Resources & FAQs

As far as we know, the CFI budget for the IF 2023 competition is COVID proof and the competition is expected to go ahead.  The review process may look a little different (e.g. no in-person meetings) to accommodate travel restrictions and social distancing protocols, but the structure of the review will remain the same.

Yes.  We have several multi-institutional applications in every competition.  For these types of applications, confirm with your colleagues what their respective internal deadlines and processes are. These multi-institutional applications must go through the internal processes at each of the institutions, not just the lead institution. 

Yes. A researcher can be part of a team on more than one CFI IF proposal.

We do recommend that teams include researchers in different stages of their career including early career researchers.

When you are writing the “Researcher” section, there are some factors you can include to demonstrate working together as a team. One of the best ways to demonstrate this is publishing together, being co-applicants on grants; co-supervising trainees. You can also demonstrate this graphically by including a connectivity to show the linkages/connections and strength of connections among the team.

Unless it is specified as an objective of the IF competition, the CFI reviewers will not place a higher value on multi-disciplinary proposals. Hence, the UBC internal review will not score multidisciplinary proposals more highly.

Yes, this is allowed, as long as the design is not part of the research project.  For example, the printing of custom chips is not eligible, as this is viewed as the cost of doing research.  However, if the requested infrastructure is required to design the custom chip that will be used to do research - that is eligible.  

Yes, building a database platform is allowed. But requests to pay for subscription fees for example to access data is not eligible as that is seen as the cost of doing research.

The CFI reviewers make comments that do not always align with the CFI criteria. It is best to provide as much detail as possible.

In the last CFI IF 2020 competition, the minimum total project cost per application was $1 million. This minimum amount may change for the upcoming competition. The total project cost that UBC submitted in the last competition ranged from $1.3M to $9.3M. Having a smaller budget offers UBC the option to submit more proposals to the CFI. However, it does not affect how the project is evaluated at the UBC internal review.

Based on the criteria from the last IF 2020 competition, infrastructure requests can be stored/housed within a core facility if it aligns with the research needs of the CFI proposal and it makes sense to do so for operations and maintenance purposes.

Yes, this resource is available on the SPARC website: https://sparc.ubc.ca/cwl/nfrf-resources (CWL Required)

There is also 6 NFRF Exploration grants in the Sample Grant Library on Sharepoint: https://vpri.share.ubc.ca/sparc/Pages/NFRF.aspx (CWL Required)

Government of Canada’s Best Practices in Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Research

UBC Inclusion Action Plan

CRC Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion: Best Practices for Recruitment, Hiring and Retention

Finding the appropriate team size should be about the fit between the researchers’ expertise and the request. More complex projects tend to need a full team.