Program directory · Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
New Frontiers in Research Fund
- Program code
- BNT04 (SSHRC)
- Core responsibility
- Funding social sciences and humanities research and training
- In Departmental Plans
- 2019-20 – 2026-27 · New since an earlier plan
What it does
This program provides funding to support transformative, interdisciplinary and high-risk research. The program also supports research that helps respond to urgent issues, provides time-sensitive opportunities for international collaboration, as well as targeted funding for research in emerging areas. The program is administered by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) on behalf of the tri-agencies (the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and SSHRC).
Source: the department's Program Inventory, via GC InfoBase.
History and lineage
First appears in GC InfoBase's actual spending by program in 2018-19. The data does not record when a program was created; it may be older than its first appearance here, which is limited by the sources (program spending starts in 2010-11, Departmental Plans in 2018-19).
| Program | Relation | Years with data | Actual spending over those years |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Frontiers in Research Fund | This program | 2018-19 – 2028-29 | $544M |
No earlier or later program in the same department has a similar name.
Significant changes in scope and budget
Detected from the data: renames between plans, programs it appears to replace, merge with or split into (matched by name), year-over-year changes in spending of at least 25% and $5M, or in employees of at least 20% and 25 FTEs, linked budget measures, and results indicators added or dropped.
| Year | What changed | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2019-20 | Spending $54.8M, against $20.3M in 2018-19 (+170%). | Actual spending (GC InfoBase) |
| 2020-21 | Indicators dropped: Success rate for early career researchers. | Departmental Results Framework (GC InfoBase) |
| 2021-22 | Spending $75.9M, against $44.4M in 2020-21 (+71%). | Actual spending (GC InfoBase) |
| 2022-23 | Spending $95.2M, against $75.9M in 2021-22 (+25%). | Actual spending (GC InfoBase) |
| 2023-24 | Spending $125M, against $95.2M in 2022-23 (+32%). | Actual spending (GC InfoBase) |
| 2026-27 | Indicators added: Percentage of team members on newly funded projects who self-identity as members of an underrepresented group | Departmental Results Framework (GC InfoBase) |
| 2026-27 | Indicators dropped: Percentage of team members who are members of the four designated groups. | Departmental Results Framework (GC InfoBase) |
Success criteria
The program's indicators from its department's Departmental Results Framework: the target set in each year's plan, and the result reported the following year. Source: GC InfoBase.
Historical: targets against results
Bars: result reported. Dashed line: target.
| Report year | Target | Due | Result | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-20 | 100% – 100% | 2020 | 80% In the 2019-20 competition, it was noted that the two-stage evaluation process led to the panel members being more conservative, focusing their discussions more on the feasibility criterion than that for high risk in making their recommendations. To counter this tendency, NFRF has changed the review process for 2020-21 to ensure that high risk and high reward maintain their prominence in the revi… | Not met |
| 2020-21 | ≥ 95% | 2021 | 98% | Met |
| 2021-22 | ≥ 95% | 2022 | 100% | Met |
| 2022-23 | ≥ 95% | 2023 | 96% | Met |
| 2023-24 | ≥ 95% | 2024 | 97% | Met |
| 2024-25 | ≥ 95% | 2025 | 100% | Met |
Bars: result reported. Dashed line: target.
| Report year | Target | Due | Result | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-20 | — | 2020 | — Women: 41% Indigenous: 6% Visible minorities: 17% Persons with disabilities: 0% Calculated for Principal Investigator, co-Principal Investigator and co-applicants. Since there was no target set for this indicator, it was difficult to efficiently analyze the performance. There will be a need to separate the groups for future reporting exercises. | No result reported |
| 2020-21 | ≤ 51% | 2021 | 57% The target is incorrectly displayed and should be “At least 51%”. Therefore, the target is met. | Not met |
| 2021-22 | ≤ 50% | 2022 | 60% An error has been made in the target entered for this indicator; it should have been "At least 50%". With this correction, the target has been met. | Not met |
| 2022-23 | ≥ 50% | 2023 | 67% | Met |
| 2023-24 | ≥ 50% | 2024 | 60% | Met |
| 2024-25 | ≥ 50% | 2025 | 63% | Met |
Bars: result reported. Dashed line: target.
| Report year | Target | Due | Result | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-20 | — | 2020 | 100% The 2019-2020 result is actually 115% because a greater proportion of ECR-led applications were successful than the proportion of ECR-led Letters Of Intent (LOI) received. (35% LOIs were ECR-led; 38% of awards were ECR-led). | No result reported |
Current: the 2026-27 plan's targets
Bars: result reported. Dashed line: target.
| Report year | Target | Due | Result | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-27 | ≥ 95% | 2027 | — | Planned |
Bars: result reported. Dashed line: target.
| Report year | Target | Due | Result | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-27 | ≥ 50% | 2027 | — | Planned |
Future goals: targets due after 2026-27
No targets with a later due date.
Spending and employees: planned against actual
Spending
Show the numbers
| Fiscal year | Planned | Actual |
|---|---|---|
| 2018-19 | — | $20.3M |
| 2019-20 | $54.3M | $54.8M |
| 2020-21 | $72.3M | $44.4M |
| 2021-22 | $75.7M | $75.9M |
| 2022-23 | $111M | $95.2M |
| 2023-24 | $127M | $125M |
| 2024-25 | $127M | $128M |
| 2025-26 | $125M | — |
| 2026-27 | $148M | — |
| 2027-28 | $124M* | — |
| 2028-29 | $124M* | — |
Employees (FTEs)
Show the numbers
| Fiscal year | Planned | Actual |
|---|---|---|
| 2018-19 | — | 10 |
| 2019-20 | 18 | 14 |
| 2020-21 | 16 | 15 |
| 2021-22 | 21 | 25 |
| 2022-23 | 24 | 28 |
| 2023-24 | 31 | 31 |
| 2024-25 | 31 | 32 |
| 2025-26 | 33 | — |
| 2026-27 | 30 | — |
| 2027-28 | 29* | — |
| 2028-29 | 28* | — |
Planned spending, plan by plan
Each row is one year's Departmental Plan and its forecast for the next three fiscal years; read a column down to see how the forecast for one year changed. The last row is what was actually spent. Click an amount for its source. Biggest changes in federal spending plans
| Plan | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 | 2024-25 | 2025-26 | 2026-27 | 2027-28 | 2028-29 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-20 plan | $54,346,348 | $71,209,818 | $74,235,644 | |||||||
| 2020-21 plan | $72,293,171 | $75,363,051 | $110,211,784 | |||||||
| 2021-22 plan | $75,728,887 | $110,422,022 | $126,377,178 | |||||||
| 2022-23 plan | $110,883,543 | $126,784,401 | $126,772,927 | |||||||
| 2023-24 plan | $127,213,274 | $127,190,338 | $127,110,299 | |||||||
| 2024-25 plan | $126,997,897 | $126,979,127 | $151,001,057 | |||||||
| 2025-26 plan | $125,209,689 | $147,721,623 | $123,629,276 | |||||||
| 2026-27 plan | $147,671,046 | $123,579,546 | $123,649,782 | |||||||
| Actual | $54,800,602 | $44,361,718 | $75,894,112 | $95,220,623 | $125,417,672 | $128,437,356 |
Actual spending is from Departmental Results Reports and the Public Accounts, as published in GC InfoBase. FTEs are full-time equivalents.
