Collaborative Research Team eligibility: CRTs must satisfy the following criteria:

• At least one PI must have a research focus in computational or data science methodology.¹
• The team should be interdisciplinary. Co-PIs from the same unit can apply as long as they represent different disciplinary areas.
• Researchers can only apply to the program as a PI (NPI or Co-PI) on one application per round.

¹ A computational or data scientist may include individuals working in foundational data science disciplines such as statistics, mathematics, engineering, information sciences, and computer science, or individuals engaged in big data-driven research, such as computational biology, computational social sciences, or digital humanities. This is not an exhaustive list and applicants may provide justification for their role as a computational or data scientist in a CRT as needed.

 

PI eligibility: All listed PIs must be individually eligible to hold DSI funding. PI eligibility assumes a budgetary appointment (at either the University of Toronto² or an external funding partner institution and:

• PIs must be eligible to hold research funding at the University of Toronto or external funding partners.
• As an ISI, the DSI is meant to seed new collaborations and research with the aim of supporting our community of researchers to secure larger grants from external agencies, which also helps support the university's overall operations. All listed PIs must provide evidence of participation in external Tri-Agency grant competitions and other corresponding external sources as a lead applicant within the past three years.
• PIs must be members of the DSI, but please note that membership is granted automatically upon proposal submission.

² Faculty budgetary appointments for U of T are continuing, full-time academic appointments with ongoing salary commitments from a University of Toronto academic unit. Outside of rare cases where a PI is eligible through two appointments, cross-appointed PIs should list their primary budgetary appointment that satisties the above criteria.

 

Co-Investigators: CRTs can include Co-Investigators (Co-Is) to incorporate experts who are (a) not eligible for DSI funding or (b) applying as a PI on a different proposal. Co-investigators can be appointed at any Canadian or International institution and may be listed as a co-investigator on multiple submissions.

 

Please contact awards.dsi@utoronto.ca with any questions.

Applications are submitted via the DSI online portal.

Register an account or log into an existing account and select "Start Application" for "Catalyst Grant."

The application is divided into tabs; each tab includes a set of instructions and fields to fill out.

LOI Stage

Applicants will need to complete the following fields:

Tab 1: Start Here

• Title

Tab 2: Administrative Information

Abstract: Enter a short abstract (200 words max).

Keywords: Enter domain and methodology keywords for your proposal.

Tier: Indicate the tier of funding that your team is applying for.

Amount: Indicate the total amount of funds that your team is requesting within that tier (this can be changed if invited to full proposal; for the LOI phase you can simply indicate the full amount).

Duration: Indicate the duration of funding (1 or 2 years).

Review Panel: Select the preferred review panel to adjudicate.

• Humanities/Social Sciences
• Life Sciences
• Physical Sciences

CRT Category: Indicate whether your proposal is eligible for and being submitted to the available co-sponsored Catalyst Grant opportunities.

Co-Sponsored Catalyst Grant Submission: Indicate whether this Collaborative Research Team (CRT) is a new collaboration (i.e. all permutations of listed PIs have not published or held funding together in the past five years).

Tri-Agency and External Grants: The goal of the DSI and other institutional strategic initiatives is to support new research teams with initial seed funding, enabling new collaborations and research projects to progress to a point where team members can apply for larger, external research funds. For each PI on your team, provide evidence that they have either secured or applied for one external funding grant as a lead applicant in the past three years. Provide the name of the PI, the agency, and the name of the grant proposal. Your responses to this question will undergo an administrative check, in consultation with your faculty or research institute as required, to determine your team’s eligibility to be funded via the DSI.

DSI Grants: The DSI does not provide renewed funding for previously funded projects. In cases where a team member has previously received DSI funding, provide a brief explanation that demonstrates and justifies that the proposed research constitutes a new project. This includes previous funding through the Catalyst Grant program or through any of the following DSI funding programs:

• Critical Investigation of Data Science Grant
• Data Access Grant
• Doctoral Student Fellowship
• Postdoctoral Fellowship

Alternatively, if this Catalyst Grant proposal is fulfilling the requirements of an awarded Seed Funding for Methodologists Grant or Computational and Quantitative Social Sciences Grant, you can instead provide a brief explanation.

Teams with no previous DSI awardees should leave this question blank.

Tab 3: PI Information

You will need the following information for each PI:

• Role (NPI or Co-PI)
• Name
• Email
• Institution
• Division (if applicable)
• Unit (if applicable)

Please ensure that the affiliation information for each PI corresponds to their eligibility to hold DSI funding.

Tab 4: Co-I Information

You will need the following information for each You will need the following information for each Co-I:

• Name
• Institution
• Division (if applicable)
• Unit (if applicable)

Tab 5: Proposal

A. Rationale, Objectives, & Goals: Describe the project rationale, objectives, and goals in a way that creates a clear understanding of the significant need for the research and a keen interest in the results (200 words max).

B. Impact & Alignment: Describe the project impact and alignment with the DSI mission (200 words max). If applicable, provide information on the following:

• Project alignment with the sub-call for selected co-sponsored Catalyst Grants as indicated in Co-Sponsored Grant Submission on the Administrative Information tab.

