General FAQs
All details concerning the IDRA are included in the guidelines available during the application period, including eligibility criteria, application deadlines, and required documentation.
The process is highly competitive. A high number of applications is received during each call.
No, the application deadlines change annually.
This award covers field research expenses for advanced doctoral students who intend to conduct their field research in one or more developing countries. Funds may be used to collect data and samples in the field, conduct interviews or surveys with local populations and organize focus groups or workshops. Applicants must use findings from their field research to write their doctoral dissertation or thesis. You are not eligible for this award if you intend to use it only to analyze or disseminate final results, finalize videos or spend time in a lab.
No, this award cannot be used to pay university tuition fees. It is not a scholarship; it is a field research award.
If you outlined more than one trip in your application and the selection committee agreed with your reasons for additional trip(s), you may use the award to cover the related field research expenses (housing, local transportation, interpretation, etc.).
However, please be aware that only one roundtrip airfare from Canada to a country or region of research will be covered. You must cover any airfare related to other trips to and from Canada to another country or region of research. If you fly from one region directly to another (e.g. West Africa to Central America), IDRC will cover the flight out and the return home, but you must cover the flight between regions. (Note: In-country or in-region flights during field research are considered eligible research expenses.).
Note that if you use the IDRA for different field research trips, you must plan to spend a minimum of 10 consecutive weeks in the field when your research involves one or more countries in one region. The regions are: Middle East, North Africa, West Africa, East Africa, southern Africa, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Far East Asia, Caribbean, Central America, South America and Oceania.
When your research involves more than one region, you must plan to spend a minimum of five consecutive weeks in the field in each region.
Yes, however, the budget section of your application must indicate which field research expenses you intend to cover with the IDRA and which you intend to cover from other funding sources. It is your responsibility to ensure that your other sources of funding allow you to accept the IDRA.
A nursing mother or a single custodial parent can include childcare or babysitting expenses in the budget, but no airfare or related travel expenses (for a child or an accompanying caregiver). The allowable cost is limited to overnight childcare costs, as reasonable and applicable in Canada or in the country of research (i.e. where the child is residing for the duration of the parent’s travel).
If you are selected for an award, you must start your field research by August 1, 2025, and complete your field research by March 1, 2026. You must plan to spend a minimum of 10 consecutive weeks in the field. When your research involves more than one developing country or region, you must plan to spend a minimum of five consecutive weeks in the field in each region.
Yes, but the award is not retroactive. Field research expenses will only be covered from the date indicated in the Award Agreement. If you have finished your field research by the time the results are announced, you will no longer be eligible to receive the award. If you are in the field when the results are announced, this award will not cover the used portion of your airfare or other research expenses incurred before this date.
Application FAQs
Eligible applicants can apply online here: https://portal.scholarshippartners.ca/welcome/IDRCIDRA_En/
Yes. If preferred, recommendation forms may be sent by the professor or research supervisor to [email protected]. These will be uploaded to the student’s application.
No. It is not possible to determine whether the research complies with IDRC’s interests by reading a title or short summary alone. It is the applicant’s responsibility to determine whether their research is relevant to IDRC’s development outcome areas of interest. These areas are listed in the Eligibility section of the guidelines.
No. This would represent an unfair advantage and would place IDRC or Universities Canada in a position of conflict of interest.
Volunteer/community/extracurricular activities may fall outside of participation in research, depending on the activity. Though the activity may overlap into two or more areas, the distinctions are as follows:
- Volunteer activity: unpaid activity
- Community activity: paid activity directly benefitting a community
- Extracurricular activity: unpaid activity purely for interest
“Mandatory service requirement” relates to an activity that was required as part of an academic program.
Problems & technical issues FAQs
Contact [email protected] to alert us to the problem. Support is available during ET working hours from Monday to Friday, but not on weekends or Canadian statutory holidays. Please note that we cannot guarantee a response to technical issues that arise during the last two days before the deadline.
Applicants are responsible for starting their online application several weeks before the deadline to ensure adequate time to fulfill all requirements. This includes allowing professors sufficient time to complete recommendation forms. If the recommendation form has not been completed, the applicant will not be able to submit their application.
No, we are unable to accept documentation by email. All documents must be submitted through the online application portal. Incomplete applications will not be considered, and late applications will NOT be accepted.
The portal shuts down at the exact deadline time indicated in the guidelines. There is no grace period. The portal will not allow you to save what you wrote past the deadline. If this occurs, we invite you to apply for the next call.
