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IRGF Applications Now Open - Submission Deadline September 30
The IRGF application is now open for submissions in ROMEO. Deadline for submitting an application is noon, September 30.
The IRGF is the main source of internal research funds available to eligible faculty at Mount Royal University. This program is designed to support faculty in developing their research programs through the funding of:
Changes to the IRGF program guidelines were made this past summer, please review the revised guidelines, eligibility, and review criteria.
Student Travel Guidelines Document
Are you a faculty member who plans to travel with students this year? If you have questions and are unsure of where to start, check out the new student travel guidelines and best practices document on the ORSCE website.
It goes over the basics of what you need to know when planning travel with students. Pre-travel authorization (why and how it is done), risk level explanation, emergency procedures, and reimbursing students. This is a reference document and while it will answer frequently asked questions, it should not be considered a replacement for MRU policies and procedures.
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Research & EDIA Network on D2L
A new site has launched on D2L to offer a community space for MRU researchers. This site will offer resources and professional developmental opportunities for researchers interested in increasing their EDIA+Research competencies. The site will also use features such as forums and announcements, for ongoing engagement in the MRU research community. We look forward to building community with you and learning with you in the upcoming semesters through this network!
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Campus+ Knowledge Mobilization Presentation: ‘How to present research to a wider audience for greater impact'
Are you wanting to learn how to spread the impact of your research beyond Mount Royal and academic circles? Then this upcoming Campus+ webinar may interest you.
The webinar will include discussions on how to use media to amplify your work, how to discuss the impact of your work and innovative methods of communication.
Date: Friday, September 27
Time: 9:00 a.m. (Mountain time)
Register Here
Affinity Group for Racialized & Indigenous Researchers
ORSCE, in collaboration with OEDIA, will be offering a monthly, virtual meeting space for BIPOC researchers, starting September 2024. The Affinity Group for Racialized & Indigenous Researchers (AGRIR) aims to create a safe, community space that fosters cross-divisional collaboration around the lived experience of self-identified BIPOC researchers at Mount Royal University. The first meeting will be on September 19, from 12-1pm. Please register here if interested.
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Do you have a research project you want highlighted? Get in touch with Ethan Ward at eward@mtroyal.ca to schedule a meeting and discuss getting your project in the spotlight.
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Leda Stawnychko - Investigating Leadership Succession at Canadian Universities
 Leda Stawnychko, assistant professor of strategy and organizational theory at Mount Royal, has been fascinated by leadership since her teenage years.
At 16 she attended her first leadership conference, which led to travelling abroad, working in sustainable development and developing innovative academic programs.
Studying leadership in organizations and how it contributes to sustainability has always been Stawnychko’s passion. “Without leadership we have nothing. Even if we don’t identify as leaders, having leadership skills leads us to change the world for the better,” Stawnychko says.
Stawnychko’s research program focuses on leadership in post-secondary institutions. Specifically how teaching and research institutions can retain and support faculty through a state of constant flux, while also strengthening the leadership pipeline and leadership capacity.
Stawnychko stresses that Canadian universities are on the verge of a leadership crisis and identifies several contributing factors. They include an aging professoriate, lagging gender parity in senior faculty ranks, and faculty members' reluctance to assume and remain in leadership roles.
Stawnychko’s latest research paper examines the strategic role of social networks in developing leadership capacity among university department chairs and how academics enter that position. Stawnychko conducted 17 interviews with the department chairs at a research-intensive Western Canadian university to evaluate their experiences. She found that the social networks of the prospective chairs were the primary factor getting them into leadership positions.
Rather than coming across job postings through official channels, the study found that many participants were notified about possible positions through their social networks.
Based on the findings from the research paper, Stawnychko says “It is all about your network and who you know. It is not necessarily about having a business degree or specific qualifications. When you meet someone already in the leadership context, that relationship fosters the conditions that lead to you entering a leadership position,” Stawnychko says.
These strong social networks helped set expectations for what the job would entail more accurately than any official job posting. Perhaps most importantly, Stawnychko found these social networks encouraged would-be leaders to take the position in the first place.
The department chairs from the research study indicated they were initially wary of taking on the role. They went further, saying they normally would have never sought out the job until they were personally invited, encouraged, and supported by their networks, most often by their deans.
“The department chairs did not initially want the job. They did it out of a sense of duty or obligation to the university and most didn’t like the position initially,” Stawnychko says.
Despite these feelings, the department chairs from the study also felt they had a greater impact on their university while in the position. They could steer the direction of their department and support developing faculty, which ultimately proved to be a transformational experience.