C. Research Design & Methods: Describe the research design, methods, and approach used by your project. Explain how the project is relevant for data science applications by either (a) developing novel statistical or computational tools or (b) making innovative use of existing methods (300 words max).

D. EDI in Research Design & Methods: Describe the impact that your project's research design and methods will have on EDI and explain how the corresponding proposed outcomes align with the DSI's EDI Statement (150 words max). Responses can focus on the following:

• Data sources
• Data collection
• Methods
• Interpretations of findings
• Community engagement in research and/or disseminations of findings

If some or all of these EDI components are not relevant for the proposed project, please provide an explanation. During the LOI phase, the explanation will be assessed by the evaluation panel and you will be provided feedback. During the Full Proposal phase, the explanation will be assessed by the evaluation panel to determine the weight of this question to your overall score (0 to 100%).

E. EDI in Collaboration, Recruitment, & Training: Describe the impact that your collaboration, recruitment, and training activities will have on EDI and explain how these outcomes align with the DSI's EDI Statement (150 words max). Responses can focus on the following:

• Recruitment
• Training
• Collaboration, leadership, & team interactions

Unlike Section D, some or all of these EDI components will be relevant for all proposed projects.

Figures

Upload up to one .pdf page of figures for this proposal.

Tab 6: CVs

Using the provided template, upload the PI's CV.

Demographic Survey

It is mandatory that all PI applicants fill out a brief Demographic Survey as part of any DSI application. Team members without a survey response on file will receive an email with instructions to complete this component of the application after the deadline, alongside a confirmation email to the team noting the missing surveys and any other minor errata. PI applicants with a response on file are always welcome to request a link to update their responses.

Full Proposal Stage

If a team is invited to submit a full proposal, they will be able to resume work on the submitted LOI. Three changes to the form will occur.

First, if teams are eligible to split funds—i.e. they include at least one Co-PI who comes from a different academic division or partner research institution than the NPI—the option to split flowed funds will be made available. For teams with one eligible Co-PI, optionally indicate the value of funds to be flowed to the Co-PI’s academic division or research partner institution. For teams with multiple eligible Co-PIs, optionally indicate one Co-PI and then the value of funds to be flowed to the Co-PI’s academic division or research partner institution. If these responses are left blank or do not appear, funds will flow to the NPI as usual.

Second, the following sections on the Proposal tab will have their word counts increased:

• Rationale, Objectives, & Goals (350)
• Impact & Alignment (350)
• Research Design & Methods (1400)
• EDI in Research Design & Methods (350)
• EDI in Collaboration, Recruitment, & Training (350)

Third, additional fields will be added to the Proposal tab:

F. Roles, Expertise, & Collaboration

Describe the complementary disciplinary academic contributions of the CRT members and any trainees who will be involved (300 words max). Please include a collaboration and training plan that will be used to meet project goals (e.g. joint research group meetings).

G. Timeline & Milestones

Describe the project's timeline and indicate any milestones or other metrics of success that will signal that the project has achieved its objectives and goals (500 words max).

H. Feasibility & Budget

Describe the feasibility of your study and provide a budget justification (350 words max).

• Funds can be used to support student research assistantships ("RAs"), student stipends, research staff salaries, data access, data generation, cloud computing and/or storage, and fees (conference registrations,
open access publication costs, etc.).
• Funds cannot be used for equipment or administrative salaries.
• Eligible expenses must align with U of T's Guide to Financial Management.
• If funds are being split between the NPI and one Co-PI, please ensure that the budget for each component of the project is clearly articulated.

I. References

Include up to one page of references for this proposal (500 words max).

Notes

Teams are welcome to add new Co-PIs and Co-Is to the team for the full proposal stage provided the following:

• All PIs must be eligible based on the eligibility requirements outlined above (including that PIs can only be eligible for one proposal).
• New PIs must submit a CV and, if they do not have a Demographic Survey response on file, must fill the survey out.
• New Co-Is must submit a CV.

--- Co-Sponsored Grant Submission Indicate whether your proposal is eligible for and being submitted to the available co-sponsored Catalyst Grant opportunities.

DSI-Temerty Catalyst Grant for Data Science in Medicine and Health

DSI-Leong Centre Catalyst Grant for Data Science in Child Health Equity

A set of Review Panels will be formed to evaluate LOIs and full proposals received by the submission deadline. Please find the scoring criteria and adjudication rubrics for each round here:

• LOI adjudication rubric
• Full proposal adjudication rubric

Please note the following:

• Proposals receiving a score of zero for question B. Impact & Alignment during the LOI review phase will automatically be removed from consideration for funding. (For clarity, this remains true at the full proposal stage; however, projects that are invited to submit a full proposal will have demonstrated alignment.)
• Proposals receiving a score of poor or fair on both D. EDI in Research Design & Methods and E. EDI in Collaboration, Recruitment during the full proposal review phase will be removed from consideration for funding. Please keep the following in mind:
  • LOI proposals will receive feedback on responses to both questions.
  • Resources on writing EDI responses are available. Please contact us if you require help filling out these sections.
  • For teams where all or part of D does not apply to your proposed project, please provide an explanation. The explanation will be assessed by the evaluation panel to determine the weight of this question to your overall score (0 to 100%).