Community-Based Research Canada Awards

Eligibility

Award for Excellence in Community-Campus Research Partnership

The Research Partnership should: 

• Demonstrate excellence in community-based research process, principles, quality, and impact.
• Exemplify an authentic and reciprocal relationship among community and academic research partners.
• Be currently undertaking a research project (or recently finished project activities) in Canada.
• Have at least one member who belongs to a CBRCanada member organization OR who is a registered individual member of CBRCanada.
• Have selected two representatives from the research partnership to accept the award: one from community and one from academia.

Award for Emerging Community-Based Researcher 

The nominee should: 

• Be an emerging community-based researcher (established within approximately the last five years), including community researchers, PhD students or recent graduates, post-doctoral fellows, or early career researchers. Applicants should be applying no more than five years from graduation and/or five years into their current research position.
• Have conducted research with communities in Canada.
• Have their research grounded in societal justice (including attention to Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion).
• Have their research be co-created with community partners and driven by community needs and priorities.
• Be able to showcase evidence toward turning community-based research into actions addressing societal issues.
• Belong to a CBRCanada member organization OR is a registered individual member.

Summary

The CBRCanada Community Research Excellence Awards are intended to recognize the achievements of a promising community-based research partnership and signify the importance of community-based research as a growing field of practice.

The Award for Excellence in Community-Campus Research Partnership 
The Award for Excellence in Community-Campus Research Partnership honours the exemplary contributions of a community-campus research partnership that has demonstrated excellence in community-based research. Research partnerships applying for the award should demonstrate excellence in research process (e.g., driven by community with meaningful participation of research partners); research quality (e.g., meaningful, innovative data collection and analysis), and research impact (e.g., community issues addressed by research-informed evidence). Research partnerships applying for the award should exemplify an authentic and reciprocal relationship among community and academic partners. 

The Awarded Research Partnership will:

• Receive a commemorative plaque and a $5,000 cash prize to support their community-based research.
• Be recognized for their research achievements at an Award Ceremony that will be held virtually on May 26, 2026 at 12:00 PM ET.
• The awarded Research Partnership will ideally be accepted by two representatives: one individual from  community and one individual from academia.
• Be recognized as the 2026 Excellence in Community-Campus Research Partnership Award recipient on the CBRCanada website, e-news, and social media.
• Be invited to virtually showcase their research at CBRCanada events to a network of 70+ member organizations across the country and beyond.

Call for Nominations 2026

Application Form 2026

 The Award for Emerging Community-Based Researcher

The Award for Emerging Community-Based Researcher recognizes and celebrates an individual who embodies community-based research values in their work. Nominees for this award should be working closely with a community(ies) in support of transformational community-driven, participatory, and action-oriented research that imagines and builds innovative solutions that address community needs. They are deeply committed to social justice, the issue and/or community(ies) in which they work, and have a drive toward turning research into short and long-term actions to pressing societal issues. 
 

The Awarded Emerging Community-Based Researcher will: 

• Receive a commemorative plaque and a $1,000 cash prize to support their community-based research.
• Be recognized for their research achievements at an Award Ceremony that will be held virtually on May 26, 2026 at 12:00 PM ET.
• Be recognized as the 2026 Emerging Community-Based Researcher Award recipient on the CBRCanada website, e-news, and social media.
• Be invited to virtually showcase their research at CBRCanada events to a network of 70+ member organizations across the country and beyond.

Call for Nomination 2026

Application Form 2026

Pre-Application SUPPORT Deadline (see details below): TBA

Agency Deadline: April 10, 2026 midnight ET

Supporting Documents: Applicants must submit a completed application form specific to the award they are applying for. In addition, they should include two to three endorsements, which can be submitted as letters (up to 1.5 pages) or videos (up to 4 minutes), from members of the community and/or academia.

Application deadlines

Program application deadline

RSO Deadline: TBA

Internal Selection - SUPPORT: Research Awards

The University of Calgary can only endorse three nominations to each award category per year. To help facilitate this, each Faculty seeking institutional endorsement(s) must submit the following to researchawards@ucalgary.ca by TBA:

• The application form sharing the rationale for the nomination
• Any letters of endorsement, if they are ready by this date
• A SUPPORT Review Form

An internal selection by the SUPPORT: Research Awards Committee will be conducted if more than 3 nominations/category are submitted.

In this case, based on the committee's recommendations, the Vice-President (Research) will select up to three candidates per category for institutional endorsement. Research Services will then invite selected candidates to complete a full nomination package for CBRCanada.