SSHRC Impact Awards

Eligibility

Note: An internal selection is required, deadline: January 30, 2026. Please see details below.

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 or have held SSHRC funding pertinent to the award category;
• be in good standing with SSHRC;
• be affiliated with an eligible institution; and
• maintain affiliation with an eligible institution for the duration of the Impact 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 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 nominee must be nominated by the University of Calgary, and the University may only nominate one candidate per award each year. Please see the internal selection process below.

Summary

SSHRC Impact Awards are designed to build on and sustain Canada’s research-based knowledge culture in all research areas of the social sciences and humanities. The awards recognize outstanding researchers and celebrate their research achievements, research training, knowledge mobilization and outreach activities funded partially or entirely by SSHRC. Past recipients of SSHRC funding are listed in the Awards Search Engine.

Impact Award recipients are to use award funds for activities that promote and further develop the work being honoured. In recognition of the crucial role postsecondary institutions play in mobilizing research knowledge, at least 10% of each award must be used to promote the recipient’s research achievements. Individual recipients and their institutions can choose to devote additional funds, including a higher percentage of the award funds, to these activities.

A multidisciplinary jury made up of distinguished individuals from academia, as well as the public, private and not-for-profit sectors from Canada and abroad, will select award recipients according to the selection criteria associated with each of the five awards.

Before announcing the names of the award winners and finalists, SSHRC will share competition results through the SSHRC Extranet for Applicants.

Eligible institutions are invited to put forward nominations for the:

• Gold Medal ($100,000)
• Insight Award ($50,000)
• Partnership Award ($50,000)

As a signatory to the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), SSHRC is committed to a more inclusive, diverse and holistic approach to excellence in research evaluation. SSHRC recognizes that the concept of impact is nuanced, and that the assessment of impact may vary depending on numerous factors. As such, the achievements of funded researchers and their academic and non-academic collaborators, and their contributions to the research ecosystem and society at large, should be understood in this light.

Webinar: January 22, 2026 - 11:30 am to 1:00 pm (Link TBA)

NEW for 2026: Jury Prize ($25,000)

The Jury Prize may be awarded to a nomination, in any of the four Impact Award categories, that the jury considered uniquely outstanding in demonstrating excellence in one to many areas related to research, research-creation, communication and/or knowledge mobilization in the social sciences and humanities, within or beyond the academic community.

The Jury Prize is awarded, at the discretion of the jury, to a nomination whether it is or is not the recipient of one of the Impact Awards.

Pre-application deadlines

RSO internal deadline

Application deadlines

Program application deadline

Internal Selection Process

Since institutional nomination is required and the University may submit only one nomination for each award category, Research Services has instituted an internal selection process. 

Faculty members seeking an institutional nomination must submit a letter of intent for review by the SUPPORT: Research Awards committee. Based on the committee’s recommendations, the Vice-President (Research) will select a single candidate for nomination. Research Services will then invite selected candidates to complete a full nomination package for submission to SSHRC (the SUPPORT committee will be available to review a complete draft).

Applicants selected for full nomination by the University must submit using the Convergence Portal. Instructions here: https://www.sshrc-crsh.gc.ca/funding-financement/instructions/impact/applicant-candidat-eng.aspx 

The following documents for each candidate must be sent to researchawards@ucalgary.ca by the internal deadline:

1. Letter of Intent (2 pages maximum): Describe how the candidate or candidate’s project(s) meets SSHRC’s selection criteria. This letter is a draft of the “Institutional nomination letter and rationale” and so should present the nomination and describe the program of research, research activities and achievements relevant to the Impact Award for which the candidate is being nominated. It should include:
   1. a description of the SSHRC-funded research that forms the basis of the nomination, summarizing the project’s achievements, significance, challenges, impacts and outcomes;
   2. a summary of the nominee’s overall contribution to their field/fields of research;
   3. the level of engagement with, and the quality and scope of training and mentoring provided to, students, emerging scholars and participants, and indication of the nominee’s career level;
   4. examples of success in widely sharing, and encouraging application of, resulting knowledge within and/or beyond the academic community; and
   5. evidence that outcomes resulted in significant and positive impacts, relative to discipline-specific norms, in Canada and/or internationally.
2. Candidate’s Tri-agency CV: Tri-agency narrative CV format.
3. Each submission must include a SUPPORT Review Form.
4. Each faculty must submit a short statement describing how equity, diversity and inclusion were considered in the internal Faculty selection process.

Internal Deadline: January 30, 2026

Requests for review must be sent by your Faculty or Associate Dean (Research) to researchawards@ucalgary.ca.