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Northern Fund

The Northern Fund will provide eligible institutions and organizations in Northern Canada with research infrastructure that will enhance the capacity for research projects that address the priorities of the region and its communities. These research projects will be conceived, developed, led and managed by Northern institutions, researchers and communities.

For the purposes of this funding program, the North includes Yukon, the Northwest Territories, Inuvialuit Settlement Region, Nunavut, Nunavik and Nunatsiavut. The Northern Fund augments the Government of Canada’s strategic investments in Northern research and aims to strengthen Northern research capacity.

The Northern Fund is open for proposals in all research disciplines that clearly demonstrate how the research directly engages with and serves the needs of Northern communities, including First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities in the North.

Status: This funding program is open for proposals.

Key document: Northern Fund call for proposals

We recommend downloading the document to access the hyperlinks.

Overview Apply Review process

What are the details of the Northern Fund?

Eligible institutions

To apply to the Northern Fund, Canadian universities, colleges, research hospitals and non-profit research institutions and organizations must meet both criteria:

Be headquartered in Yukon, the Northwest Territories, Inuvialuit Settlement Region, Nunavut, Nunavik or Nunatsiavut
Be recognized as eligible by the CFI.

Email us at eligibility [at] innovation.ca (eligibility[at]innovation[dot]ca) for information about how to apply for eligibility.

Note that the CFI funds institutions and does not fund individual researchers.

Important dates

Activity	Date
The CFI issues the call for proposals	January 31, 2024
Deadline to submit proposals	Anytime between February 2024 and February 2028
Last round of funding decisions from the CFI	March 2029
Duration of the Northern Fund	Five years or until funds are fully committed

Budget

Over five years, the CFI will invest up to $25 million in research infrastructure funding, including associated operation and maintenance funding through the Infrastructure Operating Fund.

The CFI will fund up to 50 percent of the eligible costs of a research infrastructure project. The remainder of the funds (50 percent or more) must be provided by the institution and other eligible funding partners.

Objectives

Support research led by Northern institutions and organizations and First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities
Augment research capacity in the North for the North
Generate social, cultural, health, environmental or economic benefits to Northern Canada and Northern communities including the training of academic and non-academic highly qualified personnel.

Eligible research infrastructure projects

An eligible research infrastructure project involves acquiring or developing research infrastructure to augment research capacity and conduct research activities that are relevant to Northern communities.

To be considered for funding, the requested research infrastructure must be essential for the institution’s planned research activities and be located in Yukon, the Northwest Territories, Inuvialuit Settlement Region, Nunavut, Nunavik or Nunatsiavut.

Eligible institutions can submit proposals with total CFI requests between $250,000 and $2.5 million to cover research infrastructure costs.

Consult our Policy and program guide and the call for proposals for more information on what infrastructure projects are eligible.

What does an institution need to do before applying?

To participate in any of our funding programs, you must first make sure your institution is eligible to apply for funding, has signed an institutional agreement and that you have an account on our CFI Awards Management System (CAMS).

Find out how to prepare to apply

What is the process to apply?

Consult the call for proposals to find instructions on how to submit a proposal.

Submit your proposal in the CFI Awards Management System (CAMS)

Is there support available for developing a proposal?

Each eligible institution can access up to $50,000 per year, to a maximum of $100,000 over the projected five-year duration of this Fund to help defray the costs of holding meetings, consultations and other expenses related to the development of proposals for the Northern Fund.

Proposal development support is optional and is not required to submit a Northern Fund proposal. Keep in mind the research security requirements outlined below when you apply to this funding program.

What do research institutions need to do regarding research security when they apply for CFI funding?

Institutions applying for CFI funding have research security obligations at the time of application under both the Government of Canada’s National Security Guidelines for Research Partnerships and the Policy on Sensitive Technology Research and Affiliations of Concern (STRAC).

Find out what your institution needs to submit with Northern Fund proposals to meet those requirements.

For more information on Research security email us at northern.fund [at] innovation.ca (northern[dot]fund[at]innovation[dot]ca)

Where can I find out more?

Watch the video of our recent information session to find out more.

Sébastian Denizé
My name is Sébastian Denizé. I’m a Senior Programs Officer at the Canada Foundation for Innovation.

Before we begin this webinar, I’d like to start by acknowledging that the objective of the Northern Fund is to enable research that directly engages with and serves the needs of First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities in the North. The CFI’s office is located on the traditional unceded, unsurrendered lands of the Anishinaabe Algonquin people.

