CALL FOR PROJECTS – RESEARCH PROGRAM ON DISINFORMATION IN QUÉBEC

1. CONTEXT

Although it has always existed in different forms, the phenomenon of disinformation has grown over the last decade, especially with the emergence of social media. Scientific information is undermined by disinformation, which is fuelled by societal crises and concerns, be they related to health, the environment, identity, or other issues.

In the fight against disinformation, the Chief Scientist and the FRQ have taken numerous actions in recent years, particularly following the forum on researchers in the public sphere held in 2015. The FRQ have developed programs (e.g., DIALOGUE, ENGAGE, REGARDS ODD) and have joined initiatives (e.g., the fact-checker Détecteur de rumeurs by Agence Science-Presse) to foster dialogue between science and society and the promotion of scientific information.

Here, as elsewhere, the scientific community is working to better understand the different aspects of the issue of disinformation. The FRQ consider it important to better understand this phenomenon in the Québec context.

2. OBJECTIVES

In line with the new budget appropriations under the SQRI², the FRQ invite the scientific community to contribute to the fight against disinformation by pursuing the following objectives:

• Gain a better understanding of various aspects of the phenomenon of disinformation in the Québec context, particularly in relation to the following themes:
  • Education, literacy, culture, critical thinking;
  • Confidence in science, controversies, conspiracy theories;
  • Social media, content creation, algorithms and AI, governance, echo chamber, cyberbullying;
  • Media, journalistic practices, media literacy;
  • Psychology, cognitive bias;
  • Democracy issues and trust in institutions;
  • Decision making and behaviour;
  • Québec-international comparison.
• Identify possible solutions to mitigate disinformation;
• Mobilize practice and communication communities around research projects.

This program has two components: a Research project (individual or team) component and an Action-research project (team) component.

2.1. Research project

Projects funded under this component must demonstrate the potential to lead to a breakthrough in knowledge development through the exploration of new approaches, perspectives or hypotheses. Proposals must also show a strong commitment to innovation and knowledge transfer to inform decision making and action.

2.2. Action-research project

Projects funded under this component must be predicated on the need to understand, explain and transform practices in a given field. Action-research is aimed at helping the community concerned identify and problematize its challenges, establish a critical summary of its problems and develop, implement or improve tools for solving these problems.

Transformation is at the heart of action-research projects; the process leading to this transformation as well as the transformation itself must generate new knowledge. The projects submitted as part of this component must therefore contribute to the advancement of knowledge and the development, testing and transformation of practices.

Action-research projects require the participation of all the stakeholders involved, be they from a university or a practice setting. They require a commitment on the part of the participating researchers and representatives from the practice setting to the planning and carrying out of the research, and the resulting steps or methods of intervention.

3. ELIGIBILITY

All members of the team must meet the eligibility requirements described in these program rules and in the CGR, both at the competition deadline and for the duration of the grant, if awarded. Any team or individual that does not meet all these eligibility requirements will be considered ineligible.

An incomplete application that does not contain the information necessary to establish eligibility or which cannot be evaluated will also be deemed ineligible by the Fonds.

The three roles mentioned below (principal investigator, co-investigator, collaborator) and the statuses recognized by the FRQ are defined in the CGR under “Status and roles”.

3.1. Principal investigator (Research project (individual or team) component and Action-research project component)

Only researchers with Status 1 i) (university researcher) or 2 (clinical university researcher) as defined in the CGR may have the role of principal investigator on an application submitted to this program, for either component.

A researcher may be the principal investigator for only one project submitted under this call for projects.

3.2. Co-investigator (Research project (team) and Action-research project components)

In addition to the principal investigator, an application for a team project must include one or more members with the role of co-investigator, who have one of the following CGR statuses:

–        University researcher (Status 1)

–        Clinical university researcher (Status 2)

–        College researcher (Status 3)

–        Other research statuses: 4 a), b) and c)

However, to be eligible, a team presenting an action-research project must include at least one person with status 4 c), i.e., practitioner.

It is possible to have the role of co-investigator in several projects submitted or funded under this program. However, the relevance and feasibility of this type of multiple participation will be assessed by the evaluation committee.

