The Social R&D Community is a network of practitioners dedicated to growing the craft of research and development in the social sector. Social R&D practitioners use creative approaches to generate new knowledge and innovations (services, programs, initiatives or products) to address complex social, environmental and cultural challenges. SI Canada is currently supporting the Social R&D Community through Employment & Social Development Canada’s Investment Readiness Program and The McConnell Foundation.

Knowledge products are key resources that support the social R&D field and practitioners to learn and apply insights to evolve and expand their practice. There is a wealth of knowledge and insights among social R&D practitioners and Social Innovation Canada is excited to leverage funds to capture and share some of these insights.

The work being undertaken to support the social R&D field will help codify and disseminate established & emerging methodologies, thus increasing accessibility and adoption of social R&D tools and resources among social purpose organizations.

SI Canada conducted a needs assessment around the type of knowledge products that are needed, and some gaps emerged around tools for evaluating impact, strategies for accessing funding, and detailed guides on social R&D methods and practices.

We know there are hundreds of organizations and individuals across the country with insights to share about Social R&D and want to support organizations and individuals to develop knowledge products that will help advance the field.

Open call

This particular open call for proposals is a recognition that we don’t know what we don’t know. We want to hear from you on your ideas and proposals for knowledge products that will serve the social R&D field. These may address some of the topics and needs indicated above, but we are also really interested in out of the box ideas and proposals.

We hope to receive proposals from organizations and individuals that are not the usual suspects. We know that there are some amazing core practitioners helping to advance the field of Social R&D but we also know there are amazing up and coming practitioners or organizations that haven’t traditionally associated with being part of the social R&D ecosystem that we can learn from.

We are seeking proposals for $10k-$25k projects that will generate knowledge products (videos, reports, toolkits, etc.) to help serve the field.
This opportunity is open to social purpose organizations (including non-profit, charities or for-profit social enterprise), as well as informal grassroots groups. We will prioritize BIPOC individuals/organizations and equity-seeking applicants.

Application Process

Apply through this form by December 9, 2020, 5pm PST.

How will we use the knowledge products:

• Workshop content for our national
• Social R&D gathering in spring 2021
• Published on the SI Canada website and socialrd.org
• Shared via SI Canada channels (Common Platform, Blog posts, social media)
• Shared with the Social R&D Community of Practice