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Indo-Pacific Scholarships and Fellowships for Canadians Program (IPSFC) 2025-2028 – Call for initial proposals (concept notes)

The deadline to apply is Wednesday, November 6, 2024, 12:00 p.m. (noon), Eastern Time.

On this page

• Objectives
• Background
• Funding mechanism
• Logic model
• IPSFC Program details
• Organization eligibility
• Required project parameters
• Required project experience
• How we assess your initial proposal
• Additional guidance
• How to submit your application package
• Questions
• Webinar

Objectives

¶¶ÒùÊÓƵ (GAC) is seeking an eligible Canadian recipient to implement and manage the Indo-Pacific Engagement Initiative’s outbound Indo-Pacific scholarships and fellowships for Canadians program (the "Project"). The successful recipient will issue scholarships and fellowships to nominated beneficiaries, while ensuring that the "Project" will achieve its expected outcomes. We are seeking an eligible Canadian recipient who can deliver on various tasks such as: 

• liaise with Canadian and Indo-Pacific academics and research communities,
• promote and manage international scholarship competitions,
• oversee the disbursement of scholarships and fellowships funds,
• organize auxiliary events to increase the skills and knowledge of international scholars and strengthen ties between Canadian and Indo-Pacific post-secondary academic and research institutions,
• develop an alumni network and manage data and a scholarships/fellowships mechanism or tool for the “Project’’.
• make recommendations to improve the program as a whole or in part, as it relates to a specific scholarship and/or its operations in the Indo-Pacific region.  

This Call is to receive initial proposals (Concept notes) from eligible Canadian organizations (recipients) to implement the Indo-Pacific Scholarships and Fellowships for Canadians Program (IPSFC) 2025-2028. The total amount of funding available under this Call can go up to $10 million over 3 years.

Submitting an initial proposal is the first step of a 2-stages application process. Funding will not be provided based on the initial proposal alone and we do not give applicants detailed feedback on their initial application. At the second stage, after evaluating the initial proposals, we will invite one proponent Canadian organization that best align with the objectives and parameters of the call to submit a full proposal. We do not fund the preparation of full proposals. GAC may also decide not to fund any of the proposals.

You must submit your initial proposal by email to ipsfc-beripc@international.gc.ca before the deadline. Read all instructions on this web page.

If you are applying on behalf of a group of organizations that would sign the funding agreement with GAC, please make sure that each organization has attached all required documents.

We will not accept late submissions. To ensure technical difficulties do not prevent you from submitting your proposal on time, we suggest submitting your application at least 3 working days before Wednesday November 6, 2024, 12 pm (noon) Eastern Time.

Background

The IPSFC is one of the programs under the Indo-Pacific Engagement Initiative (IPEI) of the Indo-Pacific Strategy (IPS) designed to support the development and expansion of national expertise on issues related to the Indo-Pacific and to create linkages between Canadian researchers and relevant host institutions in the region.

The IPEI, funded under Strategic Objective #3 (‘Investing in and connecting people') of Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, will support and enable Canadians to build new networks in the Indo-Pacific, strengthen Canada’s voice on priority issues and create partnerships on behalf of Canada.

This Call for initial proposals will support an IPSFC program that is fully aligned with the Indo-Pacific Strategy, in that it:

• Enhances study and research capacity for Canadians in areas relevant to the IPS. 
• Increases connectivity between Canadian and Indo-Pacific institutions dedicated to research and education. 
• Supports new research streams and projects in Canada focused on the Indo-Pacific region.

Funding mechanism

The successful recipient will receive funds from GAC in the form of a contribution agreement (CA). The recipient will then be responsible for issuing the scholarships and fellowships funds to the successful beneficiaries (Graduate students, researchers and academia) in the form of a non-negotiable funding agreement according to its internal processes and GAC’s Terms and Conditions for the program. 

Logic Model

Ultimate outcome

Under this call, the IPSFC program must contribute to achieve this ultimate outcome:

• Enhanced presence of Canadian civil society, academic, and non-profit sector stakeholders in the Indo-Pacific region.

