ROBBINS-OLLIVIER AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN EQUITY

ROBBINS-OLLIVIER AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN EQUITY

The Robbins-Ollivier Award for Excellence in Equity recognizes the contributions that Marjorie Griffin Cohen, Louise Forsyth, Glenis Joyce, Audrey Kobayashi, Shree Mulay, Susan Prentice, Michèle Ollivier and Wendy Robbins have made to increase the level of equity within the Canada Research Chairs Program (CRCP) and Canada’s research ecosystem more broadly, by way of their 2003 Canadian Human Rights complaints and their concerted efforts in the mediation processes, which led to both the 2006 Settlement Agreement and its addendum in 2019.

Three awards valued at $100,000 are conferred annually through a formal peer review process led by the program’s Advisory Committee on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Policy.

Objectives

The objectives of the Robbins-Ollivier equity award are to:

• fund bold and potentially game-changing institutional-level initiatives that will challenge the status quo, spark change and take action to address persistent systemic barriers within the institution research ecosystem and academia more broadly;
• recognize faculty members who contribute their time, expertise and lived experience to help address inequities in their institution, the research ecosystem and academia; and
• provide opportunities for students and trainees to contribute to this important work.

The award provides a total of $100,000 over one year, with the potential for a one-year no-cost extension, to a faculty member or a team of faculty members nominated by an eligible institution, to fund the implementation of bold and potentially game-changing initiatives led by the nominated individual or team that:

• contribute to the understanding of the persistence of systemic barriers in the nominating institution and, by extension, the research ecosystem and academia more broadly; and/or
• identify innovative measures that could be implemented within the institution to change the status quo and break down those barriers in the long term.

Eligibility

To be eligible for nomination, the faculty member(s) must:

• be eligible to receive grant funding from the agencies;
• be holding a full-time academic appointment at the institution at the time of nomination and for the duration of the award (adjunct professors are not eligible); and
• be in good standing with CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC (e.g., they cannot have eligibility limits placed on them due to not meeting grant reporting requirements for the CRCP or have sanctions in place tied to the agencies’ responsible conduct of research policy).

Institutional administrators who are eligible to hold grant funding from the agencies are also eligible to be nominated.

Eligible Expenses

Eligible expenses include, but are not limited to:

• teaching/administrative release for the individual(s)
• student/trainee stipend(s) or salary
• research costs according to the Chairs Administration Guide

Indirect costs are not an eligible expense. The salary of faculty is not an eligible expense. The award is not intended to "top up" or be added to pre-existing, ongoing initiatives.

For more details, visit the program website.

UPEI Application Process

All those who meet the eligibility guidelines noted above are encouraged to submit an internal proposal for consideration for nomination. The proposal should include:

• a description of the proposed project (4 pages maximum for English; 5 pages maximum for French) that outlines
  
  • a detailed description of the proposed initiative that shows how it is bold and potentially game-changing
  • the expected impacts/outcomes, in terms of changing the status quo and sparking change towards a more equitable institution and/or research or academic ecosystem
  • who will be involved in helping implement the initiative (e.g., faculty, students, administrators) and what their specific roles will be
  • how co-creation with individuals from underrepresented groups (racialized individuals, persons with disabilities, Indigenous Peoples, women, individuals from the 2SLGBTQIA+ communities) will be conducted to help inform the work
  • how best practices in equity, including intersectionality, will be applied within the project
• a detailed one-year budget for the initiative that shows how the $100,000 award will be used to meet the objectives stated in the project description (1 page maximum)
  
  • the Vice President Academic and Research has committed an additional $25,000 in UPEI funds to this award to support a part-time research assistant
• a description of the nominees and their contributions to the project, including the name(s) and position(s) of the nominee(s), a summary of each of the nominees’ overall contributions to and leadership in addressing inequities in their institution and/or the research ecosystem and academia

The proposal should be submitted using the UPEI Romeo Researcher Portal by the internal deadline of October 20, 2023.

As each institution may submit only one nomination in a given year, a sub-committee of the Research Advisory Committee will review the proposals and recommend to the Vice-President Academic and Research which project/initiative to be nominated by the agency deadline of November 7, 2023.

Note: For optimal support, given the scope of this opportunity, it is recommended that teams engage with Research Services (researchservices@upei.ca) in advance of the deadline.