We are grateful to all the generations of Anishinaabe Algonquin people who have and continue to protect and care for these lands, which grant food, water and the means to connect with one another. We also value the contributions that Inuit, Métis and other Indigenous Peoples have made, both in shaping and strengthening this community, province and country. So, as we gather here virtually for this webinar presentation, I invite you all to take a moment to reflect on the lands from which you are joining us.

Now I will let my colleague Alejandra introduce herself and begin the presentation.

Alejandra Guitron
Hello everyone. My name is Alejandra Guitron and I’m a Programs Officer here at the CFI, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, and I’m happy to present to you the Northern Fund and happy to answer your questions. This is the agenda that we want to present you. We’ll start with eligibility, objectives and timeline, budget, review process, and application process, and then we’ll allocate some time to answer your questions.

The Northern Fund eligibility criteria. So, in order to apply to the Northern Fund, Canadian universities, colleges, research hospitals, and non-profit research institutions and organizations must meet both criteria. So, it’s to be headquartered in Northern regions. These are the Yukon, Northwest Territories, Inuvialuit Settlement Region, Nunavut, Nunavik or Nunatsiavut, and be recognized as eligible by the CFI.

So, there is already a list of institutions that are eligible to the CFI, but to submit proposals to the Northern Fund, there are only three Northern institutions. This is Yukon University, Aurora College and the Qaujigiartiit Health Research Centre, but if you want to submit a request to become CFI eligible, so you can contact us at eligibility [at] innovation.ca (eligibility[at]innovation[dot]ca) or for more information on how to apply for eligibility. You can also click on that link, and then you have access to the requirements.

So, a couple of notes, the CFI funds institutions. It does not fund individual researchers, and an institution that is affiliated, federated or closely associated to another eligible institution, CFI eligible institution, will not be considered eligible to
receive CFI funding unless it receives its operating budget from a provincial or territorial government, or has its own independent Board of Directors.

Now the objectives and timeline.

The Northern Fund has three main objectives. One is to support research that is led by Northern institutions and organizations, and First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities; augment the research capacity in the North and for the North; and generate social, cultural, health, environmental or economic benefits to Northern Canada and Northern communities, including academic and non-academic highly qualified personnel.

So, as important dates, we launched the Northern Fund back in the beginning of this year. That is the call for proposals in January 2024, and there are no specific deadlines. So, you can submit a proposal anytime between February 2024 and February 2028, and we’ll aim to provide funding decisions within six months from the date the proposal is submitted.

All research infrastructure expenditures are eligible as of January 1, 2022.

So, the budget for the Northern Fund. Over five years, the CFI will invest $25 million for research infrastructure. So, this is the capital and the operation maintenance funding. Out of this $25 million, $5 million will be reserved for eligible not-for-profit organizations. This is for the first three years. After this period, if any funds of this $5 million are still uncommitted, they will become available to all applicants. This is to support the participation of not-for-profit organizations.

You can submit a request between $250,000 and $2.5 million. The CFI will invest 50 percent of the total project cost, and the remainder of the funds must be provided by, either by, the institutions or other eligible partners. Eligible partners can be provincial, territorial governments. It could also be vendors. It could be cash or in-kind funds, from vendors or any other organization. Additionally, you can request some funding for the operation and maintenance. This could be up to 100 percent of the CFI contribution. I will explain that in the next slide.

So, here we have two examples. So, one project that requests the maximum amount. So, this is $5 million, and then the CFI will contribute 50 percent of the total infrastructure cost. So, the 50 percent of $5 million is $2.5 million, and then the rest of the funds must be provided by either the institution or eligible partners. So, it’s the $2.5 million remainder, and as I said, additionally, you can also request up to 100 percent of the CFI contribution. So, this is, this could be up to $2.5 million for this portion, no partner funding is required.

And the second example is the minimum amount that you can request. So, it’s $500,000, and so the total project is $500,000, and the CFI request is 50 percent. So, it’s $250,000, and the matching partners can provide the 50 percent or more of the total infrastructure cost, and then you can request up to 100 percent of the CFI contribution. But in this case they decide to provide, I mean to request, 60 percent of the CFI contribution because they were able to justify that amount, or they just consider that they only needed $150,000 for the operation and maintenance. And, again, this portion does not need partner funding.

And then I’ll, oh, yeah, the proposal development support. Yeah, sorry.
So, as institutions might be in different stages of the proposal development,
the CFI provides proposal development support in order to develop proposals. So, you can request up to $50,000 per year, to a maximum of $100,000 over five years.
So, this support does not require matching partner funding, and only CFI eligible Northern institutions can request.