There is no limit to the number of co-investigators on a funding application.

3.3. Collaborators

In addition to co-investigators, a team may include collaborators with any of the statuses applicable to grants as well as researchers outside Québec. However, individuals with the training award statuses defined by the CGR are not eligible for the role of collaborator.

4. APPLICATION

It is preferable that the funding application be written in French, but it can also be written in English. However, the title and project summary must imperatively be in French. These may be used by the Fonds for promotional and dissemination purposes (see CGR, Section 3.6).

The documents required for an eligible application to this program are as follows:

• The FRQnet electronic application form corresponding to the chosen component, to which the following documents are attached:
  •  a description of the research or action-research project, knowledge mobilization strategy, anticipated impacts, and skills of the applicant(s) in relation to the evaluation criteria for the chosen component (maximum 7 pages for the Research project (individual) component; maximum 9 pages for the Research project (team) and Action-research project components);
  • a bibliography (maximum 2 pages);
  • a justification of planned expenditures (maximum 2 pages);
  • the abridged CV of the principal investigator, and of the co-investigators for the Research project (team) and Action-research project components. All abridged CVs must be completed using the program’s abridged CV template (maximum 2 pages per abridged CV);
  • if applicable, a letter from the institution for contracted researchers, indicating that the researcher will be employed by the institution for the duration of the grant;
  • if applicable, a letter from the institution for retired researchers indicating that before retirement, the researcher was a regular professor, that he/she will have access to the facilities and the logistical support required to carry out research activities for the term of the grant, and that he/she will continue to train students, where applicable;
  • if applicable, letters from partners confirming a partnership agreement (optional for the Research project (individual or team) component, but mandatory for the Action-research project component);
  • if applicable, the necessary authorizations providing access to data.

Please refer to the FRQNet Application Presentation Standards document to properly format the documents to be attached to the application.

5. ASSESSMENT

Evaluation committees use the FRQSC Scoring system grid. An overall score of 70% is required for the application to be recommended for funding. A score of 70% is required for the ‘Research project’ or ‘Action-research project’ criterion.

Applications are evaluated according to the criteria, sub-criteria and weighting specific to the chosen component (Research project (individual or team) or Action-research project), as listed below in order of the importance attached to them by the Fonds:

6. DESCRIPTION AND DURATION OF FUNDING

Each grant is for a period of 2 years:

• A maximum of $150,000 can be awarded, over 2 years, for a research project, whether it is conducted individually or by a team;
• A maximum of $175,000 can be awarded, over 2 years, for an action-research project.

Two more calls for projects are planned under this program. At the end of this first Call, a maximum of 6 projects will be offered funding, all components and all Fonds combined.

The funding must be used to cover current expenses directly related to developing and carrying out the project, as well as to disseminating the research results. Indirect costs of research (FIR) will be paid to the universities in addition to the grant. Eligible and ineligible expenses are listed in Section 8 of the CGR.

Teaching release costs are allowed under this program for the principal investigator, up to a maximum of 1 release per year.

In addition, to allow full participation of college researchers in the project, a release from teaching duties may be provided from the grant budget for co-investigators with this status. In this context, the financial limits imposed by the Support for College Researchers (CHZ) program do not apply.

Finally, a portion of the grant may be used for salary support for team members who are Status 3 college researchers without teaching duties. This amount, which is at the discretion of the principal investigator, must be included in the budget and may be transferred by the principal investigator’s institution directly to the researcher’s college or the college with which the CCTT is affiliated, in the case of a CCTT researcher.

7. FUNDING AND CONDITIONS

The conditions regarding the announcement and management of funding are set out in the CGR (Sections 5 to 8).

Funding recipients must indicate, in all press releases, reports, papers or other communications, that the research was funded by the FRQ.

Peer-reviewed publications resulting from the research made possible by this award must be released as immediate open access (without embargo), under an open license, in accordance with the FRQ Open Access Policy for the Dissemination of Research (revised in 2022).

8. EFFECTIVE DATE

These rules apply to the 2023-2024 fiscal year.