Grant Holder's Guide

Aid to Research Workshops and Conferences

This section contains regulations that apply to grants from the Aid to Research Workshops and Conferences funding opportunity.

Dates to Remember
Basic Terms and Conditions
Financial Administration
After the Grant is Completed
Related SSHRC Policies
Contact Us

Dates to Remember

Workshops and Conferences Dates to Remember

Grant Payment

Activity report form	Final statement of account	Proceedings
For workshops and conferences: Paid in one installment in February for the fall competition and in July for the spring competition	Submit activity report form to SSHRC three months after the event Activity report form for workshops Activity report form for conferences	Submit final statement of account (PDF document, 476KB) to SSHRC on June 30	Within 2 years of the event—applicable to those whose grant includes an allocation for the publication of proceedings

Basic Terms and Conditions

What is the period of tenure?

SSHRC grants are awarded for one year. Your Notice of Award will tell you what the period of tenure for your particular grant is. Grants must be used for the preparation of, and follow-up to, the activity for which they were awarded.

Can I use my grant funds beyond the grant period indicated on my Notice of Award?

If you have a workshop or conference grant, you receive an automatic one-year extension on the use of residual funds in your account at the end of the grant term. The automatic extension does not qualify as a grant; you can submit another grant application and hold a new grant during the extension year.

What if I change institutions or move to another country?

If you change institutional affiliation between the time the grant is awarded and the time the event will be held, you must contact an awards administration officer in SSHRC's Finance Division to find out how to transfer your grant to another eligible member of the organizing committee.

What if the plans change?

New event date: The event can be postponed to a later date within the fiscal year for which the grant was awarded, provided that the program and the main guest speakers remain essentially the same as those approved by the selection committee. Although prior SSHRC approval is not required, you must inform SSHRC in writing (with a copy to the university) of the date change.

If the event is postponed to the next fiscal year, a written request for approval must be submitted to SSHRC, explaining the rationale for postponement and confirming that the event remains essentially the same. Both you and the university will be informed of SSHRC's decision shortly thereafter.

Program changes: Minor changes (e.g., replacement of guest speakers, the addition of a new topic) do not require prior SSHRC approval provided the event remains essentially the same. Approval for major program changes (e.g., changing the theme or focus of the event) must be requested in writing to SSHRC. If you are unsure about what constitutes a minor or major change, consult a SSHRC program officer.

Guest speakers change: Clearly, it is in the nature of workshops and conferences that some guest speakers may have to be replaced at the last moment. No prior SSHRC approval is required for such limited changes but they must be mentioned in the report of activities submitted at the conclusion of the grant.

Is information about the grant confidential?

Competition results are forwarded to university research administration officers, who inform candidates of the outcome of their applications. By applying through their universities, faculty members implicitly consent to have competition results released to their universities. University research administration officers and their staff must ensure that these results are released only to the applicants and those people directly involved in the administration of the grants program.

Universities are expected to store the material securely, and to ensure that it is not used or disclosed for any other purpose. After the material is no longer required, the university must destroy it promptly and in a secure manner.

What payment conditions can be attached to a grant?

Your grant may have certain conditions attached to it. For example, if you have not completed financial and productivity reports from a previous grant, your current grant payments may be withheld until you have met those conditions. Your Notice of Award will specify which, if any, reports you have not submitted. No grant funds will be released until all payment conditions have been met.

Financial Administration

How are the grants paid?

Grant funds are sent directly to your university research or business office for retention on your behalf in a SSHRC Grant Account. This arrangement relieves you of most of the administration of the grant: the business office maintains custody of the grant funds, disburses salaries and other expenditures authorized by you or your delegated authority and provides periodic reports to you and to SSHRC on the status of the grant funds.

When are the grants paid?

See Workshops and Conferences Dates to Remember.

Who can authorize expenditures from the grant account?

As the applicant, you must authorize all expenditures from your grant fund, thereby certifying that these expenditures are essential for carrying out the activity supported by the grant. No other person may initiate or authorize any expenditure from your SSHRC grant account without your delegated written authority, which must be supplied to your university's business office.

