Seed Grant – Collaborations for Change

Seed Grant Info

Change happens through collaboration, and we are truly better together. To help maximize conference connections, build knowledge and foster continued collaboration beyond our August conference days, Collaborations for Change (C4C) will again be supporting a seed grant competition.

C4C will be offering one grant of $10,000 to improve student mental health at post-secondary institutions. This grant is intended as initial funding to get a project started or piloted, as well as provide the initial findings that may lead to more funding in the future, whether from a post-secondary institution or from a funding agency.

Please find information about our 2021 recipient here.

Information about criteria and the application can be find below, as well as links to download the grant rubric and application.

Applicants must e-mail their completed applications to Andrew Szeto (aszeto@ucalgary.ca) by Friday, Sept 29, 2023 11:59 PM ET. Only completed forms will be considered. The submitted application must contain the proposal form and the pitch video. After reviewing the following information if you still have questions about the seed grant and application, please reach out to Dr. Szeto (aszeto@ucalgary.ca).

Criteria

Project scope
The intent of this grant is to improve the mental health of post-secondary students, and therefore, proposed projects should align with this main goal. The project can be (but not limited to) research, evaluation, knowledge translation, program or service but must include an evaluation component.

Project team composition
To align with the theme of bringing diverse campus stakeholders together, the team members should be composed of researchers, post-secondary clinicians, student service professionals, and/or students from Canadian Post-Secondary Institutions. Although team members do not need to include all these broad categories, the more diverse, the better. We also encourage cross institutional collaborations. Team members can only be a part of one successful application.

Project length
Project length will be up to a maximum of two years. The start of the funding period will be when the funding is dispersed.

Reporting
Funded projects will be asked to provide a mid-term progress report (around the one-year mark) and a final report. Templates for these reports will be provided to grant winners.

Application information

Proposal form
Project teams will complete the application form provided.

Pitch video
Project teams will need to create a 5-minute video describing their project. Be creative and have fun! The audience for this video is the broader general public, so please use plain language. Please note that the video may be used for promotion purposes.

Rights and permissions
Any application material becomes the property of the Campus Mental Health Strategy, at the University of Calgary and the Best Practices Network.

Copyright
Any submitted material must comply with the copyright regulations at your institution. This includes videos, images, music etc. Please visit your institution’s resources to ensure compliance if you plan on using any literary, artistic, musical or dramatic works in your proposal.

Ethics
If the project includes gathering information from people for research purposes, please note that your project may require research ethics review; please indicate on the application form.

Grant
The successful applications will be announced by December 2023. A grant of up to $10,000 will be awarded to successful Project Teams to implement their project or initiative. The successful Project Team will receive up to $10,000 and will have up to two years from the date of funds being dispersed to expend all funds and complete project activities.

Successful project teams may be featured on the University of Calgary and Best Practices Network websites and may be asked to host a webinar and/or be featured in a promotional article.