Student Research and Training

SSHRC adjudication committees have shown a tendency to disapprove of proposals which demonstrate over-dependence on students' labour. In addition, SSHRC has very specific expectations for Effective Student Research Training. Proposals including students need to demonstrate a rich educational experience within a reasonable budget.

Rich Research Training Experiences

While SSHRC expects that students will receive a rich research training experience, the PI is not responsible for all of that. The Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research Offices' professional development resources are good options for demonstrating your proposal will meet SSHRC's expectations.

The Research Ethics Office offers two ethics training courses at least one of which will be essential for all SSHRC-orented graduate students.

The Mitacs program is a wonderful opportunity to leverage funding and internship experience for a graduate student or Post-Doctoral Fellow with a community-research partnership. Mitacs can help researchers find funding for graduate students to do research abroad, or to fund international students for your research. Mitacs has funding designated for SSHRC-oriented projects. The contact for UAlberta is Eric Loo.

Consider including undergraduate students in your research:

Writing support programs are excellent options for meeting SSHRC's expectations for Effective Research Training. Consider offering your RAs access to:

  • Writing Across the Curriculum WaC provides workshops, instructional sessions and other supports for Instructors, Departments and Students.
  • Centre for Writers The Centre for Writers offers free writing support to instructors and staff at the University of Alberta. One-on-one tutorials and workshops are available.
  • Community Service-Learning (CSL) CSL fosters community-engaged learning through reciprocal relationship between University of Alberta instructors and community partners.

Budgeting

SSHRC policy is to reject proposals which, in the opinion of the adjudicators, have 'padded' budgets. It is important to avoid the appearance of attempting to fund an entire graduate program with a single grant. Nevertheless, graduate students are essential in most research proposals. At the university of Alberta, they may be budgeted for in one of five ways: As Academically-Related Employment (ARE) which is paid as casual support staff (hourly), as full or part-time Graduate Research Assistants (GRA), via a Graduate Research Assistant Fellowship, or via Graduate Teaching Assistantships (GTA). Remuneration is the result of collective bargaining between the university and the Graduate Students Union. Remuneration varies depending the type of position (hourly, monthly or by term) and the level of experience (step and range). Normally, a full-time graduate student is limited to 12 hours per week and no more than 8 hours per day. More details are here.

Key information resources: