The Research Support Fund assists Canadian postsecondary institutions and their affiliated research hospitals and institutes with the expenses associated with managing the research funded by the three federal research granting agencies:
- the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR);
- the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC);
- and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).
Research Support Fund grants can be used to: maintain modern labs and equipment; provide access to up-to-date knowledge resources; provide research management and administrative support; meet regulatory and ethical standards; and transfer knowledge from academia to the private, public and not-for-profit sectors. For more information please visit the Research Support Fund main page http://www.rsf-fsr.gc.ca/
Research Support Fund at Aurora Research Institute
Aurora Research Institute receives funds from the Research Support Fund to cover the indirect cost of research. The indirect costs are expenses that are real, ongoing, operating expenses not directly associated with any one research project. This includes libraries, electricity, administrative expenses, facilities maintenance, and buildings.
Institutions have the flexibility to decide how to use their grant in the following categories:
Five Expenditure Categories http://www.rsf-fsr.gc.ca/administer-administrer/expenditures-depenses-eng.aspx
- Research facilities
- Research resources
- Management and administration of an institution’s research enterprise
- Regulatory requirements and accreditation
- Intellectual property and knowledge mobilization
Over the last years, Aurora College has used these funds to support research resources of the library at the Western Arctic Research Centre.
In 2017-2018, the research support funds that Aurora College received were used to support research administration and research administration systems.
Aurora College has recently formalized an agreement with Hotıì ts’eeda (https://nwtspor.ca/), the Strategic Patient Oriented Research Program (SPOR) Support for Patient Oriented Research and Trials (SUPPORT) Unit for the Northwest Territories, funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and hosted by the Tłįchǫ Government to administer Research Support Funds.