Priority Thematic Public Humanities Research Incubator Grants

  • Deadline: January 20, 2025 (Monday)  
  • Value: $20,000/grant. Up to 3 grants awarded.
  • Eligibility: Principal Investigator must be a UBC-V Faculty member (tenured/track) in the Faculty of Arts, Faculty of Education, or Allard School of Law. Teams must include 2+ UBC-V Faculty members (tenured/track) in the Faculty of Arts, Faculty of Education, and Allard School of Law, appointed to a minimum of two different departments. Can include additional faculty members from other faculties or universities as appropriate.
  • Interdisciplinary Themes:  

    • Global Race, Anti-Racism & Social Justice Humanities  
    • Environmental/Climate, Land & Place-Based Humanities 
    • Health, Body, & Dis/Ability Humanities 
    • Critical Digital Humanities and New Publics 
    • Law, Culture and the Humanities
        
  • Supports new, interdisciplinary and collaborative public humanities research projects in initial stages proposed by small (2) or larger (3+) teams with the intent subsequently to apply for Tri-Council funding.   
  • For queries related to this grant, please contact the Public Humanities Hub manager, Heather Tam, phh.manager@ubc.ca. 

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION
ADJUDICATION CRITERIA
INCUBATOR GRANT
ELIGIBLE EXPENSES
ACCESS TO FUNDS
REPORTING REQUIREMENTS 
APPLICATION PROCEDURES 

Terms of Reference

INTRODUCTION

Priority Thematic Public Humanities Research Incubator Grants support new, interdisciplinary and collaborative public humanities research projects in initial stages proposed by small (2) or larger (3+) teams with the intent subsequently to apply for Tri-Council funding. The grants enable the development of new research questions, as well as experimentation with new Humanities methods, theoretical approaches and/or ideas.  

The Incubator Grants provide funds to support early stage interdisciplinary and collaborative research activities that will maintain or strengthen research capacity and research excellence and, importantly, advance knowledge in the humanities. 

Applicants to the Thematic Incubator Grants will propose interdisciplinary, collaborative research projects that are located within, and aim to advance knowledge concerning, one or more of these themes. These Themes represent substantive academic priorities for the Public Humanities Hub, and link up with one or more of our thematic Humanities Hub networks:  

  • Global Race, Anti-Racism & Social Justice Humanities  
  • Environmental/Climate, Land & Place-Based Humanities  
  • Health, Body, & Dis/Ability Humanities  
  • Critical Digital Humanities and New Publics  
  • Law, Culture and the Humanities   

 

TEAMS:
Teams must include a Principal Investigator from the UBC-V Faculty of Arts, Faculty of Education, or Allard School of Law.

The Public Humanities Hub Thematic Incubator Grants will provide funding to research teams made up of at least two full-time, tenured or tenure-track UBC faculty members, appointed to a minimum of two different departments, plus graduate students and staff in Arts, Law, and Education to work on Humanities-oriented research projects that include public-facing components. 

The Public Humanities Hub Thematic Incubator Grants support teams to carry out new research activities and cementing the research group by means of collaborative gatherings. The applicant team must not have been awarded funding to carry out research in this particular area previously. This research activity is in the emergent stages for all team members. Team members may have an extensive trajectory of funding and publications pertinent to the broad theme to which a given application is directed. It is expected, however, that the particular research project proposed in the application represents new research for all team members. This particular research should not have previously been awarded Tri-Agency or other major funding, apart from a Seed Grant or other funding < $5,000.  

 

ADJUDICATION CRITERIA
The project proposal will be assessed by an adjudication team made up of public humanities faculty members who are members of the Public Humanities Hub Advisory Board. The proposal will be assessed in terms of the following criteria:

  1. Humanities? Framed and designed through Public Humanities methods and scholarship. Applicant/s’ academic trajectory provides evidence of sustained academic contributions to the public humanities;  
  2. Public Humanities? Project prioritizes: (a) public-facing engagement; and/or, (b) academic engagement that seeks to transform and redistribute access to knowledge amongst diverse publics.  
  3. Knowledge Advance. Identifies a significant public humanities knowledge advance that represents the major academic contribution of this scholarly work;  
  4. Capability. The principal investigator and team’s expertise and capacity to succeed in relation to the project’s stated aims; 
  5. Innovation and Feasibility. Novel trajectory of scholarly inquiry and appropriateness of the timeline and budget; 
  6. Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Decolonization (EDID). Represents research with a clearly articulated aim to achieve inclusive excellence through public humanities scholarship. EDID expertise of the principal investigator and team.  
  7. Includes plans to develop a longer-term research agenda and apply for external (e.g. Tri-Agency) funding; 
  8. Appropriate expenses in the budget. 

Notification of awards will be made by late February 2025.

 

INCUBATOR GRANT
Priority Thematic Public Humanities Research Incubator Grants funds are awarded in Winter Term 2. Up to three grants will be awarded up to $20,000 each.

Funding is provided for short-term innovative, collaborative and interdisciplinary research projects of up to two years that are proposed by small (2) or large teams (3+).

Priority Thematic Public Humanities Research Incubator Grants foster research in its early stages and are not intended to support large-scale initiatives. These grants are intended to provide the foundation for applications to Tri-Council and other major funding.

Projects can also involve national and international research collaboration, and the exploration of new Public Humanities ways of producing, structuring and mobilizing knowledge within and across disciplines and sectors.

The Priority Thematic Public Humanities Research Incubator Grants is a research project-based funding stream, which means your proposal must be grounded in academic literature, include research questions and articulated objective, defined public/s, and a budget. Your project must meet all of the following criteria to be considered for a Thematic Incubator grant.   

