{"id":7785,"date":"2018-08-29T08:00:32","date_gmt":"2018-08-29T12:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/communityfirst\/?p=7785"},"modified":"2018-08-15T15:58:53","modified_gmt":"2018-08-15T19:58:53","slug":"the-sshrc-partnership-grant-project-work-plans-and-budgets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/communityfirst\/2018\/the-sshrc-partnership-grant-project-work-plans-and-budgets\/","title":{"rendered":"The SSHRC Partnership Grant: Project Work Plans and Budgets"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Nicole Bedford, CFICE Project Manager and Communications Coordinator<\/em><\/p>\n

You’ve approached the partners, discussed governance and responsibilities, and now your team is ready to develop a realistic project budget and work plan. For funders like SSHRC, the key word is feasibility<\/em>. This means they are looking for work plans and associated budgets that can actually be accomplished on time, and within the award amount available.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll need to think through the scope of your project in significant detail in order to produce the most viable budget and work plan possible. Here are some steps to follow that will help.<\/p>\n

List your current personnel resources<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

Start your work and budget planning process by preparing a list of the personnel you know will be working on your project. This list will be based on the discussions you\u2019ve already had with project partners, and will entail thinking in more detail about how many hours each partner will realistically be able to contribute to the project (on average). If you win a SSHRC grant, these details will likely change as your project progresses, however, starting with this list will help give you a sense of the person-power you have available for completing tasks.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a sample breakdown from a CFICE working group:<\/p>\n

Research Assistant (RA; Master\u2019s level): 10 hours per week (consistent)<\/p>\n

Community Co-lead: 5 hours per week (variable)<\/p>\n

Academic Co-lead: 7 hours per week (variable)<\/p>\n

Total:<\/strong> 22 hours per week<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When you estimate the number of hours per week that your team will be able to spend on project work, you will get a much more accurate sense of how long<\/em> it will take to complete the tasks associated with your project. For example, a literature review might take an undergraduate RA 30 hours to accomplish, whereas a Master\u2019s RA might only take 20. Also, keep in mind the way that these hours play out in terms of weeks and months. For the literature review, it will take three full weeks for an RA to complete, even though it only takes 30 hours in total to complete.<\/p>\n

Note: It\u2019s always better to estimate that project partners will be able to spend less time on the project than more. It\u2019s easier to put extra capacity to work than to find capacity where it doesn\u2019t exist!<\/p>\n

Clearly outline your project\u2019s major tasks or activities<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The next step is to lay out your major project deliverables. The best way to do this is to think about your end goal and list the most important tasks that need to be accomplished in order to reach that goal.<\/p>\n

For CFICE, the end goal of the project was to answer the research question: How can community-campus partnerships be designed and implemented to maximize the value created for non-profit, community-based organizations?<\/em><\/p>\n

From this end goal, the CFICE team identified the major activities they would need to accomplish in order to answer this question. These included:<\/p>\n