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Research-Creation Funding

Please note that this funding is no longer available.

The Research-Creation Funding homepage was a page for information about the application process and links to the application forms for ACTOR’s Research-Creation Funding. Please note that this funding is no longer available. See below for a list of funded projects, or visit the Projects page for all projects, or see the Project Reports of the completed projects on the TOR.

Information Regarding the Research-Creation Funding Application Process.

Please read carefully before beginning/submitting your application!

ELIGIBILITY & INFORMATION

The Principal Investigator for any proposal must be a regular ACTOR member at an ACTOR partner institution. According to SSHRC policies, ACTOR can only transfer funds to ACTOR co-applicants (i.e., individuals involved in the original grant proposal), who are located at partner institutions. Therefore, collaborators at non-partner institutions are not eligible as principal investigators for this funding.
The purpose of ACTOR Research-Creation Project Funding is to encourage innovative research-creation projects by members of the ACTOR project that could lead to external funding opportunities, joint publication, musical compositions/premieres/recordings, new modules for the TOR, and/or other public presentations of ACTOR research. Creative projects with an interdisciplinary focus, relevant to the ACTOR project’s mandate, will be given priority. One of the main goals of this funding opportunity is to provide paid opportunities for students and artists in vulnerable positions due to the COVID-19 crisis.
Following the Project Director’s announcement at the Y3 Workshop, the Strategic and Research-Creation Project Funding will henceforth support educational projects, i.e., generation of educational tools, planning and realization of online courses, recording of musical examples by student performers, etc.
Projects involving collaborators in at least two ACTOR partner institutions will be prioritized.
The project must involve clear public outcomes in BOTH research and creation. As much as possible, new creative projects should be conceived for performance/delivery under the evolving circumstances of the COVID-19 situation.

The project proposal will be evaluated on the following criteria:
- The nature of the project
  - Originality/innovation
  - Artistic/scientific merit
  - Interdisciplinarity
- Potential for training highly qualified personnel (priority given to training and involvement of ACTOR student members)
- Potential beneficial outcomes for ACTOR and its members, such as, but not limited to:
  - Application for grant based on results
  - Live or recorded presentation of musical works that explore ACTOR themes
  - Evidence that the project will lead to publication or other output formats
  - A direct output in the Timbre and Orchestration Resource (TOR)
- Budget justification

The standard maximum funding for selected applications is $4,000 but funding up to $8,000 is available for larger-scale projects. The Project Description and Budget Justification should clearly explain the use of all funds requested. Requests for amounts larger than $4,000 must be justified as highly impactful.
Should the project involve external people (e.g., artists) and/or independent students (student members from non-partner institutions), applicants must first verify with the institution receiving funds from ACTOR, if it would be possible to make such payments as it is the responsibility of the recipient institution to cover the project expenses described in the budget justification.
SSHRC policy prohibits remuneration for salaried ACTOR researchers and artists (though they can be reimbursed for project-related expenses). Students and non-university-affiliated freelance musicians can be paid artist’s fees or for hourly work as research assistants. Concert production and recording fees can also be included in the budget.
Any equipment purchased should be less than 25% of the total budget.
Successful applicants will be required to submit 1) a project report (online form) and 2) a module item for the Timbre and Orchestration Resource (TOR) as well as a detailed budgetary subaward report at the end of the appropriate fiscal year. The deadline to submit the project report and the TOR module will be 16 months after the submission of the project proposal, i.e., January 31 for projects selected during Round 1 (September) or July 31 for projects selected during Round 2 (March). For more details regarding the content and formatting of your submission to the TOR, please see the TOR Submission Guidelines.
SAMPLE PROJECTS (These are by no means prescriptive or constraining; they are just examples to help people frame their projects.)
- A freelance composer (paid a commission) writes pieces for a small ensemble of student and freelance performers (paid artist fees), with the research component carried out by an ACTOR musicologist (unpaid and PI). The project budget includes modest production fees for a recording by a student sound engineer (paid).
- An ACTOR composer (unpaid and PI) and a student RA (paid) hire a freelance performer (paid hourly) to record sound examples to study acoustic aspects of extended techniques. The performer (paid an artist’s fee) plays the composer’s piece in a concert (with a partial ACTOR contribution to concert hall expenses). The project budget includes purchase of a digital recorder for use by the performer to record sound examples.
- An ACTOR conductor (unpaid and PI) commissions a new piece by a freelance composer (paid a commission) to be played by student/freelance performers (paid artist fees) with a research component documenting the creation by an ACTOR researcher (unpaid) supervising a team of graduate student RAs (paid).

APPLICATION DEADLINES

If a deadline falls on a weekend, applications will be accepted through the following Monday at 4pm.

Round 1: September 15 @ 5pm EDT
Round 2: March 15 @ 5pm EDT

APPLICATION PROCESS

Submit by the deadline by filling in the webform.
Late or incomplete applications will not be processed.
The Executive Committee will evaluate all applications based on the selection criteria above.