No, a formal budget is not required, but applicants must submit a detailed outline and timeline describing exactly how the time will be used for your project.

A: The matching component does not necessarily require cash, however it must have a measurable dollar value. It cannot, however, be the value of faculty time working on the project. The value of pay to students working on the project could be identified as part of matching, for example.

Yes, some indication that you are engaging the REB process (and why) should suffice (remember, this isn’t a research grant application, this is for a development project, that you may wish to study).

There may be some confusion in terminology. If the total cost of your project is $12K, then you would be asking ITIF for no more than 50% ($6K)

(As an aside, you don’t always have to ask for 50% of the cost (e.g., if the total cost of your project is $12K, and you have another source that will give you $8K, then you only need to ask ITIF for the remain $4k). Many project proposals suffer from an obvious false inflation of the estimated cost to be exactly double the maximum one can ask for. The proposer should first get an accurate estimate of the true cost of the project, and then only ask for half of that.

No, the matching funds do not have to come from a UofT source. But you do have to prove that you will be getting those funds, with an official letter from the source.

Projects that are not interdisciplinary or interprofessional are certainly eligible. Interdisciplinarity (if I can make up that word) is only one factor on the rubric.

There are no one year projects. Everyone gets two years to do it. If you do it faster, good on you.

Yes, you can combine different sources of matching funds.

You can count funds from another university as matching, but only the same kind of funds that are acceptable from UofT; for example, salary funds for faculty members and TAs wouldn’t count as matching funds, nor does ordinary equipment, whereas special student funding, like Work Study and specialized equipment (unique to complete the project) would be ok.

A: Generally speaking, there is a reluctance to give money for basic hardware or basic software (like a PC running productivity software). However, where the hardware is more unique to the nature of the project, it could easily be considered for funding. Ultimately, the adjudication committee will evaluate each project individually, so if you are uncertain as to whether or not a request would be eligible, please err on side of chance and submit a proposal – we are much more interested in encouraging innovative ideas than turning people away. And yes, we have given money for such specialized hardware in the past.

A: The answer to the evaluative component question is either/both. Essentially, the committee will be looking for evidence in the proposal that the person/team intends to write about their project, either an evaluation of the project itself, or the results of a study that emerge from the project. Even though we would like people to see this as more than just a development project, please keep in mind that this is an innovation grant, not a research grant, so the focus should be on the project, but having an evaluative component to the proposal will enhance its chances of success. (Reminder, if you intend to ‘study’ the project, we strongly recommend consulting with Research Services regarding ethical approvals!)

A: Inter-institutional collaboration would be viewed as a positive thing, but the main focus of the project should be on UofT teaching activities, and collaborations between UofT departments is particularly valuable. The source of matching funds does not have to be restricted to UofT however.

A: The intent of that criterion was to provide students with employment/mentorship/experience/training opportunities. Keep in mind that this is only one of the criteria, so certainly projects that don’t employ students will be duly considered. However, I think the committee would like to see that students are hired to work on projects over contracting out the work to third-party companies, if appropriate student labour was available.

A: Proposals should be submitted on November 7, 2023 at 5:00 p.m. EST

A: Funds are disbursed in the full approved amount at the start of the project. There is no recurrence or phased release of funding.

A: As a general principle, if you are collecting any kind of data about humans, and especially if you plan on presenting or writing about a research component of your project, ethics approval may be required. We strongly urge you to consult with your divisional research services office to make this determination, prior to submitting your ITIF proposal.

A: No, you may apply at any time; funds will only be released upon receipt of a copy of the letter of approval, however. Please bear in mind that delegated/expedited review (the most common review for projects submitted to the ITIF, but by no means the only one) takes 4-5 weeks from the time of submission to the REB.

PLEASE NOTE: Because of the way the application system works, even those who are applying for the SEED STREAM will be required to upload a ‘support’ letter, even though you don’t need a support letter. We apologize for this technical glitch. Please type up a one line Word or PDF document that says “I am applying for the Seed Stream” and attach that document as your ‘support’ letter during the application process. Thanks, and again, we apologize for this technical glitch in the application system.