At a meeting on June 15, 2021, the members of the board of directors of the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Santé (FRQS) approved all the awards and grants programs for the 2022–2023 competitions.
Further details on the programs and application e-forms have been released July 9, 2021.
In addition, a number of adjustments and clarifications were made to administrative and eligibility guidelines of the FRQ’s Common General Rules. The details of the changes are available on the website of the FRQ.
Despite the particular circumstances brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, FRQ staff invested every effort to support its award and grant holders. In the past year, support and impact mitigation measures were implemented by the three Fonds de recherche to assist the research community, including the record dedicated to documenting the impacts of the pandemic on research and training activities, which will remain part of next year’s awards and grants competitions.
Training award programs
Programs: master’s, master’s for applicants with a professional degree, doctoral, doctoral for applicants with a professional degree, postdoctoral training and professional post-graduate research training (fellowship).
The deadline to submit an application to a training award program was modified. The new deadline is October 5, 2021, 4 p.m.
The list of documents that must be appended to an application form and the evaluation criteria and their respective weightings were harmonized across the three Fonds de recherche.
The criterion on applicants’ social mobilization was expanded to account for sustainable development objectives under three sub-criteria:
• Applicant’s ability to create a dialogue between science and society
• Applicant’s capacity to build engagement
• Applicant’s consideration of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, specifically equity, diversity and inclusion
Grant programs
College research – support for team projects
For the second edition of the program, the evaluation criteria pertaining to student mobilization was revised to recognize the importance of integrating students in college institutions into research projects to broaden their research training and stimulate their interest in science. The program aims to promote, consolidate and maintain an excellent and diverse health sciences research base in colleges and college centres for technology transfer and thus contribute to the emergence and retention of outstanding researchers within the college network.
Major neurocognitive disorders research program
This new program aims to foster the mobilization of interdisciplinary stakeholders in major neurocognitive disorders (MNCD) within and beyond the research community through the development of key projects in the form of living labs. Undertaken in partnership with the Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux and the Unité de soutien pour un système de santé apprenant (SSA) (formerly the Unité de soutien SRAP du Québec), the program seeks to improve the organization of care and services and facilitate transitions and paths on the care and services continuum for people living with MNCD and their loved ones. An information session will be held on September 15, 2021. Further details are available on our website.
Prix Relève-Étoile Jacques-Genest
The rules of the competition, which was launched a decade ago, were updated. There were minor revisions to the criteria to highlight issues related to open access. Applicants are now invited to demonstrate their ability to reach the public, including a strategy to ensure open access in accordance with the Fonds de recherche du Québec open access policy.
Following the September 2021 edition of the competition and beginning in March 2022, the Prix Relève-Étoile Jacques-Genest will be awarded on an annual basis.
Coming in the next few months
Launch of the Oncopole: Priorité patients competition
This grant program aims to enhance the care and service experience and quality of life of cancer patients and their loved ones and provide health and social services professionals, managers, decision-makers and community groups with tools to implement new practices to benefit users (patients and family caregivers).
New edition of the F.R.S.- FNRS – FRQ bilateral collaboration project
This grant programs, which marks its third edition, aims to generate a leverage effect for scientific excellence and encourage researchers in the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles (French Community of Belgium) and Québec to develop leading-edge joint research initiatives. Funded projects must foster intersectoral networking to create new research opportunities, introduce unprecedented conceptual frameworks and think differently about complex phenomena.
More information and competition deadlines will be posted on our website this summer.