Eligibility & Evaluation Process

Funding Available and Conditions of Funding

  1. Only core VISTA members may be Principal Investigators. Associate members may act as a co-investigator;
  2. The duration of each grant is a maximum of 2 years for a total of $50,000. One may also apply for one year of funding with the potential to reapply for a second year;
  3. The funds are meant to enable faculty members to initiate research or creative projects that build on current research programs or that are innovative in their approach. They should enhance faculty members’ ability to apply for funds from external sources for larger-scale initiatives;
  4. The program is not intended to provide continuing support for ongoing research/creative projects or to serve as a substitute for external funding. The intent of CFREF is not to replicate existing funding, but to provide an opportunity to secure new and/or greater sources of funding, or perhaps move in a different direction;
  5. The project must be in collaboration with an external partner (academic, public or private sector) and must involve at least 2 VISTA Core/Associate members (including the PI);
  6. All manuscripts arising from the projects must be submitted to Innovation York at yaserk@yorku.ca for Intellectual Property (IP) review prior to final publication;
  7. Successful applicants are encouraged to work with Innovation York to draft and execute a collaboration agreement with the VISTA partner to ensure all parties agree on how intellectual property, publication, and confidentiality, etc. will be managed. Should you wish to put a collaboration agreement in place, please contact Yaser Kerachian, Commercialization Manager, VISTA who will liaise with the Innovation York Research Agreements team to support you.
  8. CFREF funding must be acknowledged in professional communications, publications, presentations and conference materials as follows: “This research was undertaken thanks in part to funding from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund.”

Evaluation Process and Criteria for Review

Review Committee

All project submissions will undergo an arms-length review process by a 5-person Review Sub-Committee that includes the following:

  • Three members from VISTA Research Committee, with the substitution of other Core Members if needed to balance area of expertise and avoid conflict of interest;
  • Of the above reviewers, at least one should have expertise in computational vision, and one should have expertise in biological vision;
  • Two academic reviewers external to VISTA;
  • Review Sub-Committee members may not be a PI, co-investigator or partner on a grant in the given round;
  • Review Sub-Committee members will declare conflicts of interest.

Evaluation Criteria

  • Quality and originality of the proposal (40%)
    • The quality of the research design/methodology and rationale;
    • The degree to which the proposed research is novel and/or innovative;
    • The potential impact on vision science in terms of new scientific breakthroughs, clinical practice, knowledge translation or commercial application;
    • The clarity and importance of the research question(s) and objectives.
  • Feasibility and merit of the proposal (20%)
    • The degree to which the milestones are achievable within a one to two year period;
    • The degree to which the proposed research is interdisciplinary (incorporates methods and/or outputs from multiple disciplines - e.g. visual neuroscience, computer vision, computational arts and design, humanities);
    • The budget is realistic and appropriate for the proposed work.
  • Alignment with VISTA mandate and return on investment (20%)
    • The proposed work is aligned with the VISTA mandate;
    • The proposed research will help to secure larger and/or new sources of funding (i.e. research grants, industry contracts, commercial licenses, etc.).
  • Quality of the research team, relevance and quality of the partnership (20%)
    • The research team is appropriate for the proposed work;
    • The partnership is relevant for the proposed work and associated impacts and will lead to enhanced quality of research.

Evaluation Process

  • The Review Sub-Committee members will review each application and provide a score out of 100 based on the above-noted criteria;
  • Once all applications are scored, the average score for each application will be calculated and assigned an initial rank by the VISTA Admin Team;
  • The Research Committee will meet to discuss the scores and associated rankings and make a determination on the final ranking of the applications. As such, the Research Committee may alter the rank of an application if discussion warrants it.

NOTE: For statistical purposes only, applications will also be evaluated in the context of the VISTA Equity Plan, which requires representation from designated groups in the categories of gender and visible minorities, aboriginal persons and persons with disabilities.

More Information
Application Instructions