Announcement of Opportunity (AO) For Human Analogue Studies

3.1 Eligible Recipients

Eligible recipients (beneficiaries) for grants are:

• Canadian post-secondary institutions, defined as a Canadian university or college (including CEGEPs in Quebec) that has provincial accreditation to grant degrees, diplomas, certificates or other recognized qualifications;
• Not for profit organizations established and operating in Canada that have research included in their institutional mandate, and that have a standing Research Ethics Board (as defined by the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans), or that delegate this responsibility to another institution's recognized board.

3.2 Eligible Projects

Projects eligible for funding in this solicitation process are those where Canadian researchers are involved as PI (or Co-PI) or as Co-I of a proposal that has been selected based on scientific merit through one of the international partner competitions. The principal investigator must hold a traditionally recognized academic position such as professor, associate professor, assistant professor, or professor emeritus (post-doctoral fellows cannot be considered as PI). Individuals who are paid salary through someone else's research grant are not eligible as a PI. Examples of accepted competitions can be found in Table 1.

3.3 Links to CSA Priorities

To be eligible, projects supported under the G&C program must be aligned with CSA priority outcomes, as stated in the 2023-24 Departmental Plan: Leveraging deep-space health and food innovations. In accordance to its mandate, the activities selected must 1) generate new knowledge and insight into the risks of human space flight to keep astronauts healthy in space (Space Strategy for Canada, 2019), and 2) they must clearly be recognizable as direct precursors of future Canadian investigations on the ISS or Lunar Gateway, and 3) they must generate strategies for novel countermeasures against the risks of human space flight. The most important health risks associated with human space flights (i.e. future long-duration human spaceflight missions) have been listed in Table 2.

In addition to the risks listed in the table below, the CSA will also evaluate if the activities would contribute to advance understanding of similar health issues or translate to applications on Earth, or that could contribute to improving health care for Canadians.

The following table presents the human space flight risks targeted by the CSA for this application process.

3.4 Links to the Class G&C Program Objectives

To be eligible, projects supported under the G&C program must contribute to the achievement of at least one of the following objectives:

• To support the development of science relevant to the priorities of the Canadian Space Agency;
• To foster the continuing development of a critical mass of researchers and highly qualified people in Canada in areas relevant to the priorities of the Canadian Space Agency.

4.1 Required Documentation

The required documentation can be uploaded electronically.

The application must include the following:

• The full proposal, with a completed original application form (Word, 118 KB) signed by the duly authorized representative. For electronic submission, digital signature is required.
• A copy of the document(s) confirming the legal name of the applicant (must be confirmed by the organization's Office of Research);
• For Not-for-profit organizations, an original or certified copy of their certificate of constitution, letters patent, or other constitutive documents. Non-original or uncertified copies are accepted for the purposes of the application, but subsequently the original documents will be required at the time of the signing of the agreement;
• Letters from other funding contributors confirming the level of funding, if applicable;
• For Canadian Co-Is associated with an international study, a letter from the PI is required, confirming that the proposed work by the Co-I will enhance the study;
• Letter of support from Co-Is confirming their intent to participate to the study, including information on the potential source of funds, if applicable;
• Letter of acknowledgement received from the partner agency showing that the project has been selected through one of the competitions. Applicants are also required to provide CSA with the results of the Science Merit Review when they are received. CSA will use this result as science merit score. Applicants must obtain a passing score from the international partner competition to be considered by CSA;
• Letter of acknowledgement received from a partner agency showing that the project has been selected through one of its competitions. Applicants are also required to provide to CSA the Science Merit assessments when they are received. CSA will use this result as the science merit score. Applicants' proposals must obtain a passing score from the international Partner competition to be considered by CSA;
• Copy of the complete application submitted to the International Partner, including a complete financial package justifying the total cost of the study, if applicable;
• The applicant will ensure that ethical certification requirements are met throughout the study. A letter signed by the chairperson of the local Research Ethics Board (REB) regarding approval of the experimental protocol using human subjects will be required to that effect. REB approval letters for any subsequent protocol amendments must also be forwarded to the CSA;
• A Data Management Plan shall be provided with the proposal and it shall address:
  • Types of data products;
  • Short-term data preservation approach;
  • Long-term data preservation/archiving approach;
  • Formats for data and metadata;
  • Roles and Responsibilities for data management within the team;
• Declaration on Confidentiality, Access to Information Act and Privacy Act form signed by the duly authorized representative (refer to the Applicant Declaration on Confidentiality, Access to Information Act and Privacy Act section included in the application form); and
• For organizations in Quebec, M-30 Supporting Documentation form completed and signed by the duly authorized representative (refer to the M-30 form for organizations in Quebec included in the application form).

