SSHRC – Special Call – Northern Communities

The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) has announced a one-time call for proposals on Northern Communities.

Northern Communities: Towards Social and Economic Prosperity–Special Call
This is a one-time call for proposals on northern communities. The call will provide funding to support research excellence, develop talent and mobilize knowledge in ways that contribute to a better understanding of the pressing social and economic needs of northern communities.

SSHRC has developed four special funding opportunities for 2008 as an initial step in support of research excellence leading to greater impact in addressing the social and economic development needs of northern communities. Over the next year, SSHRC will engage in discussions with the social sciences and humanities community, and others, to develop a longer-term strategy for investments in these areas.

SSHRC invites researchers active in the social sciences and humanities to apply for support through four funding opportunities being offered in 2008 only. Application deadlines for these programs are in November 2008. SSHRC will privilege proposals that work or build links with northern communities, organizations and/or individuals in a manner that is consistent with the objectives of this call. The research should be undertaken with sensitivity to the perspectives and experiences of northerners and, where appropriate, in partnership with northern researchers and the public, private and not-for-profit sectors.

SSHRC invites applications on social sciences and humanities dimensions of government priority areas or others that are demonstrably a priority for northern Canada.  These can be studied from a variety of approaches, and with respect to any sector or population group. Examples include but are not limited to:

• social and economic issues, needs and problems in a northern context (e.g., housing and infrastructure, education, language, justice, demographics and aging, violence, suicide, addictions, population health, food, poverty);
• integration of the northern and global economy (e.g., resources, wage-economies and monetization of social and cultural practices);
• sustainable development in a northern context;
• climate change impacts, mitigation and adaptations;
• talent development, labour, and training for northern communities;
• governance, sovereignty, international boundary and security issues; and
• indigenous peoples (environmental, social, economic and cultural practices and adaptations).

Funding Opportunities
The following four funding opportunities for this special call are being offered in 2008 only, with deadlines in November 2008. More information and specific deadlines are available at the following links:
1.Northern Communities: Towards Social and Economic Prosperity– Research Development Initiative Grants
2. Northern Communities: Towards Social and Economic Prosperity– Research Grants
3.Northern Communities: Towards Social and Economic Prosperity– Community-University Research Alliances (CURA)
4.Northern Communities: Towards Social and Economic Prosperity–Public Outreach Grants

Please contact Karen Kueneman, kueneman@uwo.ca,  if you plan to apply for one of these opportunities.

Academic Development Fund (ADF) – Major Grants Competition

The application form and instructions for the Academic Development Fund (ADF), New Research and Scholarly Initiatives Award - Major Grants Competition has been posted.  

Deadlines:  

Faculty of Education Dean’s Office: November 3, 2008 (if you wish feedback on your application allow an additional 2-3 weeks – submit to Karen Kueneman)

University Secretariat: November 17, 2008 (for a decision in June 2008)

Value:  Not specified – budgets of less than $8,500 will not normally be considered. Funding will normally be of a seed or start-up nature for one year

Description: The purpose of the funds is to promote the academic development of the University by assisting with the start-up and transition costs associated with innovative academic development projects. The Academic Development Fund – New Research and Scholarly Initiatives Award (Major Competition) is not intended for the support or maintenance of existing or ongoing programs.
Special Projects eligible for New Research and Scholarly Initiatives Award – Major Grant support include:
1.1 The initiation of outstanding scholarly endeavours or frontier research. Projects of this sort are expected to be innovative in the discipline in which they arise and to represent a significant departure from existing research lines at UWO.
1.2 The support of scholarly acquisitions.

Eligibility: Applications may be made by individuals, disciplinary teams, and cross-and-interdisciplinary teams, including those with external matching funds. At the time of application, the principal applicant must be a regular, full-time faculty member at Western.  [Special consideration may be given to those applications where careful integration and campus-wide planning is evident.]

NOTE: Applications are no longer accepted in print format. A pdf document must be submitted. The Associate Dean will sign a paper copy of the signature page and it will be delivered to the Secretariat by the deadline.

Applicants must also complete an RDAF form .

More information and applications…

Faculty Mentor Program Series – Internal Grants Program

The second session in the Faculty Mentor Program series will be held on

Thursday, October 2, 2008
1:30 – 3:30 p.m.
Teaching Support Centre
Room 122, The D.B. Weldon Library

Digging Deeper – Internal Grants Programs

There are many opportunities for grants at Western that are especially important for new faculty. Success rates for these programs are higher than those for the major government granting agencies. This session tackles ‘grantsmanship’ or how to pitch proposals for these grants, how these proposals are adjudicated, and how such internal grant application experience can prepare you for future proposal writing and submission.

Many of these internal grants programs specifically target new faculty and/or new research initiatives. The material discussed at this session varies from other presentations at Faculty and Department meetings.

Feature presentation, discussion, questions/answers:

Dr. Gerald Kidder, Associate Vice-President (Research) & Professor, Department of Physiology and Pharmacology

Also presenting on resources available for faculty:

Brad Corbett, Coordinator/Analyst, Research Data Centres Program

Please register at – https://www.lib.uwo.ca/tsc/calendar/view_program.php?id=137

Canadian Council on Learning – Call for Nominations

The Canadian Council on Learning (CCL) is seeking nominations for its second annual recognition program, Sharing the Flame: Recognizing Excellence in Learning.

