October 1, 2020
Recently, the federal government announced that the Canada Research Continuity Emergency Fund (CRCEF) will offer new financial support to resuming research activities and projects that have incurred extraordinary and exceptional costs due to the COVID-19 outbreak as part of its Stage 3 funding roll-out. The Office of Research and Innovation Services (ORIS) invites researchers who have encountered such expenditures and charged them to their research grants to apply to receive funding to potentially offset some of these costs.
Eligible Costs
The federal government has defined qualifying costs as being both extraordinary, exceptional and incremental. Extraordinary incremental costs are defined as unanticipated additional costs that would not normally have been incurred in the absence of the COVID-19 pandemic and may not have been funded by existing sources of funds. Such costs may include:
a) Maintenance costs:
Costs incurred within the eligible period and associated with maintaining essential research-related activities during the pandemic that are exceptional and incremental to those already covered by existing sources of funds, funded at up to 75%. This includes:
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animal and specimen care through the crisis period;
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maintenance of equipment, software, cohorts, datasets, including warranties, licenses and service contracts;
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technological equipment for remote access to maintain assets; and
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safety equipment for personnel dedicated to maintenance.
b) Ramp-up costs:
Costs incurred within the eligible period and associated with full ramp-up of research activities, as physical distancing measures are eased, and research activities can resume. Only costs that are exceptional and incremental to those already covered by existing sources of funds will be supported, at up to 75%. Eligible expenses may include those incurred at the project level and associated with:
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re-organizing the research environment and activities;
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additional costs to bring the research back to its pre-pandemic level, including experiments or related to the restart of collections and datasets (e.g., population-based, environmental);
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user fees charged by shared platforms to researchers to restart research activities (e.g., animal- care facilities, digital labs);
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re-scheduling and restarting human and clinical trials;
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exceptional costs to access special facilities, shared platforms and resources, knowledge transfer meetings and workshops;
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restarting, reassembling and safety checks of equipment and facilities;
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reacquiring lost and donated laboratory and field supplies and equipment, reagents, perishable materials, laboratory animal and other living specimens; and
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personal protective equipment and related items for research personnel.
All eligible costs must have been charged to a research grant account, but unlike in CRCEF Stage 1 and 2, the funding source of the account itself is not applicable. CRCEF Stage 3 will subsidize qualifying costs from governmentally and non-governmentally funded accounts alike. Costs must be incurred between March 15 and November 15, 2020.
SALARY COSTS:
The salaries of research personnel can be eligible for partial reimbursement up to 75% by CRCEF at Stage 3 for the period of August 30, 2020 to November 15, 2020 provided that they meet the Stage 3 eligible expense criteria (see above).
How to apply
Download an application to get started. You will need to provide documentation, such as receipts and P-Card receipts and statements, so that we can validate the eligibility of expenses.
Applications are due to the Office of Research and Innovation Services by email at oris@uwindsor.ca, with the subject line "CRCEF Stage 3 Application", no later than 4:30PM on October 16, 2020. Applications received after this deadline will not be considered.