1) Do I have to have matching or leveraged funding in order for my proposal to be approved?
Research that is of excellent calibre and on-point with respect to the priorities identified on your Theme’s Strategic Plan would merit support from the OMAFRA/U of G Agreement even in the absence of business or industry sector support.

2) Does matching or leveraged funding have to be from business and industry?

Matching or leveraged funding does not have to be from business and industry (see further details about qualifying matching/leveraged funding below), although certainly investment in the research from the industry/business sector will signal good market pull for the research, which might place it in a higher level of acceptance by the review committee.

3) What qualifies as matching or leveraged funding?

Any funding from any source other than from the provincial government officially qualifies as matching or leveraged funding for the purposes of OMAFRA. Thus any funding from federal (tri-council, CFI, IRAP, etc.), municipal, business and industry, farm or trade organization sources, or from any other source (except Prov. of Ont.) counts.

And just to be clear, Provincial funding (such as from Min. of Research & Innovation, Environment, Natural Resources, Public Infrastructure Renewal, Ontario Innovation Trust, Ontario Centres of Excellence, OMAFRA New Directions, Food Safety or Alternative Fuels programs, etc.) should also be accepted and listed on OMAFRA/U of G Research proposals, because we (University, and perhaps others) accept and recognize these provincial funds as matching/leverage. It is just that the OMAFRA (provincial) definition precludes the counting of other provincial funds as matching/leverage for the OMAFRA funding.

4) Do in-kind contributions qualify as matching or leveraged funds?

Matching or leveraged support can be in the form of in-kind contributions towards a project, as well as cash. In-kind is defined, for the purposes of the OMAFRA/U of G agreement as “an asset or service that is essential to a project's or initiative's success and otherwise would be purchased and paid for by the research project funding”.

5) How should I calculate the leveraged funds ratio? Should partner funding that is requested but not yet confirmed, be included in the calculation?

The leverage ratio is calculated automatically using the values you enter for Partner Contributions and the value entered for Project Operating Funding Requested from the OMAFRA/U of G Research Program, in the Project Budget Template.

Requested and confirmed partner funding values are both used to calculate the leverage ratio.

6) What is the leveraged funding ratio target for the entire OMAFRA/U of G Research Program? Is there a minimum or maximum leveraged funding ratio target for individual projects?

For the entire OMAFRA/U of G Research Program, the target is to achieve leverage of $1 of partner funding for every $1 invested of OMAFRA/U of G Research Program operating funds. However, there is no minimum or maximum leverage ratio targeted for an individual project --- there may be zero leverage, or there may be a multi-fold leverage (2X?, 4X?, 10X?). In some cases, it may be difficult to obtain leveraged funds, depending on the nature of the project and the ability of the sector to offer supporting funding. In other cases, leveraged funding may be very easy to find/obtain. Remember that funding from any source is worthwhile leverage (Tri-Council grants, other federal or provincial research funding; industry or producer group support, etc.) and should be included in the listing of partner contributions.

7) Who is eligible to submit a project proposal? Can a contract faculty or research associate be a co-applicant?

The Principal Investigator (PI) must be a U of G faculty member, either Full, Associate or Assistant.

Adjunct or contract faculty are not eligible to be the PI, but they can be included as project collaborators and thus can direct portions of the research activity and control the portion of the budget for their component of the project, under the PIs overall direction.

8) Can non-University of Guelph scientists collaborate on OMAFRA/U of G Projects?
Scientists anywhere in the world are eligible and acceptable project collaborators.

There are a couple of ways in which money can be moved to scientists at other institutions, as follows:

The preferred method is that U of G set up a Collaborative Research Agreement (CRA) with the other institution. The CRA would detail specific requirements regarding scope of work, funding amount and cash flow, reporting requirements and accountability, and any issues pertaining to intellectual property (IP) or
The partnering institution can invoice your project for the costs incurred on project delivery at their institution. This is often the easiest and least administratively difficult option, but does not cover any of the key issues noted above that would be contractual obligations under a CRA. The biggest gap with this option is how IP will be handled. Not having this sorted out up front can be a very costly and painful mistake if anything contentious arises later on and IP has a huge potential for such contentious issues to arise.

In either scenario, there are a couple of points you need to keep in mind when negotiating the arrangement with the collaborating researcher and their institution:

You need to build in any extra funds they require for institutional overhead costs.
If the collaboration is in another country, monetary exchange rates will become an issue to be considered. For example, a collaboration initiated a year or so ago when the Canadian and U.S. dollars were at or close to par would have a very different look to it now with an 80 cent Canadian dollar.

9) Should only U of G Collaborators be included in my team description or should industry/OMAFRA/other collaborators be included as well? For instance if I have 3 or 4 U of G researchers collaborating, an OMAFRA extension specialist, 2 veterinarians and 1 other industry partner are they all included in the team description?

Yes, all of these individuals should be included in your listing of research team members, with a brief description of what value they bring to the project/team.

