Purpose

The ResearchNB Bridge Grant Program is designed to build on existing research capacity in New Brunswick by providing support for researchers who have scored at the fundable level on a recent application to any national funding agency or charity but have not been funded for that application or closely related research.

Scope 

The funded research must be in a field related to ResearchNB’s priority sectors: health, energy, forestry, agriculture, or oceans.

Eligibility

To be eligible to apply, the applicant must:

• Present a project that is self-contained and performed within a 12-18 month period.
• Be affiliated with a New Brunswick university, research institution, health service organization, voluntary health agency or non-profit research organization. Students will not be funded as principal investigators.
• Not hold concurrent funding under this ResearchNB Program.
• Ensure that 100% of the research will be performed in the province of New Brunswick. 

Eligible Expenses

Expenses must be directly linked to the activities of the proposed project and can include:

• Salary of technicians, research assistants, and research associates.
• General office expenses and supplies.
• Research equipment (note: laptop and desktop computers are not considered allowable expenses unless they are connected to a piece of equipment).
• Reimbursement for use of hospital equipment or personnel for medical procedures.
• Expenses incurred by research subjects to allow them to participate in the research but not honoraria or payments for participation, except in exceptional circumstances.
• Technical advice of an unusually complex nature and/or requiring a considerable time commitment that goes beyond what could be expected in a collegial relationship.
• Field travel required for the project.
• Communications and knowledge translation.
• Travel to scientific events related to the project.    

Management or administrative overhead charges or fees are not permissible expenses.

Application Procedure

Before applying, the applicant must:

• Have submitted an application to any national funding agency (such as but not limited to any of the tri-agencies, national charity or international funding agency with a peer review process) for funding under their Operating Grant programs, received a peer-review score and were not funded.
  • The peer review score must be the equivalent of 3.75 or above; or the equivalent of 3.5 or above and the ranking is in the top 50% of its competition.
• Have received the final Notice of Decision within fifteen (15) months of applying for the Bridge grant.

Note: The principal researcher may only receive funding from the ResearchNB Bridge Grant program twice for the same health research project (i.e.: an application that has been independently peer-reviewed twice by a tri-agency or another organization, meaning that a third negative review is not eligible for this ResearchNB program).  ResearchNB reserves the right to make the determination of whether or not it is the same project based on the information provided in all applications.

Once the items are satisfied above, a researcher must submit an application through the ResearchNB online portal. The application must include:

Project/Program Proposal

• Outline the proposed research project in adequate detail. Applicants should provide an appropriate description of their proposed research including: research question(s) approaches, methods and literature, data collection and analysis and any preliminary results, conclusions etc.
• Maximum 3 pages, plus references.

Relevance of Project to Research in New Brunswick

• Outline how their project impacts the province of New Brunswick and the population.
• Maximum 1 page, plus references.

Budget

• Maximum 2 pages.

Copy of Original Application

• The original application to the agency, the final Notice of Decision and the associated detailed peer-review comments and evaluations must be included in the application to ResearchNB as an attachment.

Curriculum Vitae (CV) 

• An up-to-date CV in any format, submitted as a PDF.

Evaluation 

Applications are reviewed to ensure that they:

• Fit with the purpose, scope and requirements of the funding program.
• Fit within a field related to ResearchNB priority sectors, defined under Scope above.

Award Duration and Reporting

The duration of the award is 12-18 months.

The grant recipient must submit a final report within 90 days of the end of the project, as outlined in the Award Letter from ResearchNB. The Final Report is accessed through the ResearchNB online portal.

Award Size

Awards are offered up to $35,000 per project.

Notice of Decision

Applicants can normally expect to receive a Notice of Decision (NOD) within 6 weeks of the time of submission. NODs will be sent to the institution’s research administration office and the applicant by email.

Fund Contact: Research Services Team at researchservices@researchnb.ca