Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council’s 2024-25 Departmental plan at a glance

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Key priorities

• Building bridges and enhancing impact.
• Equipping researchers and students to thrive in an evolving research environment.
• Ensuring SSHRC has a diverse, inclusive, innovative and thriving workforce.

Refocusing Government Spending

In Budget 2023, the government committed to reducing spending by $14.1 billion over the next five years, starting in 2023-24, and by $4.1 billion annually after that.

As part of meeting this commitment, SSHRC is planning the following spending reductions.

• 2024-25: $1,355,000
• 2025-26: $1,355,000
• 2026-27 and after: $1,355,000

SSHRC is committed to minimizing disruptions to its operations in meeting these spending reductions and to build on its continuing efforts to ensure that its travel and professional services expenditures are reduced appropriately. SSHRC will continue to work with the other federal research funding agencies ―the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC)― to align the approaches to implement any saving measures identified.

SSHRC will achieve these reductions by doing the following:

• Starting in 2024-25, ongoing operating reductions of $1,016,000 in professional services and $339,000 in travel from Budget 2023 to support the refocusing of government spending.

The figures in this departmental plan reflect these reductions.  

Highlights

A Departmental Results Framework consists of an organization’s core responsibilities, the results it plans to achieve, and the performance indicators that measure progress toward these results.

Core Responsibility 1: Funding Social Sciences and Humanities Research and Training

Departmental results:

• Departmental Result 1: Canada’s social sciences and humanities research is internationally competitive.
• Departmental Result 2: Canada has a pool of diverse and highly skilled people in the social sciences and humanities.
• Departmental Result 3: Canada’s social sciences and humanities research knowledge is used.

Planned spending: $726,456,649

Planned human resources: 249

SSHRC helps Canada sustain and enhance its globally competitive position as a producer of high-calibre research, in part by supporting international collaborations in its programs, by working with international funding partners, and delivering unique programs that strengthen Canada’s competitiveness in priority research areas.

• SSHRC will continue to strengthen Canada’s research presence and visibility in the international research community through the implementation of its International Framework and Action Plan and by leveraging existing collaborations. These include: the US National Science Foundation on climate and the bioeconomy (Global Centers); with social science funders through the Trans-Atlantic Platform on governance; and with Horizon Europe on a range of topics. It will also develop new initiatives, aligned with government priorities, with partners around the world. SSHRC will pursue its partnership with the Research on Research Institute to unlock the potential of research investments. SSHRC also will launch a new funding opportunity with CIHR to support projects looking at how research is conducted and supported, with the goal of ultimately strengthening research practice.
• SSHRC administers several tri-agency programs that aim to strengthen Canada’s international competitiveness and create long-term social and economic benefits. Among the initiatives pursued in 2024-25 are the Canada Biomedical Research Fund and the New Frontiers in Research Fund, including its International Joint Initiative for Research in Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation, and the new international research initiative on Sustainable Development of the Arctic.

To increase the pool of highly skilled people in the social sciences and humanities, SSHRC supports research training and initiatives that foster equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) across the research enterprise.

• SSHRC, NSERC and CIHR will continue to implement the Tri-Agency Training Strategy to help support and prepare scholars for wide-ranging careers in research. SSHRC will also pursue the development of its action plan to address anti-Black racism in the Canadian social sciences and humanities research enterprise, and the implementation of the Black Scholars initiative.
• Guided by the tri-agency Indigenous Leadership Circle in Research, SSHRC will continue to lead the implementation of the tri-agency strategic plan Setting new directions to support Indigenous research and research training in Canada. Work will include leading the development and implementation of the Tri-Agency Policy on Indigenous Citizenship and Membership Affirmation in key programs and ongoing support for Indigenous students through the Indigenous Scholars Award and Supplements Pilot Initiative. The agency will also revise the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans and the Research Ethics Framework to better address the conduct of research by and with Indigenous communities.

SSHRC continues to seek opportunities to make the results of its funding accessible to Canadians and organizations in all sectors, thus contributing to decision-making, policy-making and innovation. It is also helping identify and address the challenges of today and tomorrow.

• Through its Imagining Canada’s Future initiative, SSHRC will continue to mobilize social sciences and humanities research and talent to address future and emerging societal challenges for Canada by launching a new Knowledge Synthesis Grant (KSG) competition on “Envisioning Governance Systems that Work” and organizing knowledge mobilization activities to share findings with policy-makers and stakeholders.
• SSHRC will also continue its work to lead and support initiatives related to research data management, open access, and research security by implementing and revising tri-agency policies and other activities.

More information about core responsibility 1: Funding social sciences and humanities research and training can be found in the full departmental plan.

Core Responsibility 2: Institutional Support for the Indirect Costs of Research

Departmental result:

• Departmental Result: Canada’s university and college research environments are strong.

Planned spending: $453,127,095

Planned human resources: 6

The Research Support Fund (RSF) reinforces the federal government’s research investment by helping Canadian postsecondary institutions and their affiliated research hospitals and institutes defray the indirect costs associated with managing the research supported by the three federal research funding agencies. The program provides institutions with an annual grant to help offset the costs of maintaining a world-class research environment with modern facilities, equipment and essential resources. It also provides additional support through Incremental Project Grants for projects focusing on the program’s priority areas.

The next evaluation of the RSF program will be initiated in 2024-25. The evaluation approach and design, including the specific relevant questions to be investigated, will be developed through the first phase of the evaluation.

More information about core responsibility 2: Institutional support for the indirect costs of research can be found in the full departmental plan.