do you have an innovative idea that has the potential for real-world impact at the intersection of technology and aging? age-well’s sip accelerator funding program supports innovative post-discovery projects focused on the commercialization and/or knowledge mobilization of solutions (e.g. technologies, services or policies) aligned with age-well’s mission and vision.

the program provides:

• financial support;
• training opportunities; and
• strategic mentorship.

age-well is dedicated to the creation of technologies and services that benefit older adults and caregivers. our aim is to help older canadians maintain their independence, health and quality of life through technologies and services that increase their safety and security, support their independent living, and enhance their social participation.

award value and term:

up to $40,000 over 12 months. award winners can re-apply for renewal funding in a future call for proposals, pending end-of-term review.

innovation is changing the way canadians work and the skills needed to succeed in the labour market. the introduction of disruptive technologies such as automation, robotics, and artificial intelligence is creating both opportunities and challenges for workers, employers, and skills and training service providers to adapt and keep up.

budget 2017 committed to establish a new organization tasked with:

• identifying the skills sought and required by employers;
• exploring new and innovative approaches to skills development; and
• sharing information to inform future investments and programming.

to fulfill this commitment, in budget 2018, the government announced it would launch future skills this spring. future skills will bring together expertise from multiple sectors and leverage experience from partners across the country. it will include:

• future skills council: a council, appointed by the minister of employment, workforce development and labour, on emerging skills and workforce trends; and
• future skills centre: an arms-length research centre focused on developing, testing and rigorously measuring new and innovative approaches to skills assessment and development.

provinces and territories invest considerably in identifying, testing, and adopting new approaches within their networks of partnerships with indigenous governments and organizations, other orders of government and stakeholders including employers, industry, educational institutions, and community-based organizations. future skills will complement and not duplicate provincial and territorial activities and investments including innovation entities, which have been established in a number of jurisdictions. the future skills centre will collaborate with the provinces and territories in areas of mutual interest and work to mitigate duplication of efforts. similarly, collaboration with intergovernmental bodies with similar mandates including the forum of labour market ministers (flmm) and the labour market information council (lmic) will be instrumental to ensure complementarity of efforts, priority alignment, knowledge sharing and collaboration on projects when deemed appropriate. for example, the lmic is responsible for addressing the need for more granular local labour market information and for disseminating lmi for canadians. the future skills centre will complement this knowledge by taking a more future lens focus, identifying emerging skills in-demand in the labour market and identifying the best training practices that will help canadians gain the skills needed for being resilient in an evolving labour market.

the future skills centre will also support experimentation and measurement to produce reliable evidence on "what works" to improve the responsiveness of skills development approaches to emerging changes in the labour market. once the evidence and the practices have been developed and refined with sufficient rigour and quality, provincial and territorial governments, indigenous governments and organizations, other orders of government, not-for-profit organizations, and for-profit organizations can support the adoption and integration of these practices into wide scale service delivery.

by sharing "what works" across the skills development and training ecosystem to inform future investments and programming, future skills will contribute towards:

• helping canadians make informed decisions about the skills needed for the future as they adapt to changes in the labour market;
• increasing access to quality training and supports that address the changing nature of work, especially for underrepresented and disadvantaged groups; and
• supporting transformative labour market policy and program innovation to ensure that canada's labour market and training systems remain future-fit.

the future skills centre will work towards achieving the following objectives:

• improve evidence on the skills sought and required in the workplace now and into the future to assist canadians in making training decisions;
• prototype, test and rigorously measure innovative approaches to identify emerging in-demand skills and evidence-based effective training models; and
• publicly and widely disseminate information, analysis and evidence on in-demand skills and on successful training solutions to inform and support future investments in skills development.

the government of canada is currently accepting applications from organizations interested in receiving funding from the social development partnerships program - children and families for innovative projects related to early learning and child care service delivery.

call for concepts

in this first step, applicants are invited to submit a proposal that describes an idea for an innovative project. the initial proposal provides preliminary information on the objectives, the activities and the results of the innovative project.

