Deadline: 15-Aug-25
The Accessibility Standards Canada is inviting interested organizations to submit an expression of interest for research funding
Objectives
- Work with different people and organizations across Canada to move accessibility standards research forward to help support a national network of accessibility expertise.
- This includes fostering collaboration with others. This is one of the reasons they ask you to find project partners from different sectors and/or disciplines.
- Involve people with disabilities, other experts, and organizations to inform the research.
- This means you should include people with disabilities in all aspects of your research project, including having roles like lead researcher, project manager, participant, etc. It also means recognizing the expertise of people with disabilities that comes with their lived experience.
- Identify and share research, information, best practices, and tools about accessibility barriers and standards.
- This includes facilitating the sharing of research results with diverse interested parties. The goal is to ensure that evidence-based research is used to inform standards development.
Priority Areas
- The built environment
- Communication, other than information and communication technologies
- Design and delivery of programs and services
- Employment
- Information and communication technologies
- Procurement of goods, services, and facilities
- Transportation
- Annual priority research areas:
- Automated chat-bots and virtual assistant technology, including virtual assistants using artificial intelligence
- Service delivery for people with temporary or episodic disabilities, including mental health-related disabilities and invisible disabilities
- Addressing attitudinal barriers and ableism
- Environmental sensitivities
Funding Information
- The total amount of funding available depends partly on the duration of your project. You may request up to the following amounts per fiscal year to carry out your project:
- $250,000 in 2026 to 2027
- $200,000 in 2027 to 2028
- $150,000 in 2028 to 2029
Eligible Activities
- The following are examples of eligible research activities:
- Assessing current knowledge and identifying gaps in priority research areas to support the next generation of standards development.
- Performing research that will inform standards development in priority areas.
- Reviewing, assessing, and synthesizing the current body of evidence on accessibility standards in 1 or more priority areas.
- Identifying gaps in the evidence and sources of best practices. This should support the development of the next generation of accessibility standards.
- Looking at current accessibility standards in Canada and internationally. This includes looking at how people or organizations use them and what these standards have achieved.
- Furthering research that will increase knowledge and generate data within federal areas of responsibility.
- Understanding the lived experiences of people with disabilities.
- Understanding what accessibility means in the priority research areas.
- Furthering research on the experiences, understandings, and perspectives that people with disabilities have about accessibility in the priority areas.
- Conducting other research activities that support the objectives of the funding program.
- Developing recommendations or best practices.
Ineligible Activities
- The following activities are not eligible for funding:
- The development and improvement of tools or methodologies that are specific to your organization.
- Local infrastructure, construction or renovation projects.
- The development of tools that depend on the research findings. This includes maps, apps, technology, audit guides, and training guides/modules/activities.
- The development of standards.
- The Standards Council of Canada defines a standard as a document that provides an agreed-upon set of rules, guidelines or characteristics for activities or their results. In the context of this program, a standard is developed and put in place by a recognized standard development body. That is why eligible research projects can aim to support and inform accessibility standards but cannot be aimed at developing them.
Eligible Expenses
- The following is a list of eligible expense categories. Use these to help estimate your project costs. Note that all costs must be directly related to project activities:
- Operating costs. This includes costs for administrative services and functions provided by your organization to support project activities. For example, this may include general supplies; mailing; bank charges and utilities; salaries, fees and benefits for employees or third parties who provide administrative support for the project. The operating costs you are requesting cannot exceed 15% of the total funding requested.
- Professional fees and services. This includes fees for consultants, partners, researchers, third-party IT support, technical expertise, facilitation, performance evaluation and reporting, and auditing. Any administration services/fees that third parties charge have to be included and identified in the operating costs.
- Projects that receive more than $300,000 in total funding must submit audited financial statements at the end of the project. This audit must be done by a third party. Auditing-related costs are an eligible expense and must be included in the budget.
- Salaries, benefits, honoraria, and wages for employees, research assistants, and casual workers.
- Included are salary replacement allowances. This is the cost to replace an employee temporarily so they can work on your project. The maximum amount is 50% of the replaced employee’s salary for each year of the project.
- Staff training and professional development costs related to project work.
- Participant costs (for example, accessibility accommodation costs to engage people with disabilities in research activities and participant honoraria).
- Costs of materials, equipment, and supplies.
- Printing and communication costs.
- A research report and executive summary must be submitted for all projects. Both must be submitted in French and English, and the executive summary must also be written in plain language. Related costs, including translation and plain language editing, are eligible expenses. These costs must be included in your budget estimate.
- Travel costs (spending on international travel requires prior approval).
Ineligible Expenses
- Costs that do not directly contribute to project deliverables are not eligible expenses. Examples of such costs are listed below:
- Costs related to:
- supporting the core operations of your organization
- improving your organization’s activities, tools, processes, or guidelines.
- Pay and benefits for employees not contributing to project deliverables.
- Costs for activities not contributing to project deliverables.
- Professional fees such as union dues, annual memberships, and certification fees.
- Money spent on alcoholic beverages or cannabis.
- Costs for land and/or buildings.
- Salaries of those holding an academic position at a post-secondary institution. These individuals are also not eligible for a salary replacement allowance.
- Costs related to:
Eligibility Criteria
- This call for expressions of interest is open to all Canadian organizations that are legal entities in Canada. To be eligible, your organization must fit into one or more of the following categories:
- research or educational institution (such as a university)
- not-for-profit organization
- Indigenous organization, including a band or tribal council or other self-governing entity
- provincial or territorial organization (excluding provincial or territorial governments)
For more information, visit Government of Canada.
