Focused Research Investments (FRI) is a unique funding program designed to advance research that tackles Nova Scotia’s salient issues, pursing discoveries that are timely, relevant, and actionable for those who need it.
FRI supports researchers, partners, and beneficiaries to work together to define a societal challenge and focus their research efforts to solve it.
Society Driving Research.
Research in Service of Society.
“Research Nova Scotia developed FRI to support research that works in service of society. FRI teams search for answers to society’s most urgent questions, asking what is needed and crafting their research to respond. Research produces discoveries, but that is not enough; for FRI, what we solve matters most.”
Stefan Leslie, CEO, Research Nova Scotia
the investment
Research Nova Scotia supports each FRI team with a significant investment to focus their efforts on delivering outcomes over five to seven years.
For the first round, four FRI projects received a total investment of $27 million.
what makes fri unique
- The purpose is to solve. FRI are selected, managed, and held to account for their contribution to society.
- Beneficiaries of the research are active participants, shaping the ideas, priorities, and proposals, and remain engaged throughout the research process.
- FRI tackle large, complicated problems thatcross disciplines and are relevant across Nova Scotia, where research coordination and integration is key to success.
- Research Nova Scotia is engaged as a partner, from proposal development and throughout implementation, to support FRI teams in achieving outcomes.
- The investment is large-scale, sustained, and flexible to ensure teams have the resources they need to realize outcomes.
Research Nova Scotia Investing $27 Million in Community-Focused Research
Research Nova Scotia (RNS) is awarding $27 million to four projects through its Focused Research Investments (FRI) initiative. This is RNS’s largest investment to date and its most significant in community-engaged, outcomes-driven research.