Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada - Impact Awards

The Talent Award is given to Canada’s top SSHRC funded doctoral student or postdoctoral fellow who maintains academic excellence, has a talent for research and knowledge mobilization, and has demonstrated clear potential to be a future leader within and/or outside the academic sector.

1.      Challenge—Ambition and importance (25%):

·        originality and significance of the body of work within the nominee’s fields of research.

 2.     Achievements—Impact and outcomes: (75%):

• originality and significance of nominee’s body of academic achievement and research, including quality of publications relative to stage of career;
• evidence of impact of the nominee’s work within their fields of research and/or beyond the social sciences and humanities research community;
• nominee’s ability and commitment to communicate research results within and/or beyond the academic community;
• level of nominee’s engagement with, and quality of training and mentoring provided to, students, emerging scholars and participants, relative to nominee’s career level; and
• nominee’s demonstrated potential for leadership and societal contributions within and/or beyond the academic community.

A nominee must:

• be a citizen or permanent resident of Canada, or a “protected person” under subsection 95(2) of Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, by the nomination deadline;
• be an active social sciences and humanities researcher or student;
• hold SSHRC funding relevant to the award category;
• be in good standing with SSHRC;
• be affiliated with an eligible institution; and
• if awarded, maintain affiliation with an eligible institution (same as the nominating institution) for the duration of the award.

Nominees:

• cannot nominate themselves;
• can be nominated in two sequential years for the same award, following which two years must pass before they can next be nominated in the same category;
• can be nominated in only one category in any year;
• can be nominated in a subsequent year for a different SSHRC Impact Award; and
• cannot be a current member of SSHRC’s governing council, a previous Gold Medal winner or an Impact Awards jury member.

The University of Toronto may submit only one nomination to each award category. Therefore, the Vice-President Research & Innovation (VPRI) has an advisory committee of representatives from across the social sciences and humanities to review internal nominations and select the University’s nominees each year.

To submit a candidate for consideration by the University of Toronto internal committee, Faculty Vice-Dean, Graduate offices must complete the following:

• Submit  Expression of Interest (EOI) online to RHSE office by January 27, 2025.
• Submit the two-page internal nomination form and the candidate’s CV to RHSE and we will submit it to vpri.awards@utoronto.ca by 5:00pm on February 9, 2025.

Reminder: Faculties may nominate one candidate in each of the two disciplines under SSHRC (Humanities and Social Sciences) to a maximum of two nominees.

Please Note:

• Documentation sent directly (by the applicant, faculty or referee) to SGS, OVPRI or SSHRC will not be considered
• Documents in a language other than English may require an official English translation
• Retain all original application-materials until results are available

OVPRI will notify all applicants forwarded to OVPRI of the results of the University competition in late February.

SSHRC will communicate the results from the national competition directly in Fall 2025.