The Open Science Fund supports the addition of an Open Science layer onto existing research programs at UCalgary.
This includes practices, workflows, tools, policies and infrastructure that make research and its outputs more open, accessible, and reusable. In doing so, these grants build capacity and foster a culture of Open Science within and beyond the UCalgary research community.
Successful projects must be embedded in an existing UCalgary research program and tailored to both the program and its community. They should be short-term and tightly focused, with clear goals and a realistic timeline. Projects should advance sustainable Open Science practices through tools, workflows, governance frameworks, or training, and produce reusable, openly accessible outputs that benefit both the UCalgary community and broader audiences, in alignment with the principles of the UNESCO Open Science framework.
The Office of the VP Research also offers the VPR Catalyst Grants for well-defined early-stage research activities, and the Transdisciplinary Connector Grants for building transdisciplinary connections.
Key Dates:
Application Deadline: June 22, 2026
Start Date: August 1, 2026
Contact
knowledge.impact@ucalgary.ca
Resource Documents
Terms of Reference (pdf)
How to Submit Your Application (pdf)
Application Template (pdf)
UNESCO Open Science Framework
Jump To
Fund Overview
Evaluation Criteria
Application Checklist
Information Webinar
Submit your Application
Project Examples
Frequently Asked Questions
Compare Internal Grants
Open Science is a set of principles and practices that aim to make scientific research from all fields accessible to everyone for the benefits of scientists and society as a whole. Open Science is about making sure not only that scientific knowledge is accessible but also that the production of that knowledge itself is inclusive, equitable and sustainable.
— UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science, 2021
Fund Overview
Evaluation Criteria
The review committee will assess applications against the following criteria:
- How clearly does the proposal identify an Open Science need relevant to one or more Open Science pillars (e.g., Open Knowledge, Open Infrastructure, Open Engagement, and Open Dialogue with Other Knowledge Systems) within the relevant research program and research community?
- To what extent is the project tailored to the identified need and context of the relevant research program and research community?
- To what extent is the project feasible given the proposed timeline, scope, and applicant or team expertise?
- To what extent will the project build Open Science capacity (awareness, training, infrastructure, policy) and culture within and beyond the UCalgary research community?
- To what extent are the proposed outputs likely to be accessible, reusable, and sustainable for the wider community beyond the funding period?
- If and where relevant, does the project demonstrate inclusive and context-appropriate consideration of diverse communities and knowledge systems, including Indigenous knowledge systems?
Indigenous Engagement: Where proposals are grounded in Indigenous knowledge systems, reviewers will apply supplementary guidance to interpret each criterion appropriately. Community-governed access and Indigenous Data Sovereignty principles (such as OCAP and CARE principles) are recognized as valid expressions of openness within this program.
Additional considerations: Where proposals receive equal rankings, preference will be given to those submitted by teams that include early-career researchers and trainees (e.g., teams featuring early-career academic appointees, postdoctoral trainees, and graduate and undergraduate students).
Applications will be reviewed and adjudicated by an internal review committee established by the Office of the Vice-President (Research).
See the Terms of Reference for all details related to Evaluation Criteria and Evaluation Process.
Eligibility:
- Individuals holding continuing academic appointments at the University of Calgary (tenured and tenure-track) with explicit independent research duties are eligible.
- Individuals holding limited term, contingent term, or adjunct academic appointments at the University of Calgary are eligible provided the terms of their appointment explicitly include the expectation of independent research.
- Individuals holding postdoctoral research appointments at the University of Calgary are eligible, provided they co-apply with their current supervisor, and the proposed project is embedded in the supervisor’s research program.
Applicants:
- Projects may be led by an individual researcher or a team, except for postdoctoral-led projects.
- Postdoctoral-led projects require an additional team member with an academic appointment (usually their supervisor) as a co-applicant. Where a team is involved, one member with academic appointment is identified as the Project Holder (Principal Investigator) for administrative purposes.
- An individual may participate in multiple projects simultaneously but may be a Project Holder for at most one Open Science Fund grant over a 12-month period.
Conditions:
- De novo research activities, stand-alone projects not tied to a research program, general awareness-building campaigns, and activities focused solely on knowledge mobilization or translation are not eligible.
- For projects aiming to incorporate Open Science practices into teaching and learning workflows unrelated to research programs, please consult University of Calgary Teaching & Learning Grants.
- Unspent funds will be recovered by the Office of the Vice-President (Research) after eighteen months.
