Objectives
The Research Impact Canada (RIC) Engaged Scholarship Award for Graduate Students (RIC Award) recognizes graduate students that conduct research projects following engaged scholarship principles that lead to increased awareness of audiences beyond academia or changes in stakeholder actions, practices, guidelines or policies. This award contributes to the promotion and recognition of engaged scholarship, co-creation of knowledge, or knowledge translation among Canadian graduate students.
The RIC Award is funded by the Research Impact Canada Network, a pan-Canadian network of universities committed to maximizing the impact of academic research for the public good in local and global communities. RIC builds institutional capacities for creating and assessing the impacts of research, scholarship and creative activities by developing and sharing best practices, services and tools.
Recipients of the 2021 RIC Award will receive:
- $1500 cash award
- a complimentary registration to the Canadian Association of Research Administrators Annual Conference (CARA), May 2021 where they will be invited to present on their engaged research project at a featured Knowledge Mobilization session
- promotion of their winning research project on the RIC website and across national and international social media channels
- access to a network of more than 60 active knowledge mobilization professionals representing 20+ Canadian universities
- opportunities to participate in one or more of the RIC’s national webinar sessions
2. Eligibility
a) Eligibility criteria
The RIC Award is open to graduate students of all disciplines. A student may self-nominate or be nominated by a faculty member or community organization. Faculty members and community organizations may nominate more than one student research project for the award but each application must recognise only one student. The applicant’s research project may be complete or in progress; however, in order for the application to be eligible, the applicant must:
- be a graduate student currently registered at one of RIC’s Canadian member institutions
- be leading or have led a research project in partial fulfillment of a graduate degree program at one of RIC’s Canadian member institutions
- demonstrate how the project follows engaged scholarship principles and has resulted in increased awareness of targeted audiences or changes in stakeholder actions, practices, guidelines or policies
- provide a copy of the project’s human research ethics approval certificate from the member institution
The RIC Award recognizes students who have demonstrated:
- Evidence of knowledge user or stakeholder engagement or public outreach either at the local, regional, national or international level;
- Evidence of increased awareness of targeted audiences beyond academia or changes in stakeholder actions, practices, guidelines or policies; and
- Evidence of lessons learned from experience of engaged scholarship.
Application Deadlines, Requirements
a) Application Deadlines
There is one competition per year for the RIC Engaged Scholarship Award. Applications must be submitted as a single PDF file and received at info@researchimpact.ca by 4 p.m. (EST) on February 15, 2021.
b) Application Requirements
All application documents must be in 12-point font.
- i) Application cover letter (Three pages maximum):
– Introduction: Background and academic journey
– Overview of the research project and engaged scholarship experience
– Description of partners/knowledge users
– Contribution to change/impact
– Lessons learned
- ii) Short CV (Three pages maximum)
iii) Two letters of support (Each two pages maximum)
- A letter from project stakeholders, knowledge users, participants, collaborators or partners describing the importance of your contribution to changes or impact in their actions, practices, guidelines or policies, etc.
- A letter from an academic supervisor describing your journey, evolution, lessons learned from this engaged scholarship experience. Letters of support must:
- Be dated and signed;
- Show an official letterhead;
- Be a maximum of two pages;
- Include the writer’s position, affiliation, email address and telephone number;
- Include the applicant’s name and the period and capacity in which the writer has known the applicant
- iv) Copy of the human research ethics approval for the project
- Adjudication and Evaluation Criteria
Applications will be evaluated by a multidisciplinary Selection Committee according to the following criteria:
- Relevance, importance and clarity of the application (25%):
- Relevance and importance of the research project and engaged scholarship activities;
- Application is well written and clear
- Impact and Outcomes (50%):
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- Effectiveness of engaged scholarship activities;
- Evidence of influence or impact on practices, behaviours etc.
- Originality and relevance of lessons learned (25%):
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- Evidence of lessons learned
Additional information
For more information, please contact Research Impact Canada at info@researchimpact.ca
