What is the ARC Fund?
The ARC Fund is an internal source of financing to encourage and support small-scale, original research and/or scholarly activities at Langara. Through a competitive application process, the Fund grants up to $3,000 per year to support eligible activities, which may include, but are not limited to:
- building upon (or undertaking) projects of original research or scholarship involving community partners
- initiating, maintaining, or extending an individual research portfolio
- employing Langara College students as researchers
- building infrastructure pertaining to research and scholarship
- conducting field research, such as archaeological, or anthropological, studies and work involving the collections of remote libraries, or museums
Researchers who have received the ARC Fund become eligible to apply to ARC Release in subsequent years in order to secure release from teaching to build their programs and to prepare applications for external funding opportunities.
Who may apply?
If you are a term, “reg-in-temp”, or regular member of the faculty at Langara College, in either regular or continuing studies, you may apply to the ARC Fund.
How often may I apply?
There are three calls for proposals every year, one in each semester. You may apply as often as you like. However, funding is limited to $3,000 per faculty member per calendar year. (You may hold ARC Fund and ARC Release awards simultaneously.) If you have received an award in a previous round of funding, you must bring the project to a close and submit a final report before applying for another award.
May I apply for an award retroactively?
No. You must apply your award to upcoming research-related activities. You may not apply retroactively to fund activities already undertaken. If the proposed activity takes place before the deadline for applications, the application is considered to be retroactive.
May I use ARC Fund for research-related travel?
You must first apply available Professional Development funds to eligible travel expenses, such as field work and in-person, remote conferences. If you have insufficient Professional Development funds to cover these costs, ARC Fund may be used to supply the balance. In order to use ARC Fund to cover conference travel specifically, you must present the results of your research at the funded conference, either orally or by way of a poster. ARC Fund cannot be used to support conference attendance without presentation.
Am I required to hire students?
You are not required to hire students to help you to conduct your research, but you are strongly encouraged to do so. Not only does research provide excellent experiential learning opportunities for students, but also training of highly qualified personnel (HQP) is very favourably considered by external funding agencies, like SSHRC and NSERC. If you intend to apply to these agencies in the future, hiring students now will bolster your application considerably. If you plan to hire students in your application to ARC Fund, they should be included as a line item in your proposed budget at $20.50 per hour.
Successful ARC Fund applicants will be eligible to hire Work on Camps (WOC) students. The amount of hours will depend on the final approved budget. After you have been awarded an ARC Fund, Seetha Kumaran (Manager, ARC) will contact you with further information.
May I propose a collaborative project with another Langara faculty member?
Yes. Successful projects will be funded up to $3,000 per faculty member.
Are there any limits on the kind of research I may pursue?
Yes. Langara does not have a license to conduct research on live animals. You may not keep live animals on campus for the purpose of study. You may, however, propose to observe animals in the wild, or study animal artefacts, such as bone, hair, teeth, tissue, DNA, et cetera, that the animals have left behind during the normal course of their lives.
If your research involves humans in any way, you must seek approval from the Langara Research Ethics Board prior to applying for ARC Fund.
Is the ARC Fund the same as Education Leave?
No. ARC Fund and Education Leave are not related. However, should you apply for, or receive, Education Leave, you are encouraged to apply to ARC Fund to augment your research opportunities while on Education Leave, bearing in mind that ARC Fund supports research and scholarly activities, rather than accreditation, educational, or pedagogical initiatives. Your approved ARC Fund activities must be carried out during your regularly assigned duties. You may not carry forward vacation because you were working on your project.
How long may I hold an award?
You have one year from the day you accept the award to use the funds.
When are the application deadlines?
The application deadlines typically fall early in the last month of each academic semester. Please contact Seetha Kumaran for specific dates.
Where can I find the application form?
Make your application to the ARC Fund by filling and submitting this online form.
Who adjudicates the ARC Fund application?
The ARC Fund Adjudication Committee adjudicates applications to the ARC Fund. The committee is a sub-committee of the Scholarly Activity Steering Committee. Each member ranks applications independently, and successful candidates are subsequently selected by consensus. Applications are ranked according to the quality of the criteria listed in the ARC Fund adjudication rubric; those applications with the highest rankings usually receive funding as permitted by budgetary constraints.
Are there any conditions attached to the funding?
Yes. You are expected to present the results of your research at Langara’s Applied Research Day, which is typically held at the beginning of April each year. You are also required to submit a final report at the close of your project to the Associate Vice-President Academic, Julie Longo. All final reports will be uploaded to the Langara Institutional Repository (The LaIR).
Are there any conditions attached to the funding?
Only that you fill out a final report after the completion of the project for which you received funding. Find the final report form here.
Where do I go if I have questions?
The Applied Research Centre is here to help you! Please reach out to the appropriate coordinator for assistance.
- Alena Buis, Applied Research Coordinator, Social Science, Humanities, and Creative Arts
- Nathan Jones, Applied Research Coordinator, Science, Technology, and Business