It is the applicant's responsibility to ensure that the application complies with all relevant federal, provincial and territorial legislation and municipal bylaws (federal, provincial/territorial and municipal).

The application, uploaded electronically, must be submitted as a single PDF-formatted file containing all of the above requested documents with all security features disabled. Please order the document with the application form and proposal first. The proposal and supporting documents must be submitted as a searchable PDF-formatted documents (PDF/A-1a or PDF/A-2a formats preferred). If there are any accessibility issues with the submitted PDF file, all consequences reside with the applicant.

The applicant must keep one hard copy of all the original documents above. The CSA may require applicants who successfully passed the evaluation stage described in Section 5 of the AO to send a hard copy of their complete application with the original documents.

Process for electronic submission:

• The applicant must complete an account creation request at the Electronic Proposal Portal. Upon receipt, the CSA will send an email with instructions on how to connect to the CSA secure filer system to allow you to upload documents securely. Please note that Chrome is the browser of choice for submissions. Supported browsers are Google Chrome and, Internet Explorer with some restrictions.
• Allow up to seventy two (72) hours for the CSA to send an email confirming the account creation as well as instructions (user guide) on how to access the platform. It is strongly recommended that the account creation request be submitted no later than January 27th, 2025. If technical issues cannot be resolved, applicants must submit their application by mail. Applicants are strongly encouraged to upload their complete application well before the submission deadline;
• Using the temporary password assigned by the CSA, login to the secured portal to upload protected documents.
• Please refer to the user guide for instructions on how to securely upload documents.
• Applications must be submitted (successfully uploaded) by applicants no later than 2:00 PM (EDT), February 10th, 2025.
• Incomplete or late applications shall not be considered. A late application is considered to be one that has an electronic timestamp on the CSA system later than the deadline above.

Process for application sent by mail:

The applicant is encouraged to submit their application electronically following the instructions provided in Section 4.1 of the AO. However, if the applicant is unable to submit their application electronically, please communicate with santespatiale-spacehealth@asc-csa.gc.ca no later than January 27th, 2025 at 2:00 PM (EDT), to obtain instructions on how to submit a paper application by mail.

• For application sent by mail, one original paper copy of the full proposal, with a completed original application form signed by the duly authorized representative is required. In addition, a copy of the application (identical to the signed paper copy) in a PDF file (on a USB flash drive) is required. If there is any discrepancy between the hard and the soft version, the hard copy takes precedence;

Applications by mail must be received at the CSA no later than February 10th, 2025 at 2:00 PM (EDT). Applications sent by email will not be accepted. Incomplete applications may not be considered. The CSA is not responsible for any delays under any circumstances, and will refuse applications that are received after the stipulated deadline.

Questions and answers related to this AO will be posted on the CSA website in the Frequently Asked Questions (Section 9).

4.2 Service Standards – Complete Applications

CSA has set service standards for the timely delivery of the acknowledgement of receipt, funding decision and payment processes.

Acknowledgement: CSA goal is to acknowledge receipt within two (2) weeks of receiving a completed application package.

Decision: The CSA's goal is to respond to the application within forty-six (46) weeks following the AO's closing date and to send a grant agreement for signature within eight (8) weeks after formal approval of the application.

Payment: CSA goal is to issue payments within four (4) weeks of the successful fulfillment of requirements outlined in the grant agreement.

Compliance with these service standards is a shared responsibility. The applicant must submit all required documentation in a timely fashion.

