Please read carefully before submitting your application!

Eligibility & Information

  • The purpose of TONE Research-Creation Project Funding is to encourage innovative research-creation projects by members of the TONE partnership that could lead to external funding opportunities, joint publication, musical compositions/premieres/recordings, new modules for the TOR, and/or other public presentations of TONE research. Creative projects with an interdisciplinary focus, relevant to the TONE project’s mandate, will be given priority.
  • The Principal Investigator for any proposal must be a TONE collaborator at a TONE partner institution. According to SSHRC policies, TONE can only transfer funds to TONE co-applicants (i.e., individuals involved in the original grant proposal), who are located at partner institutions. Therefore, while collaborators at non-partner institutions can be part of the application team, they are not eligible as principal investigators for this funding.
  • This funding may be used to support educational projects, i.e., generation of educational tools, planning and realization of online courses, recording of musical examples by student performers, etc.
  • Projects involving collaborators in at least two TONE partner institutions will be prioritized.
  • Proposals will be assessed by the Executive Committee
  • The project must involve clear public outcomes in both research and creation, indicating how the two interact.
  • The standard maximum funding for selected applications is $4,000. The Project Description and Budget Justification should clearly explain the use of all funds requested (ideally at least 75% of the funds should be reserved for student support through research assistantships or commissions). Requests for amounts larger than $4,000 must be justified as highly impactful. To maximize the number of projects supported, we expect most applications to be under $4,000.
  • Should the project involve external people (e.g., artists) and/or independent students (student members from non-partner institutions), applicants must first verify with the institution receiving funds from TONE, if it would be possible to make such payments as it is the responsibility of the recipient institution to cover the project expenses described in the budget justification.
  • SSHRC policy prohibits remuneration for salaried TONE researchers and artists (though they can be reimbursed for project-related expenses). Students and non-university-affiliated freelance musicians can be paid artist’s fees or for hourly work as research assistants. Concert production and recording fees can also be included in the budget.
  • Any equipment purchased should be less than 25% of the total budget.
  • SAMPLE PROJECTS (These are by no means prescriptive or constraining; they are just examples to help people frame their projects.)
    • A freelance composer (paid a commission) writes pieces for a small ensemble of student and freelance performers (paid artist fees), with the research component carried out by a TONE musicologist (unpaid and PI). The project budget includes modest production fees for a recording by a student sound engineer (paid).
    • A TONE composer (unpaid and PI) and a student RA (paid) hire a freelance performer (paid hourly) to record sound examples to study acoustic aspects of extended techniques. The performer (paid an artist’s fee) plays the composer’s piece in a concert (with a partial TONE contribution to concert hall expenses). The project budget includes purchase of a digital recorder for use by the performer to record sound examples.
    • A TONE conductor (unpaid and PI) commissions a new piece by a freelance composer (paid a commission) to be played by student/freelance performers (paid artist fees) with a research component documenting the creation by a TONE researcher (unpaid) supervising a team of graduate student RAs (paid).

Evaluation Criteria

  • The project proposal will be evaluated on the following criteria:
    • The nature of the project
      • Originality/innovation
      • Artistic/scientific merit
      • Interdisciplinarity
    • Potential for training highly qualified personnel (priority given to training and involvement of TONE student members)
    • Potential beneficial outcomes for TONE and its members, such as, but not limited to:
      • Application for grant based on results
      • Live or recorded presentation of musical works that explore TONE themes
      • Evidence that the project will lead to publication or other output formats
      • A direct output in the Timbre and Orchestration Resource (TOR)
    • Budget justification
    • TOR module

Deliverables

  • Successful applicants will be required to submit 1) a project report (online form) and 2) a module for the Timbre and Orchestration Resource (TOR) as well as a detailed budgetary subaward report at the end of the appropriate fiscal year. 
  • The deadline to submit the project report and the TOR module will be 16 months after the submission of the project proposal, i.e., January 31 for projects selected during Round 1 (September) or July 31 for projects selected during Round 2 (March). Failure to submit these required deliverables by the applicable deadline will render the applicants ineligible for future funding opportunities. For more details regarding the content and formatting of your submission to the TOR, please refer to the following documents: Contributing to the TOR and TOR Submission Guidelines.
  • Awardees will be required to initiate the use of funds within one year of the announcement of results. Failure to meet this requirement will result in the cancellation of the award and reallocation of funds.
  • Please note that SSHRC and TONE must be acknowledged in all materials produced as a result of funding received through the Partnership. For written materials, the following acknowledgment statements may be used:

This [output] draws on research supported by the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council via the Timbre & Orchestration Network (TONE) Partnership Grant.

Or 

[Researcher’s name or project name] is supported in part by funding from the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council via the Timbre & Orchestration Network (TONE) Partnership Grant.

Deadlines

  • Round 1: September 15, 5pm EDT. For the first edition of this funding competition, applications will be exceptionally accepted until October 15, 5pm EDT with deliverables due February 28, 2028.

  • Round 2: March 15, 5pm EDT

If a deadline falls on a weekend, applications will be accepted through the following Monday at 4pm.

Application & Selection Process

  1. Complete and submit the online application form by the stated deadline. Late or incomplete submissions will not be considered.

    Application Form

  2. All applications are adjudicated by the Executive Committee in accordance with the selection criteria outlined above.
  3. Applicants will be notified of the results approximately 5-6 weeks after the application deadline.
  4. Successful applicants will be contacted by the Project Manager to discuss next steps and funding disbursement arrangements.