New grants will advance the Canadian sport sector through collaborative research 

OTTAWA, Oct. 30, 2019 — The Sport Information Resource Centre (SIRC) is connecting researchers and national sport organizations through a new grant program supporting collaborative research projects. The initiative was announced at the 2019 Sport Canada Research Initiative (SCRI) Conference, in front of 225 researchers and sport organizations.

To foster a collaborative research approach, each grant requires a sport organization, an academic supervisor and a graduate student to team up.

“Building on SIRC’s practice of advancing Canadian sport and physical activity through knowledge, we’re bringing our researcher and practitioner communities closer together,” said Debra Gassewitz, SIRC President and CEO. “This program will build and strengthen long-term relationships in the sector, as we all advance toward common goals.”

“The opportunity to inform our programming and policy development with credible research is hard to pass up,” said Natasha Johnston, Executive Director of Ringette Canada. “Not to mention the relationship-building with a researcher and the long-term benefits accompanying that.”

“Facilitating direct connections for researchers benefits everyone,” said Dr. Ann Pegoraro, SIRC’s Researcher in Residence from Laurentian University’s School of Human Kinetics. “It’s a unique opportunity for the research community to work directly with organizations, and a model that should be replicated.”

For the 2019 inaugural year, funding priority will be given to projects designed to inform policy and program development to engage girls and women in all facets of sport participation.

“These grants are intended to support sport organizations to tap into the insight and evidence available through Canada’s sport-related researchers to ensure policies and programs have significant and lasting impact,” said Sydney Millar, SIRC’s Manager of Content Strategy and the SIRC lead on the initiative. “We are excited to support the sector’s commitment to achieving gender equity with this project.”

Research projects can use qualitative or quantitative approaches. They can include stakeholder research, communications analyses, evaluations, literature reviews to inform programming or decision-making, and impact assessments.

With funding from the Government of Canada, ten grants of $2,500 are available. For more information on funding, expectations of applicants, evaluation criteria and to download the application form, click here. The deadline for submissions is November 29, 2019.

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Media contact:

Peter Morrow

Knowledge & Communications Specialist

Sport Information Resource Centre (SIRC)

pmorrow@sirc.ca

613-231-7472 (SIRC)