- Extensions requested on the basis of a formally documented leave where duties are interrupted (e.g., medical or family-related leave) may be granted for a period equal to the leave. Requests must be submitted no later than three months before the award end date.
Recipients must submit a final report to Research Services within 8 weeks of grant completion.
See the Terms of Reference for complete details.
The University of Calgary is committed to removing barriers and providing opportunities for the meaningful participation of individuals from all equity-seeking groups, including but not limited to women, racialized minorities, Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, and persons from LGBTQ2+ communities.
Where the proposed open science activity introduces new EDIA considerations beyond those already addressed in the underlying research program (e.g., new team members, new community partnerships, new publicly accessible outputs, or new governance arrangements), applicants must describe these considerations and how they will be addressed.
Where the proposed activity does not introduce new EDIA considerations, applicants should briefly explain why.
Applicants may consult resources and strategic guidance available through the Research Services Office: specifically, the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Team and the Indigenous Research Support Team.
Expense eligibility is generally governed by institutional policy and procedure (i.e., the Travel and Expense Reimbursement Handbook) and program aims.
Examples of eligible costs and activities include:
- Personnel not listed as a team member (research assistants, project coordinators, developers, community partners, lived experts) whose time is partially dedicated to the project
- Materials, supplies, and fees (workshop materials, licenses, repository fees)
- Software or hardware (if critical for infrastructure)
- Events or community consultations directly linked to Open Science outputs or outcomes
- Translation or accessibility services
- Cultural protocols (e.g., honoraria)
Partner contributions from other sources (including departments, faculties, institutes, and/or external partners) are highly encouraged and will strengthen applications but are not mandatory.
The application package will include the endorsement of the relevant Department Head and Associate (Dean) Research. Applications will be submitted online.
Please assemble your application items in the order listed in the Application Form. A single, digitally generated and text-searchable PDF attachment with all items in order is required.
Application Checklist
Review the following documents for full details on application sections, page limits, and review criteria:
✔ Terms of Reference
✔ How to Submit Your Application
✔ Completed Application Form
✔ Research Funding Application Approvals form, signed by Principal Investigator, Department Head, and Dean or Associate Dean (Research) (included in the application template). Note: this intake does not currently flow through RMS.
✔ Support letters if applicable (e.g., in community-based projects)
Information Webinar
VPR Open Science Fund Information Webinar
Session recorded May 22, 2026.
Examples of Eligible Projects for the VPR Open Science Fund
The following examples illustrate the types of activities the Open Science Fund is designed to support. In each case, the underlying research already exists; the fund supports the open science layer that makes it more open, accessible, and reusable. Review in the accordion below.
Download the Application Guide which includes examples, success tips, and a proposal checklist.
What these examples are meant to illustrate:
- Projects should be embedded in an existing research program rather than fund the research itself.
- Strong projects build reusable capacity, workflows, tools, or governance that benefit a wider research community.
- The examples below include within-discipline, cross-discipline, and community-partnered projects to show the full range of eligible work.
- They use plain-language labels for disciplinary area and UNESCO-aligned pillars.
- DISCLAIMER: These examples are NOT based on real applications! They are intended for illustrative purposes only and do not indicate the types of projects that will or will not be funded.
Within-Discipline Examples
These examples show projects where the open science activity is embedded within a single discipline or field. The team members share a disciplinary home and the outputs serve their immediate research community. Projects may involve multiple labs, institutions, or career stages.
Area: Health / Biomedical Science | Relevant pillars: Knowledge; Infrastructure
Team composition: Professor, Research Scientists, and Postdoctoral Fellows
A biomedical research team working within an already funded mouse-model program sees that labs prepare, validate, and report the model in inconsistent ways, making findings hard to compare or reproduce. They use funding to convene a short working group of model users, create openly available standard operating procedures and reporting checklists, and produce a visual methods guide that can be shared through an open repository. The fund supports coordination, documentation, and media production rather than new experiments. The result is a reusable toolkit that improves reliability across labs and gives trainees a concrete model for transparent methods sharing.
Area: Health Research / Biostatistics | Relevant pillars: Knowledge; Infrastructure
Team composition: Research Managers, Research Staff, and Graduate Student
A health research group realizes that practices such as study preregistration, analysis documentation, and data-sharing preparation are handled unevenly across projects and trainees. They use funding to review current workflows, develop templates and checklists, and run a short internal training series with support from a statistician and graduate student. The fund covers trainee time and workshop materials rather than new data collection. The result is an openly shared package of tools and lessons learned that helps other research groups build more transparent and reproducible workflows while strengthening open-science literacy within a defined research community.
