies on the conduct of research and use of research funds apply. Signing confirmation of this award will be deemed to agree that financial records, ethics approvals will be made available in the event of an audit.
Note 3: All applications will be reviewed by an independent committee. Make your proposal as clear as possible for an informed reader who may not know your field.
Please write to climate.health@utoronto.ca with any questions.