Incremental Project Grants

Overview

The Incremental Project Grants (IPGs) funding opportunity is a stream of the Research Support Fund (RSF) that provides further support for the indirect costs of research, in addition to the RSF grant.

This stream stems from additional funding for the RSF announced first in Budget 2018. An additional top up was announced in Budget 2024, totalling $73.8 million in 2024-25, $89.25 million in 2025-26, $115.77 million in 2026-27, $160.33 in 2027-28, and $208.5 million in 2028-29, with $208.5 million per year ongoing thereafter.

If an institution is eligible, the IPG provides it with additional support for projects in priority areas that cut across the RSF’s five existing categories of eligible expenses. IPG’s five priority areas are:

innovation and commercialization activities;
facilities renewal, including deferred maintenance;
information resources, including digital resources, open access and databases;
equity, diversity and faculty renewal (in the context of equity, diversity and inclusion); and
research security.

Objective

The IPG stream is aligned with the RSF’s objective to help Canadian postsecondary institutions ensure their federally funded research projects are conducted in world-class facilities with the best equipment and administrative support available. By directing funds to specific investments and to annual or multiyear projects initiated by institutions, the IPG will help with tracking and reporting, to better demonstrate the impact of these investments.

Eligibility

IPG funding is for eligible institutions receiving $7 million or more in eligible direct research funding. Eligibility for the IPG stream is assessed against this threshold each year.

Institutions with less than $7 million in eligible direct research funding are not eligible for IPG funding, but continue to benefit from the current progressive RSF funding formula.

Value and duration

IPG funding is calculated as a percentage of each institution’s eligible direct research funding amounts above $7 million. Funding is awarded for one year only. Institutions must re-apply each year and meet all terms and conditions to continue receiving funds.

Application form

Applying for the IPG is part of the RSF application process. If an institution is eligible, it must also complete the IPG application sections. The IPG sections ask for additional information about the proposed use of the IPG funds, including details of the project(s) corresponding to at least one of the IPG priority areas. This includes:

a strategic vision for the use of IPG funds;
a description and costing of proposed investments across the IPG’s eligible priority areas, including any other funds supporting the projects;
expected timelines; and
expected outcomes.

Policies governing the RSF concerning forfeiture of funds, failure to comply with the deadline and requests for extensions also apply to IPG applications and awards. See the Apply to the program page for more details.

Application instructions

The IPG application is part of the RSF application on the Convergence Portal. If an institution is eligible for the IPG stream, it must complete the IPG portion of the application and submit the full application before the deadline.

Payment

Eligible institutions will receive the IPG amount according to the RSF payment schedule.

Use of funds

Institutions must spend the funds in the year of the award and report on the use of these funds annually.

IPG funds can be used to support multiyear projects whose outcomes will be available only at the end of a longer period of up to three years. The application allows institutions to apply for funding for the next phase of the project, provided the institution continues to meet reporting and eligibility requirements.

Reporting

IPG funding is subject to the same reporting requirements as the RSF. Institutions must provide clear, reportable evidence of the results and impacts of grants awarded.

Institutions are also required to complete a statement of account reporting on the total value of their RSF grant, including the IPG funding. See the Statement of account section for instructions on how to complete and submit this required report.

Institutions must also submit an annual IPG outcomes report, which typically becomes available to institutions in early April on the Convergence Portal. See the Incremental Project Grant outcomes report section for instructions on how to complete and submit this report.

Accountability and public acknowledgement

Institutions receiving IPG funding are subject to accountability and public acknowledgement requirements. See the Incremental Project Grants—Summary of accountability and public acknowledgement requirements section for instructions on these requirements.

Frequently asked questions: Additional Budget 2024 Incremental Project Grants funding

These FAQs provide additional information regarding the additional funding to the Incremental Project Grants (IPG) stream of the Research Support Fund (RSF) program.

Why are more research-intensive institutions eligible for the additional Budget 2024 funding in support of the indirect costs of research while smaller institutions are not?

The RSF funding formula is designed to provide a higher rate of funding for the institutions that receive the least amount of funding from the federal research funding agencies. In this way, smaller institutions and colleges have a greater rate of their indirect research costs covered by the RSF program (see table below). This rate is expressed as a percentage of the average research funding received (direct costs) from the three funding agencies.

