Launched in 2018, the Canadian New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF) funds interdisciplinary, high-risk/high-reward, transformative research led by Canadian researchers working with Canadian and international partners. The NFRF is under the strategic direction of the Canada Research Coordinating Committee (CRCC). Canada is leading an "International Joint Initiative for Research on Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation". This initiative represents a collaboration between research funders from Brazil, Germany, Norway, South Africa, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States to leverage international expertise to tackle the global challenges caused by climate change.
This initiative aims to further the design and implementation of co-produced adaptation and mitigation strategies for vulnerable groups – those groups currently most impacted by the effects of climate change, owing to both physical and socioeconomic vulnerability. Developing strategies to improve resilience to climate change requires an interdisciplinary approach involving expertise across disciplines, including the natural sciences, engineering, health sciences, social sciences and humanities, and across sectors, including academia, government, not-for-profit, community and private industry. This competition requires that projects address at least two of the eight representative key risks identified in the Sixth Assessment Report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
A minimum of three countries must be represented among the co-Principal-Investigators. Funding will be distributed among the research partners according to the funding rules of each individual agency, in the case of researchers based in Germany according to the funding rules of the German Research Foundation (DFG) (Individual Grants Programme/Sachbeihilfe).
A notice of intent (NOI) to apply is mandatory; NOIs are due 2 May 2023. The closing date for the full proposals is Tuesday, 12 September 2023. In addition to being submitted to the NFRF platform, applications with German teams will also need to be uploaded through DFG’s elan portal by 18 September 2023. German applicants should note that if they are using the elan system for the first time, they need to set up an elan account by 11 September 2023 at the latest. Projects are expected to start in March 2023. Webinars on the competition and the application process will be held in mid-February 2023. Recordings will be made available after the sessions.