10) Are signatures required from the entire research team and the department heads (Chairs, Directors, etc.) of everyone on the research team? Are CVs required for everyone on the research team?

Signatures are required from the U of G researchers and their department heads. Researchers need to sign off on their commitment and the Department head of every U of G researcher needs to know what their researchers are committing to.

Signatures of other team members such as extension specialists, vets or industry partners are not required nor are the signatures of thoir department heads. However, non U of G collaborators do need to ensure that they have the endorsement of their manager/organization to be involved in the manner proposed.

CVs are required from all U of G faculty and all non-U of G collaborators if they are researchers on the project.

CV’s are not required for non-researchers (i.e. OMAFRA specialists, industry collaborators, technical assistants, etc.).

11) Can a Vineland-U of G Adjunct Professor be a Principal Investigator/Project Leader?

Any Vineland-U of G adjunct professor in good standing can apply on their own to be the Principal Investigator (PI) or Lead on the project as long as they are a full-time, senior researcher who is employed directly by Vineland, and who has applied for and met the Adjunct Faculty requirements of a U of G department. Principal Investigators cannot be someone from another university, or company, who does some work at Vineland, and who is an Adjunct at U of G. . The key should be: PIs get a Vineland paycheque for their full salary, and they are a valid U of G Adjunct faculty member. A valid VRIC Adjunct can be a PI, but really should have some participating faculty as partners in the project.

12) Does a Vineland-U of G Adjunct Professor Principal Investigator have to collaborate with U of G researchers in order for a proposal to be approved?

Proposals will be evaluated according to many criteria, at least part of which will be the PI's efforts to partner with Guelph researchers in some way, as well as to meet all the science based, funding leverage, and priority-based criteria etc. U of G research partners, can be any U of G researcher located at any of the campuses (Guelph, Ridgetown, Kemptville, Alfred), and are not restricted to just the Vineland-based U of G researchers.

13) Does every collaborator have to fill out a separate budget worksheet in the Excel Project Budget Template?

Only researchers on a project team who need to handle/manage money independently from other researchers on the team, assuming funding is approved, and who will need to have a separate grant account set up for their portion of the project, need to fill out a separate budget sheet in the Excel Project Budget Template.

For example, if there are 8 researchers on the project team, and 3 of these work closely together and all of their project costs relate, for example, to a shared post-doc, a shared contract technician, perhaps stipends for one or more graduate students, or shared expenses for laboratory supplies and equipment operation, then a single budget sheet in the template could be completed covering the combined expenses for these 3 researchers. If each of the other 5 researchers required separate budget allocations within the overall project, each of these 5 would complete a separate sheet in the Excel Project Budget Template.

14) We are planning a project that fits within more than one Research Theme. How do we address this in our proposal?

In Section 4 of the Proposal Template entitled “Research Theme Priorities”, you are asked to indicate, using checkboxes, which Themes you believe you are addressing. You are also asked to list, by Theme, the specific priorities from the “OMAFRA / U of G Priorities” document that you plan to address. This information will show that your objectives meet those of multiple Themes.

It would be helpful to the Research Program Directors (RPDs) and Review Committees if you provide a rough estimate of the financial split. However, you do not need to separate out the budgets or the leveraged funding!

The RPDs and program administrators are tasked with determining how the funds for approved projects are sourced (i.e., from which Theme ‘pot’, if more than one), but this should not involve or need to be a concern for you or your team.

15) Do I need to submit an OR-5 Form with my proposal? Who is the University signing authority and when do they sign the OR-5 Form?

Yes, an OR-5 form must be submitted with your proposal.

The University signing authority is Rich Moccia, AVP (Research) Agri-food and Partnerships. You do not need to contact Rich for his signature. He will sign it after it is submitted with your proposal.

16) Can CVs for proposals be in either NSERC format or SSHRC format?

Yes, CVs for prosposals can be submitted in either format.

17) Do overhead charges pertain to OMAFRA/ U of G projects?

For the OMAFRA / Uof G Research Program, overhead is already paid and does not need to be calculated or included in any way within the project budget.

Overhead charges pertain only to grants and funding received from sources other than the OMAFRA/Uof G Agreement or Tri-Council (NSERC, SSHRC, CIHR) programs.

All other grants and research funding from all other sources (including OMAFRA Competitive Programs, such as New Directions, Food Safety Research program, etc.) must calculate the required overhead fees and show these in their budgets for those projects.

Normally there are 2 types of project expenses that are exempt from overhead – graduate student stipends and research station access fees. The Overhead Rates chart can be found on the Office Of Research (Research Services) website at http://www.uoguelph.ca/research/forms/documents/Adobe/Indirect%20Cost%20Rates%20at%20the%20University%20of%20Guelph.pdf

Yes, the OMAFRA/U of G project money transferred to another University must cover the overhead portion charged by that University, as well as the operating dollars required by the researcher at that University.

Frequently asked Questions

Leveraged Funding

Research Teams

Proposal Templates, OR-5 Forms and CVs

Overhead

Office of Research

Questions?