Intermediate outcomes

Your proposed project must also contribute to the following intermediate outcomes:

• Build competencies among Canadian academics and students in areas relevant to the Indo-Pacific Strategy.
• Increased linkages between Canadian researchers and graduate students with their Indo-Pacific counterparts, within the Indo-Pacific region.

Immediate outcomes

• Increased graduate students' capacity through academic experience in the Indo-Pacific region.
• Increased academia and researchers' capacity through research activities in themes of interest to Canada in the Indo-Pacific region.

Key performance indicators

Ultimate Outcome Key Performance Measures and Indicators:

• Number of Canadian institutions and non-governmental organizations present and participating in events, experiences abroad or projects funded by contributions under IPEI.
• Percentage of total beneficiaries of contributions under IPEI, on an annual basis, indicating that regional experience the Indo-Pacific region has led or could lead to partnerships of future collaboration in the region.

Intermediate Outcome Key Performance Measures and Indicators:

• Number of Canadian graduate students benefiting from a study experience in the Indo-Pacific region.
• Number of Canadian researchers benefiting from a research stay in the Indo-Pacific region.
• Number of collaborative research projects between Canadian academic institutions and academic institutions based in the Indo-Pacific region facilitated by Program funding (fellowships)

IPSFC Program details

Recipients

The program will be open to the following eligible recipients: 

• Canadian post-secondary academic institutions;
• Canadian university consortiums;
• Canadian research organizations, and,
• Canadian international education institutions including consultants.

Applicants (beneficiaries)

The program will be open to the following eligible applicants: 

• Canadian and Permanent Residence (PR) cardholder graduate students who wish to study (linked to research activities) in the Indo-Pacific region for 1 full academic year or 12 months.  
• Canadian and PR academics and researchers who wish to conduct research activities in and on the Indo-Pacific region for 6-12 months. 

Research activities

Study (linked to research activities) or research activities must be aligned with the Indo-Pacific Strategy objectives, covering topics such as:

• Regional diplomacy  
• Regional political change  
• National and regional security  
• Trade and economic cooperation  
• Technological innovation  
• Sustainable development  
• Climate change  
• Natural (including marine) resources management.  
• Applied scientific cooperation.

Location

Host universities or research institutions must be based in one of the eligible countries and economies in the Indo-Pacific Region, as defined by the Indo-Pacific Strategy:

• Southeast Asia: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor Leste, and Vietnam.
• South Asia: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka.  
• Northeast Asia: Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), Japan, Mongolia, Republic of Korea, Taiwan.
• Oceania: Australia, Fiji, French Polynesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Palau, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu.

Scholarships/Fellowships value and duration

The objective is to award approximately 60 scholarships and 13 fellowships yearly.

Eligible expenses

Eligible expenditures for the successful beneficiaries will normally consist of the following non-exhaustive list of items:

• tuition fees;
• travel costs, including round trip airfare (the most direct and economic route), meals, incidentals, visa and related costs, study permit, travel insurance, health insurance;
• accommodation costs, including rent and utilities;
• learning and research materials (for example books and supplies) that are necessary for study and research, not including computers/laptops, IT equipment and specialized research instruments).

A maximum of 15% of the total value of the contribution agreement with a successful recipient can be used for administrative expenditures, which include:

• personnel costs (that is honoraria, fees for personnel engaged to conduct administrative activities such as receiving and reviewing applications from beneficiaries, organizing selection committees, participating in evaluation decisions on awards, communicating decisions on the awards, pre-auditing award payments and making payments); and
• office expenses (for example, telecommunications, equipment, financial administration, bank costs).