Funding through the IPG stream of the RSF program is limited to the more research-intensive institutions (i.e., receiving $7 million or more per year in eligible direct research funding), as these currently receive the lowest percentage of their indirect research costs covered by the base RSF program (see table below).

Example of an institution	Average amount of direct Research Funding over three years	RSF grants based on 2024-25 cycle	Support in indirect costs
1	$100,000	$80,000	80%
2	$1 million	$530,000	53%
3	$7 million	$2.99 million (including RSF base funding and Research Security funding)	42%
4	$100 million	$19.6 million (including RSF base funding, IPG and Research Security funding)	20%

Starting in the 2026-27 RSF cycle, and because of the top up announced in Budget 2024 to core research grant funding at the federal funding agencies, it is anticipated that institutions will see an increase in their eligible research funding (in terms of direct costs of research) that can count as RSF credits. The increased RSF credits used in calculating the RSF grant amounts could lead to an increase in the dollar amount of the base RSF grants for institutions receiving the lowest amount of funding for direct costs of research, as the progressive RSF formula provides these institutions with higher rates of RSF funding.

Why is this additional Budget 2024 funding going to the IPG stream of the RSF? Why not use the base RSF program?
Even if the additional Budget 2024 funding to indirect research costs was to be added to the base RSF program as opposed to its IPG stream, only the more research-intensive institutions—those receiving $7 million or more per year in eligible direct research funding—which are also IPG eligible institutions, would benefit from these additional funds due to the progressive RSF funding formula.

Adopting the IPG stream for the additional Budget 2024 funding will ensure that funding is tied to specific projects where institutions are required to provide clear, reportable evidence of results and impacts of their IPG grant. Additionally, the IPG stream allows for targeting more specifically strategic priority areas (see Q3 for more details).
Will institutions be required to specifically target a strategic priority area(s) when using their additional Budget 2024 IPG grants?
Institutions can use their additional Budget 2024 IPG grants projects in the following four IPG priority areas that cut across the RSF’s five existing categories of eligible expenses:
- innovation and commercialization activities
- facilities renewal, including deferred maintenance
- information resources, including digital resources, open access and databases
- equity, diversity and faculty renewal (in the context of equity, diversity and inclusion)
Because the IPG stream is administered through a different framework than the Research Security priority area, institutions cannot use the additional Budget 2024 IPG grants to support projects in the Research Security priority area.
How are the additional Budget 2024 IPG grants going to be disbursed to eligible institutions?
Since the additional Budget 2024 IPG grants are to start being disbursed in 2024-25, institutions will be required to submit, between December 2024 and January 2025, a new application with additional IPG projects. For this new application, institutions will use the same form previously used in the 2024-25 RSF cycle. The notional grant calculations for additional Budget 2024 IPG grants will follow the regular funding formula for the IPG stream and will be made accessible to institutions via the RSF-CRC Data Breakdown sharing site before opening the application process.

The additional Budget 2024 IPG grants (totalling $15 million in 2024-25) will be disbursed in March 2025 in one payment. Institutions will be allowed to use the funds retroactively to April 1, 2024. Due to the payments being received towards the end of the 2024-25 fiscal year, institutions will be exceptionally granted a three-month extension to apply expenses against the new funding. Therefore, they could use the new funds for expenses until June 30, 2025.

Starting in 2025-26 and ongoing, the additional Budget 2024 IPG funding will be added into the IPG stream envelope, and the notional grant calculations will occur at the same time as those for the base RSF program and the Research Security priority area.
Is the Research Support Fund the only federal fund that supports the indirect costs of research?
Yes. The RSF, and its associated IPG stream and Research Security priority area, is the only federal fund entirely dedicated to assisting postsecondary institutions with the overhead expenses associated with research funded by the three federal funding agencies (the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council).

Several other tri-agency programs (e.g., Canada Research Chairs, Canada Excellence Research Chairs, Canada First Research Excellence Fund, College and Community Innovation Program as some examples) allow for a portion of the award to be spent on the indirect costs of research.

Questions

If you have questions about the IPG application process or reporting requirements, contact information@rsf-fsr.gc.ca.

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