The Research Support Fund assists Canadian postsecondary institutions with the indirect costs of managing their research enterprise. Indirect costs of research include research administration and the costs of meeting regulatory requirements, training, and the provision and maintenance of research facilities, among other things.
Institutions have the flexibility to decide how to use their Research Support Fund allocations, provided they are used for the payment of current expenditures of indirect costs attributed to federally sponsored research that falls in the following five categories:
- Research facilities
- Research resources
- Management and administration of the institution’s research enterprise
- Regulatory requirements and accreditation
- Intellectual property and knowledge mobilization
YukonU is using the Research Support Fund (RSF) to invest in the university’s research enterprise in the following ways:
Research facilities. The RSF is used to maintain shared research equipment at YukonU, and to manage and maintain shared research spaces to ensure equipment is dependable and space allows for productive research at the university.
Research resources. The RSF is used to acquire library holdings in support of research and to support the university’s membership in the Canadian Research Knowledge Network.
Management and administration of the institution’s research enterprise. The RSF is used to provide faculty, staff and students with access to research administration services, including pre- and post-award administration and financial support. It also supports implementing institutional Equity, Diversity and Inclusion objectives, and research-related training and professional development.
Regulatory requirements and accreditation. The RSF provides resources to the university’s Research Ethics Board and Animal Care Committee to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements.
Intellectual property and knowledge mobilization. No RSF investments are made in this expenditure category at this time.
OCAP
With funds from the Research Support Fund, the Research Services Office (RSO) hosts OCAP® discussion groups over the course of six weeks, where cohorts of researchers discuss how to support First Nations data sovereignty principles in their work. The principles of OCAP® (ownership, control, access and possession) outline how First Nations’ data and information will be collected, protected, used or shared.
Each week, participants individually complete one of six First Nations Information Governance Centre (FNIGC) OCAP® modules and then meet for a facilitated conversation about the module over lunch. Researchers from across the university, as well as student researchers and community members of the Research Ethics Board, have participated in the discussion groups.
Conversations have been wide-ranging and have included how to change workflow to support OCAP® principles and how to build good relationships with Yukon First Nations. Throughout the six weeks, experienced researchers have provided mentorship to those newer to research in the Yukon, and researchers have built new interdisciplinary connections.
Research Celebration Day
With support from the Research Support Fund, YukonU hosted its first Research Celebration Day in March 2025. The day brought together researchers, students and the public to celebrate the varied research happening across the University and to facilitate new connections in research. Highlights included 15 rapid research talks, a panel co-hosted with ArcticNet, and a research social event.
The topics of the talks included creating brave and safe spaces for Indigenous, Black, and People of Colour (IBPOC) in universities; nutrition and neurological health; uranium distribution in the Whitehorse Copper Belt; Yukon First Nations health research and the development of a Yukon Network Environments for Indigenous Health Research (NEIHR); power system impact studies for remote communities; revisioning Gwich'in Education with collaborative educational research and practice in Old Crow, Yukon; and visual claims and cultural confusion in the mythological Klondike.
Throughout the day, the theme of community-partnered and/or community-led research emerged, and multiple talks were presented with community partners. The day ended with a social gathering, providing the opportunity for researchers and students to build on new
connections, and to learn more about research projects through a visual display of images of research.
The Research Celebration Day was open to the public, both in-person and online, and the University received feedback from public attendees expressing appreciation to see publicly funded research being shared with the public.