5.1 Eligibility Criteria

• Represents an eligible recipient as defined in Section 3.1;
• Represents an eligible project as defined in Sections 3.2, 3.3, and 3.4;
• Meets program funding provisions in Section 6.1.

An evaluation committee will screen applications according to the eligibility criteria described in Table 4 in ANNEX 1.

5.2 Evaluation Criteria

Submissions will be evaluated using the following graded criteria. These criteria and ratings are listed in Table 3. A detailed description of these graded criteria can be found in ANNEX 2. The eligible projects to be evaluated in this selection process will have already been evaluated for scientific merit through the international partner competition processes; therefore the CSA will focus its evaluation on the criteria listed in Table 3. To be considered eligible for funding, the total score obtained for these graded criteria must be greater than 120/200.

5.3 Evaluation Process

Only applications that have passed the eligibility assessment listed in Section 5.1 will be given further consideration.

Once the eligibility criteria are confirmed, evaluators will assess the screened applications according to the criteria listed in Section 5.2. Evaluators shall be experts in the fields relevant to the applications and may include representatives of Canada and other countries, and representatives of other government and non-government agencies and organizations. If applicable, a multidisciplinary evaluation committee will be formed when applications from several different disciplines are competing in order to provide a uniform final score and ranking of proposals.

Before a final decision is made, the CSA's Program Manager responsible may seek input and advice from other organizations, including (but not limited to) federal, provincial, territorial and municipal government agencies and organizations. Grant agreements will be offered to the applicants in the rank order of the proposals while allowing considerations to maximize the use of available funding.

The results obtained in this selection process could take into account certain factors in the final decision to grant funding, such as, but not limited to, the representativeness of PI (or co-PI) or Co-I to one of the four (4) designated groups (women, Aboriginal persons, disabled persons or members of a visible minority), regional distribution, diversity among universities/organizations and post-secondary institutions, etc.

6.1 Available Funding and Duration

The total maximum funding amount given in grant for each project and the maximum duration depends on the initiative being targeted by the proposal. In all cases, the maximum funding includes overhead costs.

Maximum amount per grant:

• Proposals from PI (or Co-PI), maximum grant of $300,000 for a maximum duration of three (3) years;
• Proposals from Co-I, maximum grant of $150,000 for a maximum duration of three (3) years;

For each submitted proposals, justification for the requested funds needs to be complete and detailed. CSA reserves the right to adjust the maximum amount requested if CSA considers the justifications not sufficient or adequate.

The overall number of grants awarded and their level will depend on budget requested by each proposal and the availability of funds. CSA may prioritize PI proposals over Co-I proposals for funding.

There is no limit on the number of proposals presented per investigator. However, because of the limited funding available, the CSA will only fund one (1) project for a researcher as a PI (or Co-PI) in this application process.

In the event a Canadian-led proposal has one (1) or more Canadian Co-Is, only the PI can apply for funding. If a European-led proposal has more than one (1) Canadian Co-I, the Canadian Co-Is can only submit one (1) application for funding to the CSA. The CSA reserves the right to reject any proposals or reduce the amount of the grants at its entire discretion.

Approved proposals will be eligible for a total amount of government assistance (federal, provincial, territorial and municipal) of up to 100% of total project costs.

To determine the amount of funding to be allocated, consideration will be given to the availability of CSA funds, the total cost of the project, and the other confirmed sources of funds provided by other stakeholders and the applicant. CSA reserves the right to readjust the maximum amount requested if CSA considers the justifications not sufficient or adequate.

Applicants must identify all sources of funding in their applications and confirm this information in a funding agreement if the project is selected for funding. Upon completion of a project, the recipient must also disclose all sources of funding.

6.2 Eligible Costs

Eligible costs are direct expenses that are associated with the delivery of the approved project and that are required to achieve the expected results of the project. Expenses will be covered, subject to the applicant signing a funding agreement with the CSA.

Applicants to this CSA process cannot include as eligible costs any costs related to non-Canadian Co-Is or non-Canadian PIs or their work within the proposal. These costs should be submitted to the appropriate national agency for funding.