Though these interviews reflected a positive experience, long-time leaders are starting to exit those positions and not enough academics are stepping in to replace them. Stawnychko notes that many of the department chairs she interviewed were in their sixties, and though willing to do the job again, they were retiring soon.
For Stawnychko, the findings further stress the need to hire and develop younger academics to ensure leadership succession is not broken. These positions are needed to maintain a healthy leadership pipeline, with Stawnychko stating that “the department chair role is preparatory for more senior positions, such as associate dean and dean, which in turn produce candidates for vice-president and ultimately for president.”
Moving into the future, Stawnychko is also concerned with other reasons academics might not be willing to step into leadership positions, such as workplace incivility. As Stawnychko describes, the social fabric of our society is changing and universities are affected by that.
These changes include the greater prevalence of remote working and the increased use of AI, which could alter how people interact with colleagues, leaders, and employees.
“Psychological safety in the university plays into faculty members' willingness to serve in leadership positions. If they think serving in leadership is going to lead to them being mistreated, the less likely they’ll want to serve,” Stawnychko says. Training for conflict management and learning how to give constructive feedback in these situations will be necessary for encouraging new hires, Stawnychko states.
To further expand upon this line of research, Stawnychko has received a research grant from the Business Schools Association of Canada to explore the impact of workplace incivility. Stawnychko has also received a SSHRC Explore grant to investigate leadership succession in business schools across Canada with her collaborators, Uthpala Senarathne-Tennakoon and Janet Miller. She hopes this research will provide insights for up-and-coming research institutions like Mount Royal.
PHOTO SUPPLIED BY LEDA STAWNYCHKO
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All external research grant applications need to be reviewed by ORSCE through the submission of a Research Activity Form in ROMEO. Submit a Research Activity Form in ROMEO at least ONE WEEK prior to the funding agency's deadline.
Deadlines cited here are for the ORSCE internal deadlines.
For Academic Staff
September 5: SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowships
These fellowships support the most promising Canadian new scholars in the social sciences and humanities, and assist them in establishing a research base at an important time in their research careers. SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship awards are tenable at Canadian or foreign universities and research institutions.
*** If MRU is the host institution, send the entire application package to your Faculty’s Vice Dean, Research by September 1 so that they may complete the “Institutional Nomination and Commitment” form in the application package.
Amount / Duration: $70,000 / year for 2 years (taxable, non-renewable)
Contact: 1-855-275-2861 (fellowships@sshrc-crsh.gc.ca)
September 8: NSERC PromoScience
NSERC's PromoScience Program offers financial support for organizations working with young Canadians to promote an understanding of science and engineering (including mathematics and technology). PromoScience supports hands-on learning experiences for young students and their teachers. Grants may be used to cover improvements to program content or delivery, as well as for new programs and activities. Grants can also be used to cover operational costs such as salaries, travel, postage, materials and supplies, provided that they relate to the promotion of science and engineering.
Amount / Duration: $200,000 / year for up to 3 years
Contact: promoscience@nserc-crsng.gc.ca
September 8: SSHRC Partnership Engage Grants
Partnership Engage Grants are expected to respond to the objectives of the Insight program and the Connection program. These grants provide short-term and timely support for partnered research activities that will inform decision-making at a single partner organization from the public, private or not-for-profit sector. The small-scale, stakeholder-driven partnerships supported through Partnership Engage Grants are meant to respond to immediate needs and time constraints facing organizations in non-academic sectors. In addressing an organization-specific need, challenge and/or opportunity, these partnerships let non-academic organizations and postsecondary researchers access each other’s unique knowledge, expertise and capabilities on topics of mutual interest.
Amount / Duration: $25,000; up to 1 year
Contact: 1-613-943-1007; partnershipengagegrants@sshrc-crsh.gc.ca
September 24: SSHRC Insight Grants
Insight Grants support research excellence in the social sciences and humanities. Funding is available to both emerging and established scholars. Stable support for long-term research initiatives is central to advancing knowledge. It enables scholars to address complex issues about individuals and societies, and to further our collective understanding. Insight Grants support research proposed by scholars and judged worthy of funding by their peers and/or other experts. Insight Grant research initiatives can be undertaken by an individual researcher or a team of researchers working in collaboration.