Organization eligibility

To be eligible, you must meet each of the following eligibility screening requirements and, where stipulated, provide supporting documentation. If your organization is submitting an initial proposal on behalf of a group of organizations that would sign the funding agreement with GAC, each organization (i.e. co-signatory) must meet all the following requirements and provide documentation:

• Your organization is a Canadian organization, which means for the purpose of this call that your organization is legally incorporated in Canada, established with an office and employees in Canada and can provide proof of legal status (for example, a letter of incorporation) along with a Canada Revenue Agency business number;
• Provide 2 separate financial statements for the most recent fiscal years (audited statements are preferred); if these are not available, the statements must be signed by a member of the board of directors of each signatory, by the board’s delegate or by the owner(s). Note: since financial statements usually provide comparative information from the previous year, these statements will be used to do a 3-year trend analysis;
• Provide an Organization Attestation signed by the organization’s chief financial officer or a duly authorized board member;
• Submit only 1 initial proposal under this call, whether as a lead signatory or co-signatory. Note: If your organization submits more than 1 application under this call, we will only consider the application with the earliest submission time stamp.

Failure to meet all the above requirements will deem your organization not eligible to apply under this call. We will not pre-assess or comment on the eligibility of specific potential applicants.

Required project parameters

Carefully review the following parameters of this call and judge whether your initial proposal will fit. We will not respond to questions about the eligibility of your initial proposal. You must be able to answer “yes” to all the following statements for your application to be considered for funding under this call otherwise it will not be assessed:

• Alignment with the Indo-Pacific Strategy.
• Not-for-profit project: Your proposed project would not generate a profit for you or any other implementing organization.
• Language: Your application package documents are complete and presented in either English or French or a combination of these 2 languages.

If your initial proposal does not conform to the above statements, it will not be assessed because it cannot be considered for funding under this call.

Required project experience

Your initial proposal must demonstrate the required experience as described below to be considered under this call. The recipient must demonstrate a minimum of 48 months (4) years of consecutive experience in scholarships program administration within the last six (6) years, as of CFP closing date, in each of the following:

1. Working and managing multiple relationships with national and international partners and networks, such as, but not limited to, the graduate education sector, universities and the research sector, including research institutions.
2. Administering a national or international scholarships program that disburses funding to multiple beneficiaries.
3. Managing a competition launch web portal that collects scholarship/fellowship applications for eligibility.
4. Planning and organizing scholarships/fellowships special events.
5. Developing scholarships/fellowships promotional strategies and materials.
6. Creating Scholarships/Fellowships program and project reports; and,
7. Managing and accounting for scholarships/fellowships project funding of over $5 million.

The initial proposal must provide 2 examples of scholarship projects to demonstrate the required 4 years of consecutive scholarship management experience for each criterion. For each project, they must provide:

• Start and completion dates (Month/Year)
• Name of the client for whom the work was done
• Detailed description of the work performed; and
• Dollar value of the project.

Examples must demonstrate:

• relevant project management plan (finance, personnel, procurement of goods and services, capacity building, sub-contractors, other functions required to implement the project).
• technical experience such as:
  • 1) production of scholarships web and social media content;
  • 2) relations with national and international stakeholders;
  • 3) launch of competitions using a web portal to collect scholarship/fellowship applications for funding (optimal timing of the competition launch based on the Indo-Pacific region school year cycle and GAC fiscal year fund availability);
  • 4) support to applicants;
  • 5) selection process (adjudication framework);
  • 6) allocation of awards;
  • 7) scholar support (visa application process);
  • 8) production of funding agreement and disbursement of funding;
  • 9) alumni engagement;
  • 10) data collection and maintenance;
  • 11) reporting on program results, finances and statistic.

Your initial proposal should also include:

• A flexible design enabling adjustments within its thematic and geographic focus.
• Higher education, research activities.
• Collaboration with countries and institutions.
• Networking and alumni support.
• Lessons learned from past scholarships programming.
• Alignment with the Indo-Pacific Strategy.
• Leverage opportunities to engage Canadians on Indo-Pacific issues.

In a consortium, signatories must ensure that their overall experience demonstrates this requirement.

