Competition

* Unless explicitly noted, all times indicated for deadlines are for the appropriate NL timezone (NST or NDT)

The John R. Evans Leaders Fund enables a select number of an institution’s excellent researchers to undertake leading-edge research by providing them with the foundational research infrastructure required to be or become leaders in their field. In turn, this enables institutions to remain internationally competitive in areas of research and technology development, aligned with their strategic priorities. This fund also offers institutions the opportunity to create competitive research support packages in the form of infrastructure and a portion of the operating and maintenance costs , coupled with direct research costs from partner organizations.

The CFI JELF is an allocation-based fund for degree-granting institutions whereby the CFI predetermines the maximum amount of funding available for each eligible institution. Eligible applicants must be current faculty members with a full-time academic appointment or in the process of being recruited to a full-time academic position. They must be recognized leaders in their field of research or show promise of becoming research leaders. They must be engaged in, or embarking on, an innovative research program for which the requested infrastructure is essential and will provide an enriched training environment.

Internal Deadlines (see uploaded document, below, for full details)

Phase 1 – Expression of Interest (internal)

June 1, 2026: Internal HSS deadline for the EOI.

June 8, 2026, 4:00 PM NDT: Deadline for the submission of an Expression of Interest (EOI). EOIs must be emailed to RIS (ris@mun.ca), with the email subject: CFI JELF EOI October 2026 Call. The maximum CFI amount that can be requested is $465,000. All received EOIs will be reviewed by a Selection Committee, and only those EOIs selected will be invited to proceed to Phase 2.

Phase 2 – Full Application Selection and Submission to CFI

Monday, Aug. 10, 2026: Deadline for the submission of a completed* Phase 2 CFI JELF application. Phase 2 applications must be submitted to RIS via the Researcher Portal. All received Phase 2 applications will be reviewed by a Selection Committee, and only the selected applications will proceed to submission to CFI.

Friday, Oct. 5, 2026: Deadline for final submission of CFI JELF applications for projects selected from Phase 2. Applications will submitted via the Researcher Portal to be reviewed by both HSS and RIS.

Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2026: Submission of finalized CFI JELF application(s) to CFI.

*Completed means ALL sections of the CFI JELF online application have been completed andsuccessfully validated by the applicants using the CFI CAMS system. All required files have beenuploaded, and meet the CFI formatting guidelines.

Competition Funding

The CFI JELF is an allocation-based funding program that predetermines the maximum amount of funding available to each CFI-eligible institution over a three-year period, based on a rolling average of cumulative funding received in eligible programs from the three federal research funding agencies (i.e., CIHR, NSERC, SSHRC).

For this Call, each CFI JELF EOI and Phase 2 application will be limited to a minimum CFI request of $75,001*, and a maximum CFI request of $465,000 or up to 40% of the total project cost (whichever amount is lower), regardless of the number of applicants per EOI. It is expected that the CFI-requested amount in Phase 1 will remain the same in Phase 2.

*Note: proposals centred in the social sciences, humanities, and arts are also permitted to request less than or equal to $75,000 of CFI funding.

Application Selection

An internal Selection Committee will assess all EOIs / Phase 2 applications received by each deadline. Chaired by the Vice-President (Research and Innovation) or their delegate, the Committee will be comprised of Academic Staff Members from the Schools / Faculties of the lead applicants for each EOI submission, along with non-voting support from RIS and other administrative personnel as required.

Only those EOIs selected by the Committee will be invited to proceed to Phase 2 for full application development and evaluation. The Committee may invite more proposals to proceed to Phase 2, to better assess which proposals are sufficiently mature to be fully developed and submitted for consideration by CFI. Therefore, it is possible that a subset of the applications selected for further development by the Committee will be eligible to proceed for final submission to CFI. All applicants will be notified via email of the EOI / Phase 2 results.

NEW - CFI JELF Project Completion

CFI has established new guidelines for the timely completion of each awarded CFI JELF project. Specifically, for each awarded project, all institutions are now required to submit the final financial report within four years of the project’s CFI board decision date. This is a change from previous competitions, where the timeline was less firmly defined. The required submission of a final financial report means that all awarded infrastructure has been received and is operational, and project spending is complete.

Future CFI JELF Opportunities

Based on Memorial’s current three-year CFI JELF allocation, the current and anticipated internal CFI JELF competitions, including the funding envelope expected for each competition, are outlined below:

Portion of Allocation to be Released: Competition timeline:

$465,000.00 May 2026 for CFI’s October 15, 2026 deadline

$465,000.00 Anticipated - January 2027 for CFI’s June 15, 2027 deadline

$465,000.00 Anticipated - January 2028 for CFI’s June 15, 2028 deadline

Any remaining CFI JELF envelope, if applicable. If applicable, anticipated launch - early Summer 2028 for CFI’s October 15, 2028 deadline

Internal Memorial Process:  This competition involves a multi-phase internal Memorial institutional internal adjudication and nomination process prior to submission to the external agency or sponsor. This process first requires Departmental and HSS Faculty approval and endorsement prior to submission of the EOI to Research Initiatives and Services (RIS).

CFI competitions are managed directly by RIS on behalf of the Office of the Vice-President (Research). Prospective applicants should contact RIS and HSS Research Support Services as early as possible regarding applications and expressions of interest. See the attached PDF for details regarding the internal process.

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.

• CFI JELF October 2026 EOI Call_May 6 2026.pdf