The university is responsible for administering grant funds in accordance with SSHRC guidelines and may decline to release funds for an expenditure you have proposed or authorized if such expenditure contravenes SSHRC regulations or university policies. Administration, personnel and accounting procedures must conform to the standards, practices and policies of your university.

If you do not comply with the regulations outlined in this guide, SSHRC can freeze or close your grant account(s) or all SSHRC accounts at your university. If you use your grant funds to pay expenditures contrary to SSHRC policy, you will have to repay the grant account or SSHRC. Fraudulent use of SSHRC funds will be referred to the appropriate legal authorities.

What signatures are required on which documents?

Statements of Account must be signed by the grant holder and a university finance officer (who may either sign individual statements or sign and attach a covering note when sending the statements in bulk to SSHRC).

Journal vouchers and internal invoices must be signed by the grant holder or a designated representative. (If expenditures are charged to departmental accounts and internal journal vouchers are used to transfer the expenditures to the appropriate SSHRC grant account at a later date, details of the expenditure must be included with the journal voucher.)

Are grant expenditures verified by SSHRC?

Review and Investigation Officers from SSHRC's Finance Division visit universities every year. These visits allow the team to:

assess whether grant holders are well supported and have the tools necessary to properly and effectively manage their grant funds;
review the effectiveness of policies, controls and systems in place at the university to ensure that SSHRC policies and regulations are followed and that grant funds are well managed;
review the expenditures of grant holders to ensure that these were made in accordance with the council's policies, regulations and guidelines and for the purposes intended;
share and disseminate information on guidelines and expectations for financial and scientific accountability and integrity.

You must keep all accounts and records of monies received and expenditures, with supporting receipts and vouchers, for two years after the termination of the grant. These accounts and records must be made available to SSHRC or its agent on request.

Can I transfer SSHRC grant funds to another account?

You cannot transfer funds from a SSHRC grant account to any other account.

What expenses can I charge to the grant?

These grants offer limited support to help defray the travel and subsistence expenses of key presenters, Canadian student presenters and administrative costs of organizing the event, as well as publication of the event's proceedings. They are meant mainly as contributions toward the cost of holding the event, rather than as a full subsidy. A more detailed explanation of eligible expenses follows.

Participants

Only presenters are eligible to receive support. However, student presenters are eligible for support only if they are citizens or permanent residents of Canada.

Government employees are eligible for support provided the workshop or conference is not related to their normal duties, they are not representing their employer, and they are presenting a paper on their own research and not on the results of work carried out or funded by their employer.

Travel costs

Travel costs must be based on standard rates or policies in effect at your institution. If no guidelines for travel per diems exist at your institution, the federal government Treasury Board guidelines apply. These are available from SSHRC.

You may claim the cost of air travel, provided that you obtain the lowest fare possible and that the cost does not exceed the equivalent of full economy fare. Subsistence costs may be claimed for the additional days a traveler may be required to stay in order to take advantage of a lower fare, provided that the total cost of the fare and subsistence is less than the cost of a full economy fare. If an upgrade is necessary for medical or other reasons, you must seek reimbursement elsewhere (i.e., your health insurance plan). Rental or mileage costs are allowed only if the use of a car is essential. Normal commuting costs may not be paid from a SSHRC grant account.

You may claim the cost of child care or babysitting expenses while a nursing mother or single parent is travelling. The allowable cost for a single parent is limited to overnight child care costs incurred while travelling.

Subsistence costs

Subsistence costs for the duration of the event are eligible expenses. A half-day's subsistence may be added to the total claim for participants residing in North America who must travel for more than four hours to reach the event site within North America. One day's subsistence may be added to the total claim for participants residing outside North America. Subsistence costs must be based on standard rates or policies in effect at your institution.

Direct costs of holding a research event

Administrative expenses are eligible only if they are directly related to the workshop/conference or travel activity. The following list is not exhaustive and is intended to serve only as a general guideline:

secretarial or clerical assistance/personnel costs;
postage;
long-distance telephone only;
advertising, promotion and dissemination (in the case of workshops, as these are closed and invitational, these costs would apply to the publication);
translation of workshop or conference documents only;
interpretation;
publication of proceedings;
meeting rooms.