Eligible Canadian organizations are advised that only listing experience without providing any supporting data to describe responsibilities, duties and relevance to the requirements will not be considered “demonstrated” for the purpose of this evaluation. Eligible Canadian organizations are also advised that the months of experience listed for a project whose timeframe overlaps that of another reference project will only be counted once. For example: Project 1 timeframe is July 2022 to December 2022; Project 2 timeframe is October 2022 to January 2023; the total in months of experience for these two projects is seven months.

Failing to provide the two examples of projects would lead to an automatic disqualification from this call.

How we assess your initial proposal

Initial proposals submitted to this call will first undergo an eligibility check to verify that they meet all organization eligibility requirements and required project parameters identified on this call page.

Next, initial proposals will be assessed to ensure that applicants demonstrate the required project experience. Organizations that do not meet the required project experience will not be further assessed. You will be notified if your organization is found to be ineligible or if it does not meet the project experience requirements.

After we assess eligible initial proposals for experience, we will invite the organization with the best overall score whose initial proposal align best with the objectives and parameters of the call to submit a full proposal. Further instructions will be provided to this organization by email in due course for the submission of the full proposal. Selection and funding decision will be made based on an assessment of a full application package only. An invitation to submit a full proposal is not a guarantee of funding. 

The invited applicant will have approximately 6 weeks after they receive an invitation letter from GAC to submit a full proposal.

Additional guidance

Preference may be given to initial proposals that:

• Are submitted in collaboration with other Canadian organizations with complementary expertise and experience;
• Include public engagement activities aimed at awareness raising, knowledge sharing and network strengthening in Canada. These engagement activities should promote the IPSFC program and research activities of interest to Canada in the Indo-Pacific region, including how major global challenges are interconnected and impacting Canadians, and how Canada’s engagement efforts contribute to alleviating them. However, public engagement activities that are NOT eligible for funding include:
  • Fundraising
  • Annual general meetings
  • Lobbying
  • Activities used to promote an organization (including online and social media activities for this purpose)
  • Activities that take place outside of Canada

How to submit your application package

For your initial proposal to be considered in this call, you must submit your complete application package by e-mail to ipsfc-beripc@international.gc.ca by 12 pm (noon) Eastern Time on Wednesday, November 6, 2024.

Your application package must include all the following documents:

• Call for initial proposals – Indo-Pacific Scholarships and Fellowships for Canadians 2025-26 to 2027-28 PDF application form (completed form);
• Two separate financial statements for the most recent fiscal years from each signatory (audited statements are preferred); if these are not available, the statements must be signed by a member of the board of directors of each signatory, by the board’s delegate, or by the owner(s); note also that since financial statements usually provide comparative information from the previous year, these statements will be used to do a 3-year trend analysis);
• Letter of incorporation or proof of legal status in Canada;
• Completed Organization Attestation form (separate forms for each organization that would sign the funding agreement with ¶¶ÒùÊÓƵ, if applicable);

Accessing and using PDF forms 

Use only Adobe Reader/Adobe Acrobat to work on the standardized PDFs to submit with your application package. If you use other software, the data you enter may not appear once submitted to the department, and the application will be ineligible. 

If you’re having difficulty downloading the initial proposal form, it is generally due to the type of software you have (or do not have) on your computer. Please read and follow the . If you have all the correct software installed, download the form to your desktop and open it directly in Adobe Reader; otherwise, other software installed on your computer may try (and fail) to open the form using your default settings. 

Accessing and using Word application forms

Please request an Organization Attestation form by email to ipsfc-beripc@international.gc.ca.

The Word document application form will be sent to you within the next business day.

Questions specific to this call

If you still have questions about this call after reading the Questions and answers page, please send a request to ipsfc-beripc@international.gc.ca.

Webinar

GAC hosted a webinar on the initial call for proposals on October 18, 2024. The is now available to view. To obtain a copy of the webinar PowerPoint presentation in both official languages of Canada, please email us at: ipsfc-beripc@international.gc.ca