the stand up to cancer canada metastatic breast cancer dream team, supported by canadian cancer society (ccs) and canadian institutes of health research (cihr), represents a new, focused effort to implement advances in metastatic breast cancer research as rapidly as possible through the creation of a collaborative, translational, cancer research "metastatic breast cancer dream team". the most talented and promising researchers across canadian institutions will be assembled into a pan-canadian dream team, forming an optimal configuration of expertise needed to solve key problems in metastatic breast cancer and positively impact patients in the near future. this metastatic breast cancer dream team will span multiple disciplines and utilize the new tools of modern biology to attack research questions in a coordinated way. mechanisms to foster collaborations within the dream team will be employed – an approach that promotes the sharing of information and a goal-oriented focus on measurable milestones of progress. su2c canada, ccs and cihr believe that this unique metastatic breast cancer dream team model will advance scientific research in the interests of both today's cancer patients and those who may develop cancer in the future.

this funding opportunity is expected to:

• enhance the scale-up or implementation at-scale of evidence-based interventions for the prevention or detection and management of hypertension and/or diabetes in low- and middle-income countries (lmics) and/or in indigenous populations in canada that encourages broader international uptake.
• develop strategies for overcoming barriers to evidence-based interventions through multidisciplinary and cross-sectoral implementation science. 
• create new knowledge on how to appropriately adapt interventions and foster implementation that incorporates different geographical, economic and cultural factors.

in 2015, the truth and reconciliation commission of canada (trc) made calls to action, and number 65 mentioned sshrc specifically in the call to establish a national research program to advance the understanding of reconciliation.

in 2017, the canada research coordinating committee (crcc) was created to improve the coordination efforts of canada’s granting agencies—sshrc, the natural sciences and engineering research council (nserc), and the canadian institutes of health research (cihr)—as well as the canada foundation for innovation. as one of its five priorities, the crcc has reaffirmed the agencies’ commitment to responding to the trc’s calls for action and has prioritized the need for a national dialogue to co-develop, with first nations, métis and inuit communities, an interdisciplinary, indigenous research and research training model that contributes to reconciliation between indigenous and non-indigenous peoples.

in budget 2018, the federal government committed $3.8 million to support this crcc priority and develop a strategic research plan that identifies new ways of doing research with first nations, métis and inuit communities, including strategies to grow the capacity of indigenous communities to conduct research and partner with the broader research community. sshrc is administering this initiative in collaboration with the other granting agencies.

an engagement plan with first nations, métis and inuit peoples is being developed to meet the objectives of the budget 2018 allocation and the crcc’s priority. the engagement process will have two streams:

1. granting agency engagement with indigenous organizations and researchers, featuring roundtables, workshops, online engagement and a national dialogue; and
2. this special call for proposals to award grants to indigenous organizations and researchers (or equivalent) to support their leadership in organizing their respective engagement activities and to develop position papers.

this special call for proposals invites applications from applicants affiliated with first nations, métis and inuit not-for-profit organizations, as well as from other not-for-profit organizations or canadian postsecondary institutions in any discipline that may inform and contribute to the development of a strategic plan. a minimum of 51 per cent of the grants will be reserved for indigenous not-for-profit organizations, with the amount depending on the volume of applications received from these organizations.

wsib opens call for long-term study on work-related injuries/illnesses

proposal deadline: friday august 31^st, 2018

we are now accepting research proposals for a longitudinal study on long-term outcomes for people with workplace injuries and illnesses as part of the workplace safety and insurance board’s (wsib) 2018 grants program.  longitudinal research will help us understand the long-term outcomes affecting people with work-related injuries and illnesses after they no longer have an active claim with us.  supporting long-term safe and healthy recoveries and returns to work is what we work toward every day at the wsib.

while the wsib collects data regarding the proportion of people who return to work within 12 months, this is the first time we are funding a study that will produce data on what happens over the longer term.  this study will examine return-to-work outcomes for people following a lost time injury and/or illness two years after the resolution of their claim.

the deadline for proposal applications is friday, august 31 at 4 p.m. est.  more detailed information about the study and application process is available on our website.