  • Research that has previously been funded, in part or in full, is not eligible. Funds are not intended to supplement current or completed Tri-Council or other currently funded projects or duplicate support for projects awaiting funding decisions from other sources. 
  • Preference will be given to proposals that offer opportunities for graduate student training/mentorship. 
  • Projects must support new research and proposals must make clear how these seed funds will enable future research (e.g., lay foundation for an external research grant). 
  • Preference will be given to projects which lay the foundation for a (specified) external research grant. 

Successful applicants are expected to attend Public Humanities Hub events throughout the year, to acknowledge PHH funding in any publicity linked to their research project and, at the end of their award, to write a short public-facing reflection on their research and cluster-related activities, which will be shared on the PHH website and social media channels and in the PHH’s annual report.

The Public Humanities Hub will: 

  1. help publicize the team’s research  
  2. promote activities related to teams’ research on all its communication channels 
  3. introduce team members to relevant community partners 
  4. invite team members to contribute to our Public Scholar Training Series and/or other PHH programming, and
  5. support teams’ applications for additional research funding. For example, all forms of support outlined above can also be mentioned as monetary/in-kind “matching funds” on SSHRC Connection and other grant applications. 

 

ELIGIBLE EXPENSES
Most of the Incubator grant funds should go towards the direct costs of research. Grantees are encouraged to use PHH funds to hire Graduate Research Assistants (GRAs). Some of the direct costs of research included in the Tri-Agency expense guidelines are permissible, including: equipment required to carry out research (not including computers), research-related travel, GRAs, software, digital research costs. Ineligible expenses include: conferences (registration, travel, accommodation, per diem, paper preparation, etc.), computer equipment purchases, event curation (e.g., honoraria, catering, travel) and course buyouts.

 

ACCESS TO FUNDS
A UBC Research Project Information Form (RPIF) and brief budget will be submitted with your application. Funds for grant recipients will be transferred to an ORS research account that will be administered by your home department. Funds will be accessible for two years.

 

REPORTING REQUIREMENTS
Recipients agree to submit a final brief report on the project supported by the Incubator grant, and to be featured in Hub communications (including our website, annual report, and social media). Any promotion of your project should acknowledge that this is a Public Humanities Hub-funded project by including the Hub logo. Depending on your project, the Hub may also be able to provide communications and event support.

 

APPLICATION PROCEDURES
Please complete the following: 

Note: DOWNLOAD AND COMPLETE the Grant Proposal Form IN ADOBE. DO NOT COMPLETE FORM IN BROWSER. 

 

The completed Grant Proposal form and all attachments must be submitted as a single bookmarked PDF. The Research Project Information Form (RPIF) is submitted as an additional PDF. (Note: Attachment formatting requirements and file-naming protocol provided below). 

 

Grant Proposal Attachments as Described Below 

  1. Detailed Description (maximum 2 pages). A description of the proposed activities that effectively communicates: a. The research questions to be explored through the proposed activities; b. Rationale and significance of the proposed activities grounded in relevant literature; c. The methodology for the research activities; and d. How the Incubator grant funds will help advance a new line of research. <<PDF Bookmark Label: Detailed Description>> 
  2. Attachment: How will your research advance knowledge in the public humanities? ((maximum half-page) as defined here) <<PDF Bookmark Label: Knowledge Advance>> 
  3. Attachment: How does your project/methodology represent a commitment to social justice? (maximum half-page) <<PDF Bookmark Label: Social Justice>> 
  4. Attachment: How will your project offer opportunities for graduate student training and/or mentorship? (maximum half-page) <<PDF Bookmark Label: Graduate Student Training>> 
  5. Attachment: Principal Applicant’s peer-reviewed publication history since 2016 and Principal Applicant’s competitively adjudicated research grants history since 2016. Please do not submit full UBC CVs and please do not submit Co-Applicant CVs (no page limit). <<PDF Bookmark Label: Principal Applicant Publications & Grants>> 
  6. Attachment: Team Member’s peer-reviewed publication history since 2016 and Team Member’s competitively adjudicated research grants history since 2016 (1-page per team member). *up to 5 team members maximum. <<PDF Bookmark Label: Team Member Publication & Grants>> 

 

For the attachments #1-6, note Attachment Requirements. 

 

The RPIF should be signed by the Principal Applicant, the Principal Applicant’s Department/Unit Head, and the Faculty Dean or designate, typically the Associate Dean Research. Please check the turnaround times for Department and Faculty signatures. 

 

 

Attachment Requirements 

The completed Application Form and all attachments must be submitted as a single bookmarked PDF which conforms to the following formatting conventions: 

  • Font: Size 12 pt Times New Roman 
  • Page size: 8 ½” x 11” 
  • Spacing: Single-spaced 
  • Margins: Minimum ¾ inch (1.87 mm) 
  • Whole PDF must be Bookmarked 

 

Please contact your department manager to request Adobe Acrobat.
(How to bookmark a PDF)
(How to merge PDFs)
(How to bookmark and merge PDFs – For Mac computers; alternatives to Adobe Acrobat) 

 

Please save these documents, in this order, as a single, bookmarked PDF file and name the Application and the RPIF files by using the following respective formats: 

 

Applicantsurname – IncubatorGrant2025.pdf 
Applicantsurname – IncubatorGrant2025RPIF.pdf  

 

Please upload both the bookmarked form and attachments as a single PDF, as well as the RPIF PDF, via the online submission form below. 

 

Proposals are due January 20, 2025. 

 

For queries related to this grant, please contact the Public Humanities Hub manager, Heather Tam, phh.manager@ubc.ca.   

SUBMIT SINGLE BOOKMARKED PDF OF APPLICATION FORM & ATTACHMENTS WITH ALL REQUIRED PARTS + RPIF HERE