(500 character per line item for justification)
INSTRUCTIONS
For each budget year, estimate the costs you are asking SSHRC to fund. All budget costs must conform to the rates and regulations of the applicant’s or project director’s institution and take into account the Tri-Agency Guide on Financial Administration’s principles governing the appropriate use of funds. All costs must be justified in terms of the needs of the project, including costs for organizing and integrating team activities and for communicating results to audiences, stakeholders and the public. The budget will be reviewed according to the appropriateness of the requested budget and the justification of other planned resources (e.g., time, human and financial), including cash and in-kind support already or to be secured from partner organizations.
Click “Calculate Totals” to complete the budget form.
Note: SSHRC provides the following guidelines to committee members regarding the merit review of the budget subcriteria of the overall feasibility score.
- Committees may consider failing a project on the Feasibility criterion if they determine 30% or more of the overall budget request is insufficiently justified and/or not appropriate to the proposed objectives or outcomes of the project.
- Committees will use the principle of minimum essential funding to guide their budget discussions.
- Committees may recommend budget reductions when they determine the request is inadequately justified and/or not appropriate as described above, and where they judge savings could be achieved without jeopardizing the project objectives.
- An application will automatically be failed if the committee deems that 50% or more of the overall budget is insufficiently justified and/or not appropriate to the proposed objectives or outcomes of the project.
Enter amounts rounded to the nearest dollar without any spaces or commas (e.g., 2000). For blank entries, leave the “0” value.
Specific rules for the use of grant funds:
- Insight Development Grant funds cannot be used for remuneration and/or travel and subsistence costs of presenters or guest speakers.
- Tri-Agency Grant funds cannot be used to remunerate team members (applicant, co-applicant or collaborator). This includes postdoctoral fellows serving in any of these capacities.
- Insight Development Grant funds cannot be used for collaborators’ research costs. However, their travel and subsistence expenses related to research planning and exchanging information with the grantee, or for disseminating research results, are eligible.
- Consultation fees are eligible for expert and/or professional and technical services that contribute directly to the proposed research so long as the service is not being provided by a team member or other persons whose status would make them eligible to apply for a SSHRC grant.
Personnel Costs
For each of the categories below, enter the number of students and non-students you plan to hire, whether as salaried employees or as recipients of stipends.
Student and non-student salaries and benefits/Stipends
For each applicable category, enter the number of students and non-students to be hired. Specify the total amount to be paid. When students are paid by wage, the amounts should follow the university’s collective agreement or policy.
You may request stipends for graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. Stipends must be justified in terms of the research, research training and/or research-related objectives. The work performed by stipend recipients should be an integral part of the project. Stipend rates are set by the applicant’s institution.
Professional/Technical Services
Consulting fees for professional and technical services are eligible expenditures if the budget justification shows expert advice is needed.
Travel and subsistence costs for Research and for Dissemination
Enter, by budget year, the total amounts requested for travel abroad and within Canada for both the research team and student personnel. Travel and subsistence costs must be based on rates approved by the institution that will administer the funds.
Other Expenses
Supplies
You may include other supply items (e.g., software, stationary, postage and telephone calls) only if they directly relate to the research and are not provided by the administering institution to their research personnel.
Non-disposable equipment
Purchase or rental of computers and associated hardware, or other equipment (e.g. audio or video equipment) is allowable only if these are not accessible through the postsecondary institution.
Other Expenses
Specify other research and/or related expenses not already included.
STRATEGIC ADVICE
Note that entering a number (#) in the Personnel Costs section of the table does NOT multiply the corresponding dollar ($) amount – you must list the TOTAL dollar amount manually.
Keep in mind that committees may consider failing a project on the Feasibility criterion if they deem that 30% or more of the overall budget is insufficiently justified and/or not appropriate to the proposed objectives and outcomes of the project. If this amount hits 50%, the project will be automatically failed. Therefore, it is incredibly important to construct strong justifications for each expense requested as part of your budget.
Committees will use the principle of minimum essential funding to guide their discussions of project budgets, and may recommend budget reductions in cases where they determine that the request is inadequately justified and/or not appropriate as described above, and where they judge that savings could be achieved without jeopardizing the project objectives.
Every item in your budget request should have a counterpart elsewhere in the application. For example, requests for research travel should link to the Methodology section of your Detailed Description, conference travel should link to your KMP module, etc. There should be no “surprises” in your budget (items that are not discussed/mentioned elsewhere in the application).
Provide breakdown of costs, including:
- For Student Costs: an hourly wage x number of hours spent on the project, and a reminder to the reviewers of how they will spend these hours (tasks/responsibilities).
- For Conferences: include airfare, ground travel, accommodations, per diem, conference fees, etc.
Budget Red Flags:
- Conference Travel in Y1: Remember that IDG results come out in June. If you are requesting funding for a conference taking place early in the project (i.e., Aug./Sept., as little as 2 months into the project), it needs to be extremely well-justified, and be clearly linked to the proposed project (and not past/ongoing work).
- Workshop Costs: While some costs associated with organizing a conference/workshop are eligible, keep in mind that projects whose primary goal is to organize such events are ineligible for IDG funding.
- Student Funding Incompatible with Student Responsibilities:
- Large student teams often draw closer scrutiny from review committees. If you are requesting funding for many students, ensure that their distinct roles (or the sheer quantity of work) has been sufficiently detailed in the Roles and Training of Students section.
- Full-year funding (stipends) for PostDocs are also closely scrutinized. Some committee members see this as “out and out living support”, or worry that the PostDoc is actually carrying out the majority of the research, and the PI has just “put their name on it”. If you indeed need the support of a full-time PostDoc, consider showing the dollar amount as an hourly wage multiplied by a number of hours, with project-related tasks to be carried out during that time.
Please contact Brianna Wells for a copy of an Excel spreadsheet template for IDG Budgets.