Research Support Fund

What is the Research Support Fund?

Indirect costs are the hidden costs of conducting research that are borne by an institution. These costs may include salaries of staff dedicated to administration and support, training for health and safety, maintenance of libraries, laboratories and office space (including custodial services, internet access and furnishings) as well as development of research infrastructure such as Intellectual Property policies and Research Ethics Boards. The Government of Canada allocates a portion of research grants from federal agencies received by researchers to their home institutions each year. For more information on the program please visit the Research Support Fund homepage.

Public Disclosure of Funds 2015-2016

In 2015-16, Dawson College was awarded a grant of $67,612 from the Research Support Fund. Facilities maintenance, including custodial and IT services for research offices and labs, absorbed $7,442 of the grant. Salary offsets for research support staff (research coordinator, administrative technician, institutional project coordinator and manager) accounted for $54,308. These staff play a central role in identifying and advertising funding opportunities, ensuring grant applications are complete and admissible, tracking institutional and REB approval, ensuring compliant post-award administration, and internal benchmarking, policy development, and report writing. Professional development activities absorbed $1,050 and $4,812 was invested in retaining a professional Intellectual Property consultant, who worked with the research coordinator to revise and independently verify the draft IP Policy that the coordinator drafted.

Public disclosure of funds for previous years:

SSHRC public disclosure 2014-15

SSHRC public disclosure 2013-14

 Impacts of the Research Support Fund:

The support from the Research Support Fund (RSF) allows Dawson College to deliver excellent research administration to our research community, and support for facilities and resources. The College has been able to make strategic decisions that support long-term improvement to the research ecosystem. This enables us to attract and retain talented teacher-researchers, develop extensive partnerships and collaborations, and to support student involvement in research across the college.

Access to appropriate space for offices, labs and computing infrastructure is essential for effective research. As part of its RSF grant, Dawson supports the ADAPTECH research network which conducts research on the education and inclusion of students living with disabilities. Similarly, the SALTISE network for active learning and technological innovation in science education uses the Active Learning Classroom and other infrastructure to support its cutting edge research in pedagogy.

The RSF grant defrays a portion of the salary of the administrative staff in the Office of Academic Development and the Finance department, who provide pre-and post-award support for researchers. These staff help researchers write strong grant applications and provide the tools they need to manage their research dollars. This allows our researchers to focus their efforts on research rather than on administrative concerns. For example, in 2015, the Research Coordinator (in collaboration with a faculty and staff focus group) developed a Strategic Research Plan (2015-18) to set ambitious and measurable objectives for research. In 2015-16, we met or exceeded the targets that we set in the Strategic Plan:

For any additional information please contact the Coordinator of Research at research@dawsoncollege.qc.ca.