SSHRC Connection Grants: 2026 Competitions

Sponsor

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)

For More Information

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• Tuesday, November 25, 2025 (English) - 11 am to 1 pm
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• Wednesday, November 26, 2025 (French) - 11 am to 1 pm
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Description

Connection Grants are expected to respond to the objectives of the Research Partnerships program.

These grants support events and outreach activities geared toward short-term, targeted knowledge mobilization initiatives. These events and activities represent opportunities to exchange knowledge and engage with participants on research issues they value. Events and outreach activities funded by a Connection Grant can often serve as a first step toward more comprehensive and longer-term projects.

Connection Grants support workshops, colloquiums, conferences, forums, summer institutes, documentaries or other events or outreach activities that facilitate:

• disciplinary and/or interdisciplinary exchanges in the social sciences and humanities;
• scholarly exchanges between those working in the social sciences and humanities and those working in other research fields;
• intersectoral exchanges between academic researchers in the social sciences and humanities and researchers and practitioners from the public, private and/or not-for-profit sectors; and/or,
• international research collaboration and scholarly exchanges with researchers, students and non-academic partners from other countries.

Only a Canadian institution that holds institutional eligibility can administer funds. However, the intellectual leadership and governance for Connection Grant activities can come from within the research community and/or from within the not-for-profit sectors.

SSHRC welcomes applications involving Indigenous research, as well as those involving research-creation. To this regard, Connection Grants support events and outreach activities related to research-creation and Indigenous research.

Research Data Management Capacity Building Initiative

Through this initiative, SSHRC is committed to funding up to 10 meritorious Connection Grant proposals per competition to help the social sciences and humanities research community develop, adopt and disseminate research data management standards, practices, tools and skills. Learn more about the Research Data Management Capacity Building Initiative.

Unless otherwise indicated, there is no separate application process for most initiatives and supplements. However, candidates must select this initiative on the first page of the application to indicate they wish to be considered for an initiative or a supplement. They also need to explain why they wish to be considered in their application form. SSHRC staff will conduct an administrative review to evaluate the proposal’s relevance to this initiative. Applications deemed ineligible for the Research Data Management Capacity Building Initiative will remain in the Connection Grants competition.

Eligibility

Review the Eligibility criteria related to subject matter, proposed events and outreach activities, participants and audiences as well as applicant eligibility. 

Maximum Project Value

Connection Grants supporting events are valued at $10,000 to $25,000 over one year.

Connection Grants supporting outreach activities are valued at $10,000 to $50,000 over one year.

A minimum request of $10,000 is required.

For outreach activities only, SSHRC is willing to consider amounts higher than $50,000, although such applications must satisfactorily justify the need for the higher amount, as well as provide evidence the entire award can be managed within the one-year time frame.

Matching Funds

SSHRC will not fund the full cost of any Connection Grant project. Additional support in the form of eligible cash and/or in-kind contributions (excluding registration fees) equivalent to a minimum of 50% of the amount requested from SSHRC must come from sponsoring organizations. For example, an applicant asking SSHRC for $10,000 in funding will have to demonstrate additional support equal to at least $5,000. SSHRC will consider only eligible funds stemming from sponsoring organizations in its calculations of matching funds; individual contributions will not be considered in the calculation of matching funds.

Applicants must demonstrate their ability to secure at least the minimum matching funding. Applicants must do so by including letters of support from sponsoring organizations that clearly confirm the amounts and types of contributions the organizations are providing for the proposed event or activity. A letter of support must be signed by someone with signing authority for the organization.

Only contributions from sponsoring organizations identified in signed letters of support will count toward the required 50% matching funds. Amounts appearing in letters of support from individuals will not be used in this calculation.

Applicants can draw on complementary funding from SSHRC research grants and/or other research funding agencies but must make clear in their budget proposal that there is no duplication of financial support for the same budget expenses. While such funds can be used in this complementary way, these funds cannot be counted toward the 50% requirement for matching funds.

See SSHRC’s Guidelines for Cash and In-Kind Contributions for more details.

Indirect Costs

There are no indirect costs on the funding provided directly by SSHRC. The external partner(s) funds are subject to the applicable indirect cost rate as specified in the Full Cost of Research Policy.

Project Duration

1 year

Special Notes

Regulations, Policies and Related Information

SSHRC reserves the right to determine the eligibility of applications, based on the information included. SSHRC also reserves the right to interpret the regulations and policies governing its funding opportunities.

All applicants and grant holders must comply with the Regulations Governing Grant Applications and with the regulations set out in the Tri-Agency Guide on Financial Administration. Applicants are advised to consult the Use of grant funds section of the Tri-agency Guide on Financial Administration to determine whether an expenditure is an appropriate use of grant funds.

Grant holders must also comply with the Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications (see the Open Access overview for more information) and the Tri-Agency Research Data Management Policy, which replaced SSHRC’s Research Data Archiving policy for all active grants on April 1, 2021.

Specific Rules for the Use of Grant Funds

• Grant funds cannot be used to remunerate team members regardless of an individual’s eligibility to apply for grants.* This includes postdoctoral fellows serving in any capacity as a member of the team.
  • *Exception to the above rule: In some cases, Indigenous team members may be compensated. For more information, see the Tri-agency guideline on remuneration for Indigenous people participating in funded projects. In such cases, the team member may not be delegated to authorize grant expenditures, and under no circumstances is the applicant/project director eligible to be compensated from grant funds.
• Grant funds cannot be used for salaries or stipends to individuals whose status would make them eligible to hold a grant from the agency.
• Grant funds cannot be used for course release time to allow an individual to engage in research activities.
• Grant funds can be used for consulting fees for expert and/or professional and technical services that contribute directly to the proposed research activities, as long as the service is not being provided by a team member or an individual whose status would make them eligible to hold a SSHRC grant.
• Grant funds cannot be used for research.
• An organization cannot be both a contractor and a sponsoring organization on the same project.
• Up to $50,000 of grant funds can be used to develop connection-related tools for knowledge mobilization activities (see the guidelines listed for support of tools).