The grant program year runs August to July. There will be a period of guaranteed consideration from 1 March to 31 May, with funding to be awarded as early as 1 August for a maximum grant of $15,000 for 12 months.

Applications may be made for shorter-term research or innovation projects or to complete an eligible project already underway, which will be completed before the next grant program year end. Under such circumstances, the funding will be prorated accordingly at $1,250 per month. 

Grants are renewable subject to satisfactory progress and availability of funds for up to an additional year for a Master’s student and up to three years lifetime maximum funding for a PhD student.

Subject to available funds, applications received after the close of the guaranteed consideration period up until 1 January of the following year may be considered for funding. Decisions on mid-year applications can be expected by six to eight weeks after submission of the application. Grants awarded under these “rolling deadlines” will be fundable to a maximum duration of the end of the grant program year, when they would be subject to renewal if eligible.

The TSSA Research and Innovation Grant for Graduate Students will fund projects of research, innovation, or both, carried out by individual students under the supervision of an Ontario based faculty member.

Grants may be awarded for research and innovation projects specific to TSSA’s regulated technologies. Additionally, grants may be awarded for projects that advance public safety knowledge in generic areas such as hazard based analysis or risk reduction behavior among consumers, provided that the project includes a knowledge transfer and exchange component to one or more TSSA sectors.  Applicants are encouraged to familiarize themselves with TSSA’s website (www.tssa.org). 

TSSA encourages researchers interested in using TSSA data or observations but, to ensure compliance with the TSSA Access and Privacy Policy, projects proposing to use TSSA data or which may require access to TSSA or industry personnel must be arranged prior to making the proposal.

If you are interested in submitting an application and want to learn more, please contact Ian Shaw, Governance and Planning Advisor, Corporate Secretariat Department, Technical Standards and Safety Authority at ishaw@tssa.org. Where a sufficient number of requests are received, TSSA will consider holding an information session.

A feasible plan for knowledge transfer and exchange is expected (see FAQ). TSSA data or access to site visits may be arranged under appropriate conditions, and TSSA will facilitate dissemination of research results.

Funding of the grant entails the expectation that the proposed project will be delivered to TSSA in the agreed form, regardless of changes to other aspects of the student’s academic program, supervisory arrangements, or thesis topic. Accordingly, 50% of funds will be held back each year until delivery of a satisfactory progress report or final report, in addition to renewal eligibility contingent on satisfactory progress and continuation of the work.

The application will set out the scope, goals and objectives, method, and clear and feasible timeline of the proposed project, including plans for knowledge transfer and exchange with TSSA and the relevant industry sectors. The maximum timeline eligible for a grant is two years for a Master’s student and three years (lifetime) for PhD student. Larger projects will only be considered if the project endpoint and deliverables including knowledge transfer and exchange will be produced within the grant period.

Only the time required to perform the project is eligible for funding. Applications for shorter projects will receive equal consideration to full-year and longer projects. Projects that require less than one year, and renewal work-plan applications for which only a part-year renewal is required in a subsequent year, must specify a pro-rated total grant amount (i.e., $1,250 per month.)

As one of the program goals is to encourage more academic faculty research pertaining to safety in the technologies regulated in Ontario by TSSA, The academic supervisor must hold a tenured or tenure track appointment at an Ontario university, although not necessarily the same university as the student. Alternatively, the academic supervisor may be an adjunct professor (employed in industry, government) who holds an adjunct appointment at an Ontario university, or a full-time professor at an Ontario College of Applied Arts and Technology.

The project must be related to the proposed supervisor’s program of scholarship. The supervisor is considered the Principal Investigator for the grant award. The academic institution must accept responsibility to account for the grant, including periodic reporting required to release holdback funds, confirm to TSSA that 100% of the TRIGGS funds were awarded to the student, and where applicable, to reconfirm or revise the timeline to apply for grant renewal.

The funds are granted for performance of the proposed project, and are not a scholarship, fellowship, or training grant. However, the proposed project must also relate to the student’s program of study. The academic supervisor must be supervising or co-supervising the student’s thesis or major academic project, but the proposed project may be the thesis project, a part of the thesis project, or completely separate from the thesis.

Ordinarily, the grant will support a student at the Masters or PhD level at an Ontario university. Under no circumstances will a student enrolled outside Ontario be funded. Final year undergraduate university students or publicly funded Community Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology in Ontario proposing a research and innovation project comparable to a Masters may apply for consideration.

There is no restriction on the graduate student’s field of study or on the academic discipline of the faculty supervisor, other than that the field of study must be relevant to the proposed project.

A PhD student who has previously held the same grant or the former TSSA Safety Education Graduate Research Scholarship as a Master’s student is eligible for funding only up to three years of total lifetime funding from TSSA grant and scholarship.