What Are Canada Councils?

Canada Councils are the three federal agencies responsible for funding and coordinating research across Canada's postsecondary institutions. Established by separate Acts of Parliament, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) together form the primary vehicle through which the Government of Canada supports university-based research and research training. They are collectively referred to as the Tri-Agency or Tri-Council.

The three councils share a common institutional framework while operating distinct mandates defined by disciplinary domain. Each council administers its own grant programs, peer-review processes, and fellowship competitions, though they collaborate on cross-cutting policies governing ethics, open access, and interdisciplinary funding through the Interagency Research Funding Committee. Researchers in disciplines that span multiple domains may apply to the council whose mandate best fits the dominant thrust of the work, or to joint programs when the research genuinely straddles boundaries.

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council

NSERC funds research and research training in the natural sciences and engineering, excluding the health sciences. Its programs range from individual discovery grants supporting fundamental curiosity-driven work to large-scale collaborative programs linking university researchers with industry partners. NSERC also administers scholarships and fellowships that support graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in science and engineering fields. The council's priorities align closely with the concerns of engineering and applied-science communities, including electrical engineering, computer science, physics, chemistry, and environmental science.

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council

SSHRC is the national agency responsible for supporting university-based research in the social sciences and humanities. Its mandate covers disciplines from economics, sociology, and political science to history, philosophy, and linguistics. SSHRC funds both individual scholarship and larger partnership programs that bring academic researchers together with public, private, and civil-society organizations to address questions about how individuals, groups, and societies think, live, and interact. The council administers competitive fellowships and doctoral awards that support graduate training in these fields.

Canadian Institutes of Health Research

CIHR is Canada's federal funding agency for health research. Formed in 2000 as a successor to the Medical Research Council of Canada, CIHR organizes its funding across four pillars: biomedical research, clinical research, health systems research, and population and social health research. This broad mandate, which is described in the CIHR Act, extends from laboratory science and clinical trials to health policy, health services, and the social determinants of health. CIHR administers investigator-initiated grants, team grants, and the Canada Graduate Scholarships program in health-related disciplines.

Coordination and Joint Initiatives

The three councils harmonize their administrative requirements through shared policies on research ethics, financial management, intellectual property, and open access to publications and data. The Tri-Agency Framework on Research Security, and the joint Tri-Agency Open Access Policy, illustrate how the councils act in concert on issues that affect all research domains. The Tri-Agency Framework also governs the Canada Graduate Scholarships and Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships programs, which are administered jointly across the three agencies.

Applications

Canada Councils funding supports research and training across a wide range of fields, including:

• Electrical engineering, photonics, and advanced materials research through NSERC
• Health informatics, neurotechnology, and biomedical device research through CIHR
• Technology policy, digital governance, and human-computer interaction through SSHRC
• Collaborative research partnerships between universities and industry
• Graduate and postdoctoral training in science, engineering, and health