Catalyzing Engaged Digital Scholarship (CEDS) Grant  

  • Deadline: November 17, 2025
  • Value $10,000/grant. Up to 3 grants funded.
  • Eligibility: Principal Investigator or at least one collaborator must be a UBC-V faculty member (tenured/track) in the Faculty of Arts. Research and Educational Leadership roles are eligible as Principal Investigators.
  • Supports collaborative critical inquiry and technological innovation with the intent subsequently to apply for Tri-Council funding.
  • For queries related to this grant, please contact the Director of Digital Scholarship in Arts, Associate Professor of Teaching, Christine D’Onofrio christine.donofrio@ubc.ca.

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION
ADJUDICATION CRITERIA
CATALYZING ENGAGED DIGITAL SCHOLARSHIP GRANT
ELIGIBLE EXPENSES
ACCESS TO FUNDS
REPORTING REQUIREMENTS
APPLICATION PROCEDURES 

Terms of Reference

INTRODUCTION 

UBC’s Digital Scholarship in Arts (DiSA) the Public Humanities Hub (PHH) and are pleased to announce a grant to support collaborative critical inquiry and engaged digital research methods.

Our collaborative framework envisions scholarship that is interdisciplinary, publicly engaged, methodologically adventurous and where computational and digital approaches are informed by critical humanistic inquiry. This partnership recognizes that digital tools are not neutral instruments, calling on projects that are attentive to the power dynamics of ways knowledges are created, shared, and valued. We welcome collaborative methods in digital scholarship that employ inclusive and participatory forms of research beyond traditional academic frameworks. 

Proposed initiatives may take numerous approaches. Broadly, this might include: 

  • Developing research clusters to support digital scholarship. 
  • Initial or continued engagement with/supporting publics, communities, or interdisciplinary clusters using digital methods and modalities (ie. archiving, visualizations, text analysis, GIS, etc.) 
  • Developing programming, symposia, workshops, exhibitions, or other public facing projects, etc. covering topics about digital impacts on humans and publics, policies and procedures. 
  • Collaborative research and/or research creation activities to support the pursual of a larger grant or event that combines computational/digital scholarship and dissemination and public humanities initiatives. 

Juried between DiSA and PHH, up to 3 grants for up to $10,000 each (plus potential supports) will be rewarded in 2026. At least one collaborator, or the Principal Investigator, must be from the Faculty of Arts. Applications are open to Research and Educational Leadership roles as Principal Investigators. Graduate and undergraduate students, staff, non-regular faculty and lecturers can be on research teams, as collaborators, etc. PHH Advisory Board members are not eligible to apply as Principal Investigators. 

 

ADJUDICATION CRITERIA

The grant proposal will be jointly assessed by DiSA and PHH according to the following criteria: 

  1. advancement, creativity and innovation in engaged digital scholarship;
  2. the degree of knowledge exchanged fostered;
  3. clarity of methods and approaches to EDID (equity, diversity, inclusion, and decolonization), and/or engagement with underserved publics;
  4. the potential impact of the proposed project engagement (qualitative, i.e. uptake by students and colleagues, policy changes, translations, etc. OR quantitative, i.e.  readership, attendance figures, etc.); and
  5. the potential impact of grant funds for realization of the project.

Notification of awards will be made by mid January 2026. 

 

CATALYZING ENGAGED DIGITAL SCHOLARSHIP GRANT  

The grant consists of: 

  1. Up to $10,000 of funding. 
  2. Administrative support from PHH staff.  

Typically, though not without exception, research teams should accomplish most of their research goals within two years of receiving funding. 

Successful applicants are expected to attend related DiSA and/or PHH events throughout the year, to acknowledge DiSA and PHH funding in any publicity linked to their research project and, at the end of their award, to write a short public-facing reflection on their research and cluster-related activities, which will be shared on the DiSA and PHH websites, social media channels, and in DiSA’s and PHH’s annual reports. 

DiSA and PHH will: 

  1. help publicize the grantee’s research;
  2. promote events related to grantees’ research and activities on all its communication channels;
  3. introduce grantees to relevant community partners;
  4. invite grantees to contribute to DiSA and/or PHH programming; and
  5. support grantees’ applications for additional research funding. (For example, all forms of support outlined above can also be mentioned as monetary/in-kind “matching funds” on SSHRC Connection and other grant applications.) 