Area: Engineering | Relevant pillars: Knowledge; Infrastructure
Team composition: Engineer and Postdoctoral Fellow
A biomedical engineer has developed a new diagnostic device for bacteria and now requires a growing bacterial culture for further testing. However, no one on the team has experience or in-depth knowledge of bacterial culture techniques. The team attempts to follow growth protocols from published articles, but these methods underperform. The engineer proposes using Open Science funding to develop a departmental portal for sharing experimental protocols. The portal would include version tracking and allow department members to access, comment on, and suggest improvements to protocols. The funding supports the development of the portal and enables community feedback, rather than directly optimizing experimental methods. The result is a new model for sharing and improving methodological knowledge within the institution.
Area: Economics / Social Science | Relevant pillars: Knowledge; Infrastructure
Team composition: Economics Professor and Graduate Research Assistants
An experimental economics lab has produced several years of behavioural experiments, but the data files, analysis scripts, and experimental instructions are stored inconsistently across lab members’ personal drives with no standardized documentation. Other economists requesting replication materials receive ad hoc file packages that are difficult to use. The team uses the funding to build a structured replication archive with standardized file organization, documented codebooks, and version-controlled analysis scripts hosted in an open repository. The fund supports a graduate research assistant to clean and document the backlog and develop templates for future experiments. The result is a reusable archiving workflow that the department can adopt, making replication straightforward for the broader experimental economics community.
Cross-Discipline Examples
These examples show projects where team members from different academic disciplines collaborate to build open science practices that benefit multiple fields.
Area: Environmental Science | Relevant pillars: Knowledge; Infrastructure; Engagement
Team composition: Climatologist, Librarian, and Ecologist
A researcher studying local water systems and ecosystems is already generating valuable data, but the files, metadata, and documentation are not organized in a way that makes them easy for others to find or reuse. The researcher partners with a librarian and a colleague in a related field to build a practical data-sharing workflow, including metadata templates, file-organization standards, and short training materials for others in the field. The fund supports a research assistant and a workshop series rather than additional fieldwork. The result is an open, reusable data-management model that benefits researchers, environmental organizations, and external partners who need usable evidence.
Area: Psychology / Neuroscience | Relevant pillars: Knowledge; Infrastructure
Team composition: Cognitive Psychologist, Neuroscientist, and Data Librarian
A cognitive psychology lab and a neuroscience lab both collect functional MRI data but use different file formats, naming conventions, and preprocessing pipelines, making it impossible to pool or compare datasets across studies. They partner with a data librarian to adopt and implement the Brain Imaging Data Structure (BIDS) standard for their shared imaging facility, creating conversion scripts, metadata templates, and a short training guide for new lab members. The fund supports a research assistant to convert legacy datasets and run validation checks rather than new scanning. The result is a shared, BIDS-compliant data infrastructure that enables cross-lab analysis and positions both groups to meet emerging funder requirements for open neuroimaging data.
Area: English / Digital Humanities / Arts | Relevant pillars: Knowledge; Infrastructure
Team composition: Literary Scholar, Digital Humanities Researcher, and Data Librarian
A literary scholar studying Canadian prairie literature has digitized a substantial collection of annotated manuscripts, marginalia, and correspondence, but the annotations are stored in proprietary formats that only the researcher’s own tools can read. A digital humanities colleague and a data librarian partner to convert the annotations to an open, interoperable standard (such as the Web Annotation Data Model), build documentation for the workflow, and create a short guide so other humanities researchers can adopt the same approach for their own archival collections. The fund supports the conversion work, documentation, and a workshop for humanities faculty rather than new archival acquisition. The result is a reusable annotation workflow that makes literary research outputs findable and interoperable across digital humanities projects.
Community-Partnered Examples
These examples show projects that involve partners outside the university — community organizations, government agencies, Indigenous communities, or local knowledge holders — working alongside university researchers to build open science practices that serve both academic and public needs.