Eligible costs for grants in this application process are the following:

• Accommodation and meal allowances;
• Acquisition, development and printing of materials;
• Acquisition or rental of equipment;
• Bursaries, such as stipends for students involved in the project;
• Consultant services;
• Costs related to obtaining security clearance;
• Data acquisition;
• Data management;
• Laboratory analysis services;
• License and permit fees;
• Marketing and printing services;
• Materials and supplies;
• Overhead (administrative) costs (not to exceed 20% of eligible costs for universities and 15% for other eligible recipients);
• Participation fees at conferences, committees and events;
• PST, HST and GST net of any rebate to which the recipient is entitled and the reimbursement of any taxes for goods and services acquired in a foreign country net of any rebate or reimbursement received in the foreign country;
• Publication and communication services;
• Registration fees;
• Salaries and benefits;
• Training;
• Translation services;
• Travel.

7.1 Payments

The CSA and each successful applicant (the recipient) will sign a funding agreement. This is a condition for any payment made by the CSA with respect to the approved project.

For grant agreements, payments will be made in a lump sum or instalments as described in the signed agreement. Grant funding agreements will include a clause stipulating the recipient's obligation to confirm—once a year in the case of multi-year agreements—their eligibility for the G&C Program – Research Component and inform the CSA in writing of any changes to the conditions used in determining their eligibility for this component.

7.2 Audit

The recipient of a funding agreement shall keep proper records of all documentation related to the funded project, for the duration of the project and for six (6) years after the completion date of the project, in the event of an audit. This documentation shall be available upon request.

7.3 Conflict of Interest

In the funding agreement, the recipient will certify that any current or former public office holder or public servant it employs complies with the provisions of the relevant Conflict of Interest and Post-Employment Code for Public Office Holders and the Values and Ethics Code for the Public Sector respectively.

7.4 Intellectual Property

All intellectual property developed by the recipient in the course of the project shall vest in the recipient.

7.5 Organizations in Quebec

An organization in Quebec whose operations are partially or fully funded by the province of Quebec may be subject to the Act respecting the Ministère du Conseil exécutif, CQLR c M-30.

Under Sections 3.11 and 3.12 of this Act, certain entities/organizations, as defined in the meaning of the Act, such as municipal bodies, school bodies, or public agencies, must obtain authorization from the Secrétariat du Québec aux relations canadiennes (SQRC), as indicated by the Act, before signing any funding agreement with the Government of Canada, its departments or agencies, or a federal public agency.

Consequently, an entity that is subject to the Act is responsible for obtaining such authorization before signing any funding agreement with the Government of Canada.

Quebec applicants must complete, sign and include the M-30 Supporting Documentation form with their application.

7.6 Performance Measurement

The CSA will ask recipients to report on certain aspects of their projects such as:

• Knowledge Creation
  • Knowledge production (including publications)
  • Presentations
  • Intellectual property (including patents)
• Capacity Building
  • Project's research team (including highly qualified personnel supported)
• Collaboration
  • Partners' contributions
  • Partnerships
  • Multidisciplinarity

7.7 Open Access Publications

In the event that publications result from the project, the CSA wishes to promote the dissemination of findings that results from the projects it funds as quickly and to the greatest number of people as possible. Improved access to scientific results not only allows scientists to use a broader range of resources and knowledge, but also improves research collaboration and coordination, strengthens citizen engagement and supports the economy.

The CSA therefore strongly encourages the use of open access publication and archiving by recipients in order to facilitate the widest dissemination of findings that results from its funded projects. Thus, recipients are invited to publish, in a timely manner, their articles by using at least one (1) of the following methods:

1. Accessible online repository (institutional or disciplinary) so that the publication is freely accessible.
2. Journal offering open access to articles.

It should be noted that these two (2) methods are not mutually exclusive and that recipients are encouraged to use both.

Finally, the CSA wishes to receive, as a courtesy, a copy of the publications (if not freely accessible) or the hyperlink (if freely accessible) and its digital object identifier (DOI). These will be use to improve accessibility by including them in the CSA publications directory.

Description of Evaluation Criteria

1. Benefits to Canada

2. Project Feasibility, Resources allocation, and Mitigation strategies

3. Results