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) which advances federal research priorities and the coordination of policies and programmes of Canada’s research funding agencies and the Canada Foundation for Innovation.

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, which highlights that unprecedented changes in Earth’s climate are being observed in every region, impacting all ecosystems and societies, and will continue to intensify with further warming.

A minimum of three countries must be represented among the co-PIs. 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).

Details on the call can be found in the NFRF call text at the link below. Please also take note of the national annexes linked on this website as they specify the additional rules and regulations that apply to each national team.

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.

Please note that according to a resolution of the DFG General Assembly, since 1 August 2019, DFG funding may only be granted to institutions that have implemented the guidelines laid down in the Code of Conduct for Safeguarding Good Research Practice in their own regulations in a legally binding manner.

For international proposals, this means that funding from the DFG can only be granted if the guidelines for ensuring good research practice (see link below) have been implemented. If you have any questions on this subject, please contact the Scientific Integrity team at the DFG Head Office (see contact below). Further information regarding implementation can be found at the webpage on Scientific Integrity (see link below).

Further Information

For more detailed information on the NFRF special call, please go to:

• www.sshrc-crsh.gc.ca/funding-financement/nfrf-fnfr/international/2023/competition-concours-eng.aspx

You can find the Sixth Assessment Report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change on the IPCC homepage:

• www.ipcc.ch/assessment-report/ar6

First point of contact for general enquiries relating to the call:

• NFRF-FNFR@chairs-chaires.gc.ca

Contact Germany, DFG:

• Sigrid Claßen
  phone +49 228 885-2209
  sigrid.classen@dfg.de
• Dr. Christiane Joerk
  phone +49 228 885-2451
  christiane.joerk@dfg.de

Please note the DFG’s data protection notice on research funding, which can be viewed and downloaded at:

• www.dfg.de/privacy_policy

If necessary, please also forward this information to those individuals whose data will be processed by the DFG due to their involvement in your project.

Guidelines for Safeguarding Good Research Practice, Code of Conduct:

• https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3923602

Information on the implementation of the Guidelines for Safeguarding Good Research Practice. Code of Conduct:

• https://wissenschaftliche-integritaet.de/en/code-of-conduct/implementation-of-the-guidelines

Contact of the DFG´s Scientific Integrity team (Good Research Practice):

• gwp@dfg.de