Amount / Duration: Stream A: $7000 - $100,000; Stream B: $100,001 - $400,000; 2 to 5 years
Contact: 1-613-996-6976; insightgrants@sshrc-crsh.gc.ca
September 24: CIHR: Catalyst Grant : Analysis of CLSA Data
The Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA) is a large, national, long-term study/platform that will follow approximately 50,000 men and women between the ages of 45 and 85 at study inclusion for at least 20 years. The CLSA collects information on the changing biological, medical, psychological, social, lifestyle and economic aspects of people's lives. These factors – sometimes referred to as the "determinants of health" - can be studied in order to understand how, individually and in combination, they have an impact in both maintaining health and in the development of disease and disability as people age. The objective of this funding opportunity is to catalyze and support research efforts of Canadian researchers to use the available CLSA data in order to better understand how biological, medical, psychological, social, lifestyle and/or economic aspects of people's lives have an impact on both maintaining health and the development of disease and disability as people age.
**NOTE: The catalyst application has a form that requires a hard signature from ORSCE. Please send this form with the entire and complete application to Yvonne no later than September 24 to coordinate a signature. An RAF in Romeo will be required before the form can be signed.
Amount / Duration: $70,000 for one year
Contact: 1-888-603-4178; support-soutien@cihr-irsc.gc.ca
October 9: NSERC & CSE: Research Communities grants - LOI
The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSE) are pleased to announce a second new funding opportunity to support Research Communities to conduct unclassified research on cutting-edge technologies in areas of strategic importance to CSE and the Government of Canada. This call focuses on exploratory analysis for unstructured data. The grants are awarded through NSERC’s Alliance grants program and grant funding is provided in equal parts by NSERC and CSE. CSE is the sole partner organization; no additional partner organizations will be accepted. The awarded projects will facilitate research aimed to:
- Advance research in fundamental algorithms and tools for exploratory analysis of large unstructured datasets.
- Develop a sustainable, open-source software ecosystem for exploratory analysis of large unstructured datasets.
- Grow and expand an inter-disciplinary community that includes, for example, mathematicians, computer scientists, visualization, and computer interaction experts to work together on exploratory analysis of unstructured datasets.
- Establish Canada and Canadian Universities as leaders in unstructured data analysis.
- Support the development of highly qualified personnel working in the field of exploratory data analysis.
Alliance full proposal (by invitation only) before 8 pm (ET) on February 26, 2025.
Amount / Duration: Individual projects can request either $700,000 (small project) or $1,400,000 (large project) per year over four years.
Contact: alliance_cse-cst@nserc-crsng.gc.ca
**For a comprehensive list of typical deadlines please visit the ORSCE website. All information on Rolling Intake opportunities can also be viewed on the ORSCE funding opportunities page,**
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Celeste Pang helped develop and release a new open access education resource. The recently released course is the "Aging and Living Well eCourse", a scenario-based learning open-access e-Course that explores intersectional issues affecting 2SLGBTQIA+ older adults in healthcare and social service settings. Available in English and French through Egale Canada: https://egale.ca/awareness/alw-ecourse/
Julie Walton, a graduate student at the University of Calgary who is supervised by Jared Fletcher was awarded the Canadian Society for Biomechanics President's Award for her research entitled "ACHILLES TENDON STIFFNESS, RUNNING ECONOMY AND PLANTAR FLEXOR MUSCLE STRENGTH IN TRAINED PRE-AND POST-MENOPAUSAL FEMALES". The President's Award is given to the best student abstract at the biennial Canadian Society for Biomechanics conference. Julie received the award at the 2024 CSB Meeting in Edmonton, AB in August. Julie completed all of this work in Dr. Fletcher's Fascicles, Tendons and Energetics Research (FasTER) Lab in HPED and plans to defend her MSc in Kinesiology in December, 2024
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Do you have some good research news you'd like to share? Did you finally get that article or book chapter published? Or, are you stoked about a student who rocked their research project? Maybe your CBC interview led to an invitation to talk to a community group who are now collaborators with you on a research project. Tell us about it!
Fill out the Google Form here and we'll spread the news in the ORSCE newsletter.
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If you would like your publication announced here, please fill out our Google Form.
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Holmgren, M. (Ed.) (2024). The letters of Lord Edward Fitzgerald from British North America, 1788-1789. Canadian Journal of Irish Studies, 45(2), 11-81.
Pang, C. (2024, August 7). Trans & Queer Aging in “Anti-Gender Ideology” Times. American Ethnologist "Aging Globally" Collection. https://americanethnologist.org/online-content/collections/aging-globally/trans-queer-aging-in-anti-gender-ideology-timesby-celeste-pang/
Perez-Amado, V., Pang, C., & Walton, A. (2024). Queer households and possibilities for shared housing: a policy case study analysis. Journal of Urban Design, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/13574809.2024.2392100
Adesola, A. (2024). Representations of Child Soldiers in Contemporary African Narratives. Lexington Books. https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781666954500/Representations-of-Child-Soldiers-in-Contemporary-African-Narratives
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