Competition

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

Webinar – September 17, 10:00 PST / 13:00 EST

With funding from the Strategic Science Fund (SSF), MEOPAR has launched the Expedition Fund; a program to support Canadian leadership in ocean-going marine research.

MEOPAR is making it easier for Canadian ocean researchers to obtain funding for collecting observations at sea. With three different horizons (Rapid Response, Strategic Support, and Major Expeditions) the Expedition Fund addresses community needs on short to long timescales.

This program is designed to be fundamentally different in scope from the NSERC Ship Time Program (STP). Whereas the NSERC STP supports NSERC Discovery Grant holders and their individual research programs, the MEOPAR Expedition Fund is intended to support multidisciplinary collaborations on very different scales.

While we anticipate that some projects may leverage a complimentary proposal to the NSERC STP, eligibility for MEOPAR funding is greatly expanded under SSF, extending opportunities to researchers who may have had limited access to vessel funding in the past.

This program was developed in response to an identified need, in part, by the work of the National Research Vessel Task Team, which conducted a survey showing that of 50+ marine researcher respondents, 86% did not have sufficient access to research vessels, and only 30% had a recent opportunity to propose and lead a research expedition as Chief Scientist.

Expedition duration: Several days to several weeks, depending on vessel size.

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. 

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 prior to the HSS internal deadline listed below. HSS cannot guarantee completion of an administrative review for application files that are incomplete and/or are submitted after the HSS deadline. 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.