Some of the eligible cost of this proposal development support includes travel and accommodation expenses for proposal development teams and partners, audio and video equipment rental. This could be useful for the expression of support that my colleague will explain later. Third party facilitation of proposal development activities. Third party grant writing or editing support. Community advisers for creating or strengthening community partnerships, and all their expenses are pre-approved by the CFI. And then, I will hand it over to my colleague.

Sébastien Denizé
Thank you, Alejandra. Over the next few slides, I will go over the details of our Northern Fund review process and then our application process.

So the Northern Fund review process, which starts with the formation of the Northern Fund Advisory Committee, which will advise the CFI about the funding program’s evolution and implementation. Upon submission of a proposal to the Northern Fund, we will also create what is called a Proposal Review Committee, which will review the proposals based on the five review criteria that correspond to the Northern Fund’s objectives.

The Proposal Review Committee will be primarily made up of Northern Fund Advisory Committee members, ideally entirely made up of Northern Fund Advisory Committee members, but in special cases where pertinent expertise is required on the committee, we may add an additional external reviewer to inform the Proposal Review Committee so that they come up with the best funding recommendations.

So, the goal of the Proposal Review Committee will be to form, formulate, funding recommendations that will move on to the Board of Directors, which will make the final decision at their board meetings, which are in March, June and November of every year.

The Northern Fund Advisory Committee members are invited to serve a three-year term and will include representation from Indigenous communities in Northern Canada with relevant knowledge and experience conducting Northern and Indigenous research. Specifically, the committee will collectively have experience participating in community and academic research, including experience using and managing infrastructure in the Arctic, as well as mobilizing knowledge and the results of their research.

As mentioned previously, the Proposal Review Committee will review each proposal on its individual merit and discuss its strengths and weaknesses for each of the review criteria, without providing consensus ratings like most of our other funds. The committee meeting will include a virtual meeting with representatives of the applicant team, including partner community organizations, to gain further knowledge and understanding about the proposed project and role of the community organizations in the design, development and management of the proposed project.

Following their deliberations, the Proposal Review Committee will make funding recommendations for the CFI Board of Directors. In exceptional cases where the Proposal Review Committee finds weaknesses that are not substantive, they may choose to ask the institution who have submitted this proposal for more details to inform, to inform their decision making and provide them with another opportunity to update the proposal so that, so that it can, it can meet the standard that they need for it to be funded, or for it to be recommended for funding, I should say.

Um, so these are the five criterion that the Proposal Review Committee will use to evaluate proposals. You’ll notice that each criterion is evaluated against a criterion standard. The standard is a statement that represents a proposal that fully satisfies all aspects of a criterion. So, I’ll just go over this first example, then we’ll go into more detail for each one of them.

So, for example, an ideal proposal submitted to the Northern Fund for the research in the North and for the North criteria would include research activities that are of high relevance to Northern communities, are feasible and have been co-created, co-developed and co-managed with First Nations, Métis or Inuit communities as appropriate. So, I’ll go into more detail over each of the criteria now.

So, I just went over the criteria on the standard for the research in the North for the North, which is the first criteria in order to assess the standard. Applicants must describe their research activities that will make use of the infrastructure and explain how they will address the priorities of Northern communities. This includes a nuanced description of the research methodologies and feasibility of their approach, as well as a description of the involvement of First Nations, Métis or Inuit communities in the creation, development and management of the program.

Now for the team criterion standard, it requires that the team have the relevant knowledge and experience to conduct their research activities, and that First Nations, Métis or Inuit team members play meaningful and leadership roles in the research activities. Applicants should describe the knowledge required for the proposed research activities with a description of each team member’s expected contribution.

The infrastructure criterion standard dictates that the research infrastructure is necessary and appropriate and will augment research capacity in the North. For this criterion standard, they will need to describe each of the requested items and explain why they are necessary, and for the case of construction or renovation projects, they will need to provide a description of the space, including the location, size and nature and why this is necessary.

For the sustainability criterion, the standard is that the research infrastructure will be well managed and efficiently used. What that means is that the applicants will need to provide information to indicate how the infrastructure will be operated and maintained and accessed over its useful life. They will need to outline operation and maintenance costs and revenue sources over the useful life of the infrastructure, and in doing so, they will need to include the rationale for the amount of CFI funding requested for operating and maintaining the research infrastructure.

