Skills Horizon Calls for Proposals

The application deadline for both the Skills Horizon Calls for Proposals is December 13, 2024 at 5pm EDT.

Applicants submit their proposals by completing the online application forms. A link is provided in the guideline documents for each of the two calls for proposals. All supporting documentation can be submitted through the same online application form.

The Future Skills Centre is committed to embracing a diverse range of organizations from across Canada, representing various communities and groups within the skills ecosystem. Whether you are a community or sector organization, service deliverer, educational institution, employer or labour union, or a grassroots initiative, if you have a compelling idea to enhance skills development in Canada, we want to hear from you.

Each open funding call for proposals is available to organizations based in Canada. Applications may be submitted by a sole organization or a partnership/consortium of organizations, including: 

• Legally incorporated not-for-profit organizations, including not-for-profit social enterprises and registered charities;
• Publicly funded post-secondary institutions;
• Industry associations; 
• Professional associations; 
• Trade unions and relevant colleges of trades;
• Indigenous organizations that are a legal entity; 
• Municipalities or district social services administration boards; and
• For-profit organizations (provided the project is undertaken at cost, with no mark-ups or profit incorporated).

You can apply to both Skills Solutions and Skills Research as long as you meet the eligibility criteria in the guidelines for each call for proposals. We encourage you to read each set of guidelines carefully, as different selection criteria apply to each one. Organizations submitting a proposal to both the Skills Horizon Calls for Proposals must submit separate applications.

Yes.

Yes. Organizations that have received or are currently receiving funding from the Future Skills Centre are eligible provided that the proposal clearly outlines a scope not previously funded by the Future Skills Centre.

In the interests of ensuring fairness in the competitive process and because of capacity constraints, FSC will not be providing feedback on partners’ project ideas.

Yes. For the purposes of developing and administering a funding agreement, we will need one partner to identify as the Lead Partner. For further details, please refer to the “Eligibility” section in the guidelines for either the Skills Solutions or the Skills Research calls for proposals. The Lead Partner must be a Canadian entity.

The Future Skills Centre does not require letters of support from partners at the time that applications are submitted, but it does require a list of project partners.  If you do not have confirmed partnerships yet, you may provide information on what types of expertise and partners you will be seeking to complement your organization’s capacity to execute the project.

As per each of the guidelines, FSC is planning to communicate funding decisions in early to mid February 2025 and it will take several weeks to finalize the funding agreements.  Projects must end no later than September 30, 2025. We anticipate that most successful projects will begin by April 1, 2025, depending on timelines for proposal review, project contracting, and creation of evaluation plans. 

You might want to consider this timing when planning the start date of your project. Applicants may be asked to provide additional information throughout the application process. FSC might also ask for additional information before the project begins.

We cannot provide advice on submission strategy. As per FAQ, there is nothing preventing an organization from applying to both calls for proposals.

Designing Solutions is a technical assistance program in which organizations accepted into this stream receive assistance from a Technical Assistance Partner, assigned by the Future Skills Centre and with expertise in program design, who will support them in taking a workforce skills development problem or challenge they have identified and working up a robust program or design that can address that problem or challenge.

If you are accepted into this program, you will work with the Technical Assistance Partner to develop your ideas through a series of facilitated activities and challenge assignments. The assignments will focus on using tools and methods to refine and validate the problem you want to address, conducting primary and secondary research (including the engagement of end-users and system stakeholders), designing prototype solutions, and testing or validating prototypes with end-users and system stakeholders to prepare for potential future pilots.

Participants will be involved in-person workshops, follow-up 1-on-1 online meetings with the Technical Assistance Partner, as well as peer learning sessions with other organizations participating in the Designing Solutions stream.

If you have an innovative idea that you have already worked up into a project proposal and are now ready to look for a funding partner to help you implement it, we suggest you look at our Strengthening Outcomes stream to see whether your proposal meets the funding guidelines and criteria.

We recommend that 2-3 people be nominated to participate in Designing Solutions on behalf of your organization for the duration of the 6-month program. In total, we suggest each team budget approximately 30 hours per week (total for all team members involved), for the duration of the program, to participate in various solutions design activities and work on the assignments.

The Future Skills Centre will appoint a Technical Assistance Partner with expertise in running solutions-designs processes with organizations like yours. This Partner will organize a series of bi-weekly calls, a 2-day in-person workshop, six assignments. Through these interactions, the Technical Assistance Partner will provide support and critical feedback throughout the different steps of the solutions-design process.

The 6 assignments in the program will support the development and execution of the design process and development of the solution. Assignments will primarily consist of applying tools and methods and populating templates to share findings, insights and reflections that will directly inform the final design of your project or program idea. Completed assignments are expected to be submitted in the form of a brief presentation of 3-6 slides each.

We expect to admit approximately 10 organizations into the Designing Solutions process. While each organization will mostly participate in customized one-on-one interactions with our Technical Assistance Partner, peer learning activities are built into the program to give participating organizations an opportunity to exchange information with, and learn from, other organizations on their own solutions-design journey.