Area: Health / Indigenous Research / Community-Engaged Research | Relevant pillars: Engagement; Other Knowledge Systems; Infrastructure
Team composition: Health Research Team, Indigenous Engagement Specialist, and Indigenous Community Members
Community support letter(s) needed
A researcher working in an ongoing Indigenous-partnered health program wants to improve openness without undermining community ownership, governance, or decision-making over the data. The team works with the community and relevant campus partners to co-develop data-sharing protocols, consent language, access pathways, and guidance that reflect community-governed access and Indigenous Data Sovereignty principles. The fund supports consultation, honoraria, and a small forum to document and refine the process rather than the research itself. The result is a practical guide that other University of Calgary teams can adapt when navigating open science in Indigenous research contexts.
Area: Political Science / Public Policy / Social Science | Relevant pillars: Infrastructure; Knowledge; Engagement
Team composition: Researchers and Municipal Staff
A political science team studying municipal policy finds that comparable information on bylaws, subsidies, and local interventions is scattered across council minutes, registries, and reports in inconsistent formats. They partner with municipal staff to build an open, structured database with a documented coding framework that allows users to compare policy approaches across jurisdictions. The fund supports a research assistant, database development, and consultation with end users rather than new primary policy research. The result is reusable infrastructure that supports scholarship on policy diffusion while giving municipal staff and community organizations a practical tool for learning from other jurisdictions.
Area: Humanities | Relevant pillars: Knowledge; Engagement; Other Knowledge Systems
Team composition: Historian, Graduate Student, and Community Representatives
Community support letter(s) needed
Historians and public history researchers studying Alberta’s oil boom-and-bust cycles have collected oral histories from workers, family members, and community residents and stored them in a format for researcher access and analysis. However, the materials are difficult for community members to access because the transcripts, permissions, and descriptive metadata were not designed for public reuse. They partner with a community archive and accessibility specialist to create a workflow for transcript cleanup, metadata standards, plain-language summaries, and community-informed access decisions for recordings and transcripts that can be shared. The fund supports accessibility services, partner consultation, and repository preparation rather than new interviews. The result is a reusable model for making Alberta history research outputs legible and accessible beyond the university while respecting context and consent.
Area: Anthropology | Relevant pillars: Knowledge; Diverse Knowledge Systems
Team composition: Anthropologist and Local Scholar
Community support letter(s) needed
An anthropologist conducts fieldwork on oral traditions among Indigenous people of Peru. She collaborates with a non-English-speaking local scholar whose cultural understanding and expertise is essential. However, most research materials are in English, which limits the contributions of local scholars. The anthropologist proposes using Open Science funding to partner with an experienced translator and software developer to develop a set of multilingual standardized research templates and to adapt open-source tools to allow instantaneous, multilingual transcription and translation to enable the local scholar to contribute. The funding supports the costs of translation and the adaptation of the open-source tools. The result would be a reusable model for multilingual collaborations and inclusion of marginalized scholars.
Frequently Asked Questions
Please consult the Terms of Reference, review illustrative project examples that include eligible and ineligible projects, and watch our webinar. If you still have questions, please reach out to the Knowledge to Impact Team and Open Science Specialist at knowledge.impact@ucalgary.ca. In the email subject, include “Open Science Fund questions” and your name, and we will reply within two (2) business days.
Please note that if your question can be answered by the aforementioned documents, you will be referred to them.
They may be eligible if they demonstrate a clear benefit to the UCalgary community and produce at least one openly accessible and reusable output that is useful to that community (e.g., a new knowledge mobilization workflow that addresses a lack of know-how within a relevant faculty unit).
The main project output(s) must be openly accessible (as open as it is appropriate in your context) and reusable. They should also be sustainable or demonstrate some level of sustainability where appropriate. If sustainability is not relevant, applicants need to explain why in their proposal. Projects may include additional minor outputs that do not meet these criteria.
No.
Unless you hold a postdoctoral appointment, you are not eligible as a primary applicant – even if you are part of UCalgary in another capacity.
If you are a graduate student or a member of management, professional, or support staff, you are welcome and encouraged to participate as a team member on a project led by an eligible applicant.
No.
Not as a primary applicant, but you are welcome and encouraged to join a project as a team member.
The primary applicant and Project Holder must hold an appointment at the University of Calgary. Team members can come from any community and may be external to UCalgary.
Team Member: If an individual contributes intellectually to the project beyond their assigned tasks (e.g., a data scientist who helps tailor a database to project needs), they should be listed as a team member.
Personnel: If an individual is responsible only for executing specific tasks (e.g., building a database based on provided specifications), they should be listed as personnel. It is up to the applicant to determine how to list each contributor; however, keep in mind that project feasibility will be evaluated based on the team’s composition and expertise. Contributors designated as personnel will not be considered in this assessment.