As Alejandra pointed out earlier, as a part of this fund you were able to request up to 100 percent of the CFI contribution, which can be as high as $2.5 million for the operation and maintenance of equipment, but this will need to be sufficiently justified in the sustainability section. So that’s where you can explain why you would need such high operational needs to maintain the equipment. You also need to describe key operation and maintenance needs and their associated costs and describe how the principles of ownership, control, access and possession of research data will be handled and how knowledge will be shared and accessed by research projects, stakeholders including Northern communities.

Now for benefits to Northern communities, the standard is that there are clear pathways to transfer research results and/or mobilize knowledge
to residents of Northern communities, including First Nations, Métis or Inuit communities and potential partners. The results are likely to lead to social, cultural, health, environmental or economic benefits to Northern Canada, including the training of highly qualified personnel.

So, in order to address this criterion, you must sufficiently describe the anticipated benefits for Northern communities which include all the social, cultural, health and environmental and economic benefits, as well as information on the academic and non-academic highly qualified personnel that will make use of this infrastructure, and what skills they will gain, and the potential career paths or further contributions to their communities that this will enable.

And finally, explain the pathways to transfer research results and mobilize knowledge to Northern communities and potential partners.

I hope that was clear, but please feel free to ask any questions.

The application process will all be done through CAMS, but what I want to reiterate before we get started is that you should definitely reach out to myself and Alejandra using the Northern Fund inbox before going through the application process because it is a little bit unique, and we are happy to help you every step of the way.

So, all proposals for the Northern Fund will need to be prepared, shared and submitted through the CFI Awards Management System called CAMS. You will need to create a CAMS account if you don’t already have one and complete all of the information in the project, finance and research security modules. You can see what the project module looks like here. Within it, you’ll see that you have a review criteria section, which is where you would adjust all of the review criteria and a lot of other sections pertaining to, pertaining to the different aspects of the proposal, including the budget and the operation maintenance budget.

You’ll also see that there’s a section for expressions of support, which I’ll go into in more detail here.

So, all proposals submitted to the Northern Fund will need to provide expressions of support from Northern communities to describe how these communities will engage in or benefit from the proposed research activities. These expressions of support can be provided as a combination of written text, image, audio or video formats.
As Alejandra noted earlier, the proposal development support funding can be used to enable the creation of these expressions of support, if needed, so definitely take advantage of that, if you can.

Now all of the information that’s been presented today can be found in the Northern Fund call for proposals and the guide for reviewers, which have been linked here.
You can also use the CFI Awards Management guide for administrators to guide you in your submission of any proposals, and you’ll also note the Policy and program guide, which has been linked here, which has further details on what it means to become an eligible institution, eligible cost for infrastructure projects and the details of the Infrastructure Operating Fund and what qualifies as eligible cost for operation and maintenance of equipment.

So, I know that was a lot of information, but thank you for attending the session.
Now please let us know if you have any questions. If you would prefer to contact us later, here’s, I’ll leave our email up so you can send us an email at any time.

What is the role of the Northern Fund Advisory Committee?

The Northern Fund Advisory Committee will advise the CFI on this funding program’s implementation and evolution.

How is my proposal reviewed?

The Northern Fund is not a competition-based program, and each proposal will be reviewed on its own merits. Each proposal will be reviewed by a Proposal Review Committee.

Role of the Proposal Review Committee

The Proposal Review Committee will assess whether proposals submitted to the Northern Fund meet the five review criteria and will make funding recommendations accordingly.

Review Criteria

The five review criteria for this funding program are:

Research in the North for the North — The research activities are of high relevance to Northern communities, are feasible, and have been co-created, co-developed or co-managed with First Nations, Métis or Inuit communities, as appropriate.

Team — The team has the relevant knowledge and experience to conduct the research activities. First Nations, Métis or Inuit team members play meaningful and leadership roles in the research activities.

Infrastructure — The research infrastructure is necessary and appropriate and will augment research capacity in the North.

Sustainability — The research infrastructure will be well managed and efficiently used.

Benefits to Northern communities — There are clear pathways to transfer research results and/or to mobilize knowledge to residents of Northern communities including First Nations, Métis or Inuit communities and potential partners. The results are likely to lead to social, cultural, health, environmental or economic benefits to Northern Canada including the training of highly qualified personnel.

Consult the call for proposals for details of each of these review criteria.

An employee standing in a conference room

Have you been invited to participate in the Northern Fund review process?

You will find everything you need to know in these guidelines if you have been invited to participate in the Northern Fund Advisory Committee or in a Proposal Review Committee to review proposals for the Canada Foundation for Innovation’s Northern Fund.

Guidelines for reviewers (Northern Fund) (June 2024)