The purpose of the Designing Solutions program is to provide partners with support to find viable solutions to key workforce skills development challenges or problems which they can use to develop proposals from different funders. Because the future Skills Centre current funding cycle ends in early 2026, we are not at this time able to commit to funding implementation projects designed through the Designing Solutions process.

All applications received by the December 13, 2024 deadline will be sent to expert reviewers for review. We will develop a shortlist of projects. We will then conduct brief interviews with each shortlisted organization to ensure capacity, fit and alignment of expectations in advance of committing to the program and being accepted. Short-listed applicants can expect to receive confirmation by the early- to mid-February 2025.

The TCPS2 is a Federal Government policy that is committed to promoting the ethical conduct of research involving humans. All publicly-funded Canadian universities, colleges, and hospitals are required to adhere to the TCPS and to undergo a process to obtain approval or an official exemption from their institution’s Research Ethics Board (REB). The REB interprets the TCPS and establishes guidelines and procedures consistent with the TCPS and relevant legislation. The REB approves, rejects, proposes modifications to, or can terminate any proposed or ongoing research involving humans that is conducted at the university. The purpose is to protect research subjects and ensure that research is conducted in an ethical manner. To view the full 288-page TCPS please visit https://ethics.gc.ca/eng/policy-politique_tcps2-eptc2_2022.html.

The Future Skills Centre (FSC) is housed within Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU). Like all publicly-funded universities in Canada, TMU must adhere to the TCPS and institutional Research Ethics Board (REB) policies. For this reason, FSC’s funded-partners also must adhere to the TCPS and TMU REB policies. Prior to data collection, your project activities must be assessed to determine the potential REB approvals that may be required.

FSC has an in-house Research Ethics Lead who supports our partners to determine what approvals will be required by the REB and how to obtain approvals. FSC’s Ethics Lead assesses each project’s activities on a case-by-case basis. There is no one-size fits all pathway to REB approval and it depends on the complexity of the project and who the participants will be in the research. Your application and proposal to FSC, work plans, and evaluation plans are used by the Ethics Lead to make this assessment. 

The general criteria that is used to assess the project activities include: 

• The purpose, objectives, and goals of the project.
• Is the project for academic research, policy research, or is it a program development and evaluation study? 
• Who will the participants be? 
• How do you plan to recruit participants for the project? How do you plan to obtain participants’ contact information to invite them to participate in the project? 
• What, if any, personal/socio-demographic, or identifiable data will you be collecting from participants? 
• How will the data be analyzed to answer the research and/or evaluation questions?
• Who will have access to participants’ data at your organization? What is your organizations’ data storage and privacy policy?
• Do you, or any team members, plan to publish papers in peer-reviewed academic journals?

There are situations in which a project may qualify to apply for an exemption from an ethics review. However, this is assessed on a case-by-case basis and projects are not automatically exempt. 

Once your agreement has been signed with FSC, you will be asked to provide details about your project’s data collection and participant recruitment methods, such as the questions outlined above. Once FSC’s Ethics Lead assesses a project’s activities, and if it is determined the project qualifies to request an exemption, the Ethics Lead will provide you with support to submit the documentation to make this request to TMU’s REB. The Chair of TMU’s REB is the only person who can officially grant an exemption. Please note data collection cannot begin until FSC has notified you that TMU’s REB has officially granted an exemption from an ethics review.

In the case where your project is deemed to be research that requires an ethics review, FSC’s Ethics Lead will connect you with Veritas, a third-party ethics review board. FSC uses the services of Veritas because it offers a quicker turnaround time and support to complete the ethics review process.

While the specific documentation depends on the project, typically to submit an application to Veritas for an ethics review you will need to include: a research protocol, consent forms for participants, any data collection tools in their finalized forms (e.g., surveys, questionnaires, interview guides, pre- and post-surveys, etc.), as well as information about data storage, privacy, and confidentiality, and the investigator’s CV.  You and your team will be responsible for compiling these documents and a Rep from Veritas can provide guidance to complete the application for submission. 

At FSC, we make our best effort to determine at the point of proposal if an ethics review will be required for your project, or if a request for an exemption can be made to TMU’s REB. The more details you can provide about your project’s data collection and participant recruitment in your proposal, the sooner and faster FSC can help you to obtain the appropriate approvals or exemption. 

If your project does require an ethics review, the timeline for your project to obtain REB approval is largely dependent on the goals and complexity of the project activities. An ethics review by Veritas typically takes 4-8 weeks from the point of submission. However, this does not include the time for your team to design the research tools, compile the documentation, and submit an application. This 4-8 weeks timeline is an estimate and more complex research projects may take longer.

If you, or any team members, are affiliated or cross-appointed with a post-secondary institution or hospital that has its own internal Research Ethics Board, FSC must defer to the decision of the REB Chair at your home institution. This means it is the responsibility of the FSC-funded partner to consult with their own REB Chair to determine if the project requires an ethics review, or qualifies for an exemption. FSC will ask you to provide the official documentation, such as an ethics approval letter or confirmation of exemption from your own institution’s REB Chair (or appointed signing authority) before data collection can begin. This documentation will be stored in your FSC project file for compliance purposes and may be shared with TMU’s REB if requested.