No-cost extensions may be granted for up to an additional six (6) months.
Any unspent funds remaining after eighteen (18) months will automatically return to the Office of the Vice-President (Research). Extensions are only granted for formally documented leave where duties are interrupted (e.g., medical or family-related leave). Extension requests must be submitted no later than three months before the award end date.
For guidance, please refer to the Travel and Expense Reimbursement Handbook and the Use of Funds section in the Terms of Reference.
Eligibility is less of a concern than the rationale for any given expense in relation to the project’s success. Principal investigator or co-applicant remuneration, article processing charges (APCs), and ongoing costs such as data repository hosting are not eligible.
No.
Grant funds cannot be used to provide stipends to the applicant or to any UCalgary team member listed on the application.
Community partners may be eligible to receive honoraria or other forms of compensation, which will be assessed on a case-by-case basis.
If funds are intended to support personnel not listed as team members (e.g., research assistants), applicants must include the individual’s name and a clear justification in the budget section.
The current deadline is June 22, 2026.
Future competitions will be contingent on available funding.
The submission webform closes at 11:59 PM Mountain Time.
Late submissions will not be considered unless you missed the deadline due to a technical problem related to the webform. If you experience a technical issue, please contact us, and we will review the issue within two (2) business days (please refer to the “Who can I contact for support with application preparation and submission?” FAQ).
Please send an email to the Knowledge to Impact (KI) Team and Open Science Specialist at knowledge.impact@ucalgary.ca.
In the email subject, include “Open Science Fund support” and your name. In the body of the email, describe the issue you need support with. We will contact you within two (2) business days with next steps.
The Research Management System (RMS) does not currently support the collection of some of the information required on the submission webform. We intend to continue using the submission webform with an uploaded approvals page for the time being.
It depends on what is missing. If you are missing one signature or have omitted one field, we will contact you to provide the missing information. If your application is missing entire sections, your application will not be considered. We encourage you to double-check the application file (in PDF format) before submitting it.
Open Scientific Knowledge, Open Science Infrastructure, Open Engagement of Societal Actors, and Open Dialogue with Other Knowledge Systems (including Indigenous knowledge systems). Each pillar encompasses different areas. For more information, consult the UNESCO Open Science Framework.
Applicants should identify which pillar(s) their project addresses.
Eligible projects may address either one pillar, multiple pillars, or all four.
A community support letter is required when your project is co-designed, co-delivered, or co-governed with a community (Indigenous, equity-deserving, patient, or other). In your application, address Question 3 and include a letter from the partner confirming their involvement and agreement with the proposed open science activities.
Applicants are not required to provide a support letter for proposals that fall outside these conditions. However, if during the review process it is determined that the proposed activities do require a support letter, applicants will be notified by the Knowledge to Impact team and asked to provide one within a reasonable timeframe.
EDIA considerations apply when your open science activity changes who can access or benefit from the research or inadvertently creates barriers for equity-deserving groups that the original research did not address. Describe these changes and how any barriers or impacts will be mitigated.
When in doubt, contact University of Calgary’s Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Research Team for further support.
Yes.
You will receive brief, standardized feedback based on the scoring rubric used by the reviewers. Please keep in mind that this feedback is tailored to this specific adjudication round and may not fully apply to future rounds.
Yes.
The Knowledge to Impact (KI) team and the Open Science Specialist will contact successful applicants after the grant adjudication process. The KI team will provide general support through consultation and connections, as aligned with the KI mandate, but they will not directly participate in carrying out the project.
For teaching and learning projects not directly tied to research, please consult the University of Calgary Teaching & Learning Grants. However, if your project is grounded in a research program and the Open Science activities have clear research benefits, it may be eligible.
Yes.
However your application must:
- show you propose the implementation of Open Science practices into your research,
- demonstrate that your project is embedded in an existing research program,
- and that the outputs will benefit the broader research community while being sustainable, reusable, and openly accessible.
Compare Internal Grant Programs
Should I apply for a Catalyst, Connector, or Open Science Fund grant?
UCalgary offers three internal grant programs under the Office of the VP Research, each with a different focus. They are intended to support UCalgary scholars along the continuum of their research programs. These funding programs are independent and a single researcher can apply and hold all three.
Watch the webinar: VPR Catalyst and Transdisciplinary Connector Grant Program Information Session