Will I have to provide receipts for all eligible expenses?

You are required to provide supporting documentation for all eligible expenses including internal expense allocations and shared expenses. This documentation must include original receipts or invoices and a statement justifying the expenses in the context of the workshop or conference program. The documentation you submit must be in compliance with university guidelines.

For internal or shared expenses, your documentation must include the amount charged to your SSHRC account, a description of how the amount was calculated and what the charge was for.

Travel claims

Every traveler claiming expenses from a SSHRC grant must prepare an individual claim for each trip. For claimants other than the grant holder, the affiliation with the grant holder must be specified.

Travel claims must be countersigned by the department head or dean as to the relevance of the travel to the funded research. In most universities, the business office or the human resources office is responsible for collecting and storing documentation related to eligible expenses.

Your travel claim must include the following information:

purpose of the trip;
dates and destinations;
official documentation indicating the dates of workshops and conferences;
details of daily claims for expenditures, including details of any vehicle used;
original receipts, such as hotel bills, car rental agreements, etc. (invoices and credit card slips are not valid receipts);
the claimant's signature certifying that all expenditures on the claim are for purposes for which the grant was awarded, that the charges included have not been claimed from other organizations, and that reimbursements for expenditures received from other organizations will be disclosed to the university.

Air travel ticket receipts

Original air travel ticket receipts must be returned with the grant holder's travel claim. Boarding passes will not be accepted in lieu of ticket receipts, except in the case of electronic tickets.

Personnel: compensation and benefits

You must be able to provide signed employment records, which include the employee's name, category, salary level, period of employment and details of any employee benefits paid from the grant.

As of April 1, 2010, payment of honoraria for guest lecturers are now eligible costs.

What costs are ineligible?

Any cost that is not related to the legitimate objectives of the workshop or conference is ineligible. The following list is not exhaustive and is intended to serve as a general guideline:

any cost incurred before a grant is awarded (with the exception of airline tickets);
registration fees;
purchase of computer equipment or software;
purchase or rental of standard office equipment such as desks, chairs, filing cabinets, photocopiers, facsimile and answering machines;
hospitality expenses such as banquets and alcoholic refreshments;
normal commuting costs may not be paid from a SSHRC grant account.

If you are unsure whether or not a particular cost is eligible, consult an award administration officer with SSHRC's Finance Division for clarification before incurring the cost.

After the Grant is Completed

What reports will I be required to submit?

See Workshops and Conferences Dates to Remember.

Can my university business office submit computerized statements of account?

SSHRC accepts computerized statements as long as you use the categories on the Tri-Council Statement of Account form (PDF document, 476KB).

Where should I send a copy of the event's proceedings?

If the proceedings were published with grant funds, you or your publisher must send one or more copies of the proceedings to:

The National Library of Canada, Acquisitions for Canadiana and Legal Deposit Bureau, 395 Wellington Street, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0N4.

(If you printed less than 100 copies, send one copy; if you printed over 200, send two copies.)

Who retains the intellectual property/copyright to research presented?

Copyright and ownership of intellectual property developed with SSHRC funds belongs to the creator or the creator's university and not to the workshop or conference organizer.

Should I acknowledge SSHRC when communicating my research findings?

As a recipient of Canadian government funds, it is important for you to let Canadians know how their tax money is being spent. Therefore, you should acknowledge the assistance of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council in all workshop and conference materials, publications and media coverage of activities funded through SSHRC grants.

Please see the SSHRC Research Data Archiving Policy and the guidelines on the use of SSHRC's logo.

Related SSHRC Policies

Non-Discrimination Policy
Tri-Agency Framework: Responsible Conduct of Research
Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans

Contact Us

For grant information, contact an awards administration officer from SSHRC's Finance Division by telephone at 613-995-2694 or by email at award@sshrc-crsh.gc.ca.

Or you can write to us at:

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council
125 Zaida Eddy Private, 2nd Floor
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
K1R 0E3

Fax: 613-996-0458