 

ELIGIBLE EXPENSES  

If this grant is used in combination with another fund, please distinguish the distinct work being accomplished with the fund. Eligible expenses include most direct costs of research eligible under the Tri-Agency expense guidelines, and indirect research costs associated with the project, such as research team meetings. Collaborator travel expenses must not be in excess of $2500. 

 

ACCESS TO FUNDS  

A UBC Research Project Information Form (RPIF) and brief budget will be submitted with your application. Funds for grant recipients will be transferred to an ORS research account that will be administered by the Principal Investigator’s home department. Funds will be accessible for two years.

 

REPORTING REQUIREMENTS  

Successful applicants will be expected to publicly share their research outputs or participate in research forums, and to be featured in DiSA and PHH communications (including on DiSA’s and PHH’s website, annual report, and social media). Any promotion of your project should acknowledge that this is a DiSA and PHH funded project by including the DiSA logo and PHH logo.     

 

APPLICATION PROCEDURES 

Please complete the following: 

Note: DOWNLOAD AND COMPLETE the Grant Proposal Form IN ADOBE. DO NOT COMPLETE FORM IN BROWSER.

The completed Grant Proposal form and all attachments must be submitted as a single bookmarked PDF. The Research Project Information Form (RPIF) is submitted as an additional PDF. (Note: Attachment formatting requirements and file-naming protocol provided below).

Grant Proposal Attachments as Described Below

  1. Attachment: Project Description (maximum 2 pages). A description of the proposed research and project-related activities that effectively communicates a. The research questions to be explored through the proposed activities; b. Rationale and significance of the proposed research and activities grounded in relevant literature; c. The methodology for the research activities; and d. How the grant funds will help advance a new line of research. <<PDF Bookmark Label: Detailed Description>> 
  2. Attachment: How will your research advance knowledge in the digital humanities scholarship? (maximum 250 words) <<PDF Bookmark Label: Knowledge Advance>> 
  3. Attachment: How does your project/methodology represent a commitment to principles of EDID and/or underserved publics? (maximum 250 words) <<PDF Bookmark Label: Social Justice>>  
  4. Attachment: How will your project offer opportunities for graduate student training and/or mentorship? (maximum 250 words) <<PDF Bookmark Label: Graduate Student Training>> 
  5. Attachment: Principal Investigator’s Research History. Please detail significant research outputs and competitively adjudicated research grants for the most recent six years, not including career interruptions. Please do not submit full UBC CVs and please do not submit Team Member CVs (no page limit). <<PDF Bookmark Label: Principal Investigator’s Research History & Grants>>
  6. Attachment: Team Members’ Research History. Please detail significant research outputs and competitively adjudicated research grants for the most recent six years, not including career interruptions. (1-page per team member). <<PDF Bookmark Label: Team Member Research History & Grants>> 

For the attachments #1-6, note Attachment Requirements 

The RPIF should be signed by the Principal Investigator, the Principal Investigator’s Department/Unit Head, and the Faculty Dean or designate, typically the Associate Dean Research. Please check the turnaround times for Department and Faculty signatures.

 

Attachment Requirements 

The completed Application Form and all attachments must be submitted are in the submission portal.  They should uploaded in a single bookmarked PDF which conforms to the following formatting conventions: 

  • Font: Size 12 pt Times New Roman 
  • Page size: 8 ½” x 11” 
  • Spacing: Single-spaced 
  • Margins: Minimum ¾ inch (1.87 mm) 
  • Whole PDF must be Bookmarked 

Please contact your department manager to request Adobe Acrobat.

Use the following tutorials to show you how to:

Bookmark a PDF 

Merge PDFs

Bookmark and merge PDFs in Mac computers (alternatives to Adobe Acrobat)

Please save these documents, in this order, as a single, bookmarked PDF file and name the Application and the RPIF files by using the following respective formats: 

Applicantsurname – CEDSGrant2025.pdf  

Applicantsurname – CEDSGrant2025RPIF.pdf 

Please upload both the bookmarked form & attachments as a single PDF, as well as the RPIF PDF, via the online submission form below. 

Proposals are due November 17, 2025. 

For queries related to this grant, please contact the Director of Digital Scholarship in Arts, Associate Professor of Teaching, Christine D’Onofrio christine.donofrio@ubc.ca.

 

SUBMIT SINGLE BOOKMARKED PDF OF APPLICATION FORM – ATTACHMENTS WITH ALL REQUIRED PARTS + RPIF HERE