Competition

Max Bell Foundation makes grants to support projects that are designed to inform public policy. We do so across four program areas: Education; Environment; Health & Wellness; and Civic Engagement and Democratic Institutions. Our priorities for each of these programs are described below.

Our focus is Canada. We support projects across Canada intended to inform public policy decisions made by any level of government within Canada.

We prefer projects that:

• identify, assess, and develop innovations rather than perpetuating the status quo

• do not duplicate existing work

• are driven by demonstrable public needs

• focus on practical approaches that can be implemented

• have, in the view of experts and practitioners, a significant chance of informing policy change

• promote evidence-informed decision making

Development Grants

These grants support organizations doing early-stage work that is intended to lead to and/or support a larger project that will aim to inform public policy. They often provide excellent learning and mentorship experiences for students or early career individuals. Examples of funded development grants have the following characteristics:

• They undertake short-term (typically four to six months) developmental work on public policy issues in health & wellness, education, or environment.

• They help position applicant organizations to succeed with other larger-scale public policy initiatives.

• They may include data gathering, environmental scanning, literature reviews, preliminary analyses, detailed project planning, etc.

Grants within this program have budgets that range from $3,000 to $6,000 per month, depending on the qualifications of the person hired. The budgets cover both a stipend for the person hired and the overhead costs of mentoring and administration.

In addition to the external funding agency’s submission procedures, this opportunity must also be submitted for Departmental, HSS Faculty, and Research Initiatives and Services (RIS) institutional reviews and approvals via Memorial's Researcher Portal (RP). In order to facilitate the HSS Faculty’s administrative review, please ensure "Heather C. O'Brien (Grants Facilitator)" and “Matthew Milner (Grants Facilitator)” are added as "Team Members" on your RP file. Allow at least 10 business days for these reviews to be completed.

In accordance with University-wide approval protocols, all tabs of the RP file must be completed, the completed application must be uploaded to the “Attachments” tab, all supporting documentation including support for cash and in-kind commitments and/or letters of support must also be uploaded, and “Submit” must be pressed in order for HSS to begin its administrative review and provide approvals. HSS cannot guarantee timely completion of an administrative review for application files that are incomplete. For more detailed submission instructions and information, please consult the HSS Research Support Services website.

If you plan to apply to this competition or other research funding opportunities (as either PI or CI), e-mail an HSS Grants Facilitator, Heather C. O’Brien (HSSResearchAdmin@mun.ca or 864-8603) or Matthew Milner (HSSResearchGrants@mun.ca or 864-8050), to notify the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of your intent to apply. E-mailing the intent to apply as early as possible will help to facilitate an efficient review. A Grants Facilitator can answer any questions you may have about internal or external submission procedures and may also be able to help with proposal development.