Sharing the Flame highlights some of Canada’s most promising practices in learning—giving these initiatives the visibility they deserve, and helping others to learn from their success. 

CCL will recognize initiatives in the following learning themes:

• Aboriginal learning
• Adult learning
• Early childhood learning
• Health-related learning
• Work and learning

Deadline for Nominations: October 15, 2008

More information…

UWO Internal – International Research Award Competition

International Research Awards are offered to support the cost of international research projects of modest scope.

Deadlines:  
Faculty of Education Associate Dean’s Office: Nov 3, 2008 (2-3 weeks earlier if you wish feedback on your application – submit to Karen Kueneman)
Research Western: November 17, 2008

Value: $7,000 maximum

Description: This program provides seed money for one-time requests and projects of short duration, which involve a significant international component and enhance knowledge generation or information exchange between Canadian and foreign academics. Priority will be given to applicants who propose to conduct primary or secondary research in or about other countries and to applications that require international travel. Preference will be given to full-time, probationary or recently tenured faculty members striving to get programs of research established and to those who, during the past three years, have not received funds through this or other centrally administered internal funding programs at Western.

NOTE: In this case, “international” refers primarily to the subject of the research and not simply to the means by which it is carried out. Applicants are encouraged to describe any plans for scholarly interactions with researchers at that location. Applicants must be eligible to hold a research grant at UWO.

Full Applications are to be processed through Research Development Services for institutional signatures, and are to be accompanied by a completed RDAF form (bearing applicant and Assoc Dean signatures).

More information and applications…

Bob Lingard to speak at Faculty

The Faculty of Education
The University of Western Ontario
invites you to a presentation by

Bob Lingard
Professorial Research Fellow
School of Education, The University of Queensland

Analyzing Education Policies in a Globalized World:  theoretical and methodological considerations

Friday, October 10 at 11:00 a.m.
Faculty of Education Building, Room 1010

Everyone welcome!
Refreshments will be served.

This paper considers the significance and implications of globalization for approaches to education policy analysis, theoretically and methodologically. A common definition of policy is one derived from Easton: policy as the ‘authoritative allocation of values’.  Such a definition and each of its component parts have been challenged by globalization, with implications for policy analysis. The paper considers the significance of researcher ‘positionality’, defined in a number of ways, including intellectual and spatial locations, to doing education policy analysis in the context of globalization. Such reflexivity about researcher positionality rejects a stance of epistemological innocence and recognises the need to reject any easy assumption of a society/nation or social/nation homology.  Such reflexivity also means a rejection of any approach which reifies globalization. It will be argued and illustrated through specific education policy examples, that globalization has implications for our research approach to education policy and that the policy cycle in education (contexts of influence, text production and practice) needs to be globalized.  

Professor Bob Lingard is a Professorial Research Fellow in the School of Education at The University of Queensland. Until recently he was the Andrew Bell Professor of Education at The University of Edinburgh. His research interests include globalization and education policy, sociology of education, school reform and critical pedagogies and gender and schooling. His most recent book (2007), co-edited with Jenny Ozga is The RoutledgeFalmer Reader in Education Policy and Politics. He has in press two books, Transforming Learning in Schools and Communities (Continuum), co-edited with Jon Nixon and Stewart Ranson and Educating Boys : beyond structural reform (Palgrave) co-authored with Wayne Martino and Martin Mills. He is currently completing a book with Fazal Rizvi for Routledge, entitled Globalizing Education Policy.

Centre Assists in Production of Film

The Centre for Research and Education on Violence against Women and Children helped to produce a film, tentatively titled Respect: Western, on the treatment of minority groups on campus. (See page 3 of Western News, September 4, 2008)

“The film includes selections from interviews conducted with 25 faculty, students, administrators and support services staff at Western, as well as focus group sessions.”

Teaching Support Centre – Preparation of Research Grant Proposals

The 2008-09 Faculty Mentor Program presents a panel session :

Preparation of the Research Grant Proposal
SSHRC, NSERC, CIHR

Friday, September 19, 2008
1:30 pm – 3:30 pm
Teaching Support Centre
(Room 122, The D.B. Weldon Library)

The afternoon will begin with a Meet and Greet Reception (1:30 – 2:00 p.m.), followed by a panel discussion and question period (2:00 – 3:30 p.m.).

The panelists are colleagues from the Faculties of Arts and Humanities, Science, Social Science and Medicine. Based on their experiences with writing and reviewing grant applications, they will discuss best practices, successful approaches, what to avoid and what awards committees look for. There will be time for questions and open discussion.

Panelists will include:

Professor Kim Baines, Chair, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science
Professor Robert Lipson, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science
Professor David Bentley, Department of English, Faculty of Arts and Humanities
Professor Julie McMullin, Associate Dean, Research and Operations, Faculty of Social Science
Professor Ravi Menon, Robarts Research Institute & Department of Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry

Open to faculty members only. To Register….