Providing opportunities for student training and authentic research experiences are important components of many grant applications. But beyond research-specific grants with a student training component, there is also funding available that is specifically devoted to providing students with research and work experience in university settings.
Some of these funding options have specific requirements attached, so may not be suitable for all students or all research projects. Feel free to speak with your research facilitator anytime if you would like to discuss ways of defining student roles to suit the funding requirements.
University of Saskatchewan Undergraduate Student Research Assistanceships (USRA)
Amount: determined annually (not available for the Library in 2020)
Colleges on campus receives an allocation of funds from OVPR, determined by university budgetary factors, for which faculty members apply to hire an undergraduate RA for the summer months. In recent years, the library's allocation has been sufficient for 1-2 faculty members to hire RAs. The faculty member must provide at least 50% in matching funds. Some of the grants below could serve as sources for those matching funds.
Mitacs Globalink Research Internship
Amount: determined by project costs
This program provides funding for an undergraduate student, studying in their home country, from Australia, Brazil, China, France, India, Germany, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, or Ukraine to work with a faculty member at a Canadian university on a 12-week research internship.
Amount: up to $15,000
A student, supervising faculty member, and sponsor organization outside of academia develop a proposal for a student internship with that organization (up to 4 months for undergraduates). Students spend 50% of their time working within the academic institution, and 50% with the partner organization. Proposals are accepted at any time.
Government of Canada Career Focus Local and Regional Projects
Amount: up to $20,000
Although universities are not eligible to apply for this funding, this program may be suitable for a community partner who can hire and mentor a student working on aspects of a community-university research partnership. The program is also open to young/early-career people who are not students, so this program could also support the hiring of a community member to work on components of a faculty member's community-engaged research project.
Amount: reimbursement of up to 50% of the student's wages (based on provincial minimum wage)
This program offers wage subsidies for summer student employees, based on Government of Canada funding priorities. These priorities include:
Amount: student wages for up to 6-16 weeks of full-time work, or internships 4-12 months in length
To support the creation of student internships and summer jobs, this program provides wage subsidies to organizations that have a heritage mandate or operate activities in both official languages.
Government of Canada Skills Link
This program is intended to foster opportunities for youth who face barriers to employment. According to the Government of Canada, "barriers include, but are not limited to, challenges faced by recent immigrant youth, youth with disabilities, single parent youth, youth who have not completed high school, Indigenous youth, and youth living in rural or remote areas." n.b. This program is not currently accepting applications (April 2018) but may do so again in the future.
First Nations and Métis Community Engagement Project Fund
Amount: up to $15,000 in total project costs for local projects; up to $45,000 for regional or multi-party projects
Only First Nations and Métis organizations may apply for this fund, which is designed to support whole projects rather than student hiring specifically; however, these organizations must have at least one partner, which may include postsecondary institutions and research. Student achievement is one of the hallmarks that the program seeks to fund and foster.
Opportunities sometimes exist for wage supplement programs for Métis summer students. These arrangements are developed in consultation and discussion directly with GDI.
There may also be ways to frame a student's role in ways that allow you to access other funding sources beyond those that provide funds for direct student hiring. University of Saskatchewan Co-op Programs and Internships can offer one such option. Students in Engineering, Computer Science, Edwards School of Business, and Geography have the option of pursuing co-op programs or internships within their degree programs. If you are interested in hiring a student in one of these programs to work with you on a research project that would build on the student's discipline-specific skills, you may contact each program's respective organizers directly to learn more about specific requirements. Contact information is available from the link above. Hiring students via university-administered co-op programs opens up access to additional funding sources through industry and government programs.
The Library Administrative Coordinator, Nicole Barlow, can assist with the procedures for hiring a student RA. It is recommended that you contact her one month in advance of the target start date for the student.
Supervising student research assistants involves assuming the role of manager and employer within that relationship. Depending on the goals of your project, your role may additionally be that of a mentor: someone who develops duties and roles for the student that assist your research, but also allow the student to develop transferrable independent research skills. The resources below offer approaches for defining and building the supervisor/RA relationship, and for developing mentorship strategies for student RAs.
Sample mentorship resources:
Lunsford, Laura, Gloria Crisp, and Brad Wuetherick. “Mentoring in Higher Education.” SAGE Handbook of Mentoring.
Wuetherick, Brad, and Tereigh Ewert-Bauer. “Perceptions of Neutrality through a Post-Colonial Lens: Institutional Positioning in Canadian Academic Development.” International Journal for Academic Development 17, no. 3 (217–29).
Wuetherick, Brad, Stan Yu, and Jim Greer. “Exploring the SoTL Landscape at the University of Saskatchewan.” New Directions for Teaching and Learning 2016, no. 146 ( 63–70).
Additional RSD frameworks are available here.
The University of Saskatchewan's main campus is situated on Treaty 6 Territory and the Homeland of the Métis.
© University of Saskatchewan
Disclaimer|Privacy