Research Support Fund

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

  1. Research facilities
  2. Research resources
  3. Management and administration of an institution’s research enterprise
  4. Regulatory requirements and accreditation
  5. 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. 

From 2017 - 2020, the research support funds that Aurora College received were used to support research administration and research administration systems.

2020 - 2021 Research Support Fund Performance Objectives 

Eligible Expenditure Category
Institutional Output
Institutional Performance Objective
Performance Indicator 
Target Outcome
Outcomes Reported at Year End
Management and administration of research enterprise
Investment into salary for research administration staff at Aurora Research Institute
Investment into research administration software at Aurora Research Institute
Full-time Research Administration Staff
Research Administration software
Full time research administrator on staff
Software eases burden of research administration  
Improved reporting and tracking of research programs
Office of Research Service provide high quality support for staff researchers to lesson time burden of research administration  
Expanded institutional reporting capabilities

 

Affiliated Institutions 

In 2018, Aurora College formalized an agreement with Hotıì ts’eeda, 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.  To learn how Hotıì ts’eeda has allocated RSF to cover the indirect operating expenses to support research projects visit: https://nwtspor.ca/about/research-support-fund-accountability

In 2020, Aurora College formalized an agreement with the Institute for Circumpolar Health Research (ICHR), an independent, non-profit organization actively engaged in research, research facilitation, training, synthesis, exchange and dissemination within the Northwest Territories.