- October 29, 2019
- Applied Research
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First Year of Social Innovation Fund Closes
For us, the meaning of innovation is constantly changing. And while it’s easy to picture an applied researcher in a white lab coat, the reality is that innovation comes in many different forms.
Recognising the diversity of New Brunswick innovation and a gap in the research funding landscape for the social sciences, we launched our Social Innovation Research Fund (SIRF) back in March 2019, as a two-year pilot project in partnership with the New Brunswick Social Policy Research Network (NB-SPRN.
The SIRF is for projects that stand to positively impact the province, like our other funds but is solely focused on socially innovative projects that will benefit New Brunswick through:
- creating lasting changes to systematic challenges that have left vulnerable people behind;
- better quality of life for all New Brunswickers; or
- solving a complex social problem in the province that has a direct or indirect cost to local, provincial, federal governments or other organizations delivering services
We received 39 applications from May-June 2019, with a requested total of $1.161 million. We granted nine applications, totaling $200,000 in funding. Here is the list of researchers and projects we’ve chosen this year:
2019-2020 SIRF Round 1 Awardees/Alternates
|
Researcher |
Institution |
Funding Awarded |
Project Title/Description |
|
Bill McIver |
NBCC |
$30,000 |
Non-profit organization data collection tool plan to collect, analyze, and share data among social service organizations. |
|
Janine Rogers |
MTA |
$15,000 |
Cultural literacy program for NB Museum which brings adult learners to the museum for independent learning and cultural awareness. |
|
Shelley Doucet |
UNB |
$30,000 |
Transition strategy for youth with complex needs in pediatric care to adult care. |
|
Grant Handrigan |
UdeM |
$15,000 |
Active school travel planning pilot program in Moncton area. |
|
Susan Reid |
STU |
$20,000 |
Connecting incarcerated mothers with their children via video conferencing. |
|
Michelle Lafrance |
STU |
$20,000 |
Information and system navigation for older adults and their caregivers in NB. |
|
Céline Surette |
UdeM |
$25,000 |
Interactive mapping tool to measure cumulative impacts of natural resource development on NBers. |
|
Murshed Chowdhury |
UNB |
$20,000 |
Study of and development of strategies to improve short- and long-term retention of immigrants in NB. |
|
Gül Çalişkan |
STU |
$25,000 |
Community based narrative inquiry into economic immigrant retention in Fredericton. |
We’re extremely proud to be backing such worthy projects and pleased to have NB-SPRN’s expertise available to help evaluate applicants and contribute funding. The SIRF has a total value of $400,000 for the duration of the pilot project – we’ve contributed $300,000, while the remainder was funded by NB-SPRN. We expect to support around 15 projects during the fund’s two-year pilot project. If successful, we hope to see the pilot project turning into a permanent fund. The second round of calls for proposals for the SIRF will be opened on Nov 14 and will close on Jan 27.
