Goals

The Quebec Sleep Research Network is proud to announce its second call for pilot projects on occupational health and safety (OHS). The program will provide funding to support new projects on sleep, circadian rhythms, and OHS. This competition aims to encourage participatory research proposals and knowledge transfer projects. It also encourages intersectoral and inter-institutional projects, as well as those carried out in collaboration with partners and clinicians.

Research themes accepted

The Sleep Network wishes to support projects targeting sleep and/or circadian rhythms from an OHS perspective, i.e., projects that make explicit links with employment sectors, working and employment conditions, or worker populations.

Here is a non-exhaustive list of themes identified with partners that projects can target. Please note that in this list, "sleep disorders" refers to all sleep disorders, including insomnia, sleep apnea, central hypersomnia syndromes, phase advance and phase delay syndromes, etc.

Mental health, OHS and sleep disorders

• Effects of the nature or of certain characteristics of work on sleep ;
• Effects of poor sleep or sleep disorders on the worker (e.g. drowsiness, health, accidents) and on the job (e.g. errors at work, absenteeism) ;
• Diagnosis and management of sleep disorders in the workplace ;
• Training for healthcare professionals in sleep and OHS ;
• Workplace accomodations for people with sleep disorders ;
• Sleep disorders as a barrier to rehabilitation and return to work.

Atypical work schedules

• Night shifts and road accidents ;
• Atypical work schedules and the use of performance-enhancing substances or medication ;
• Labor rights (rest time between shifts, obligation to be available for on-call work) ;
• Interventions to improve sleep and alertness in context of atypical work schedules ;
• Napping as a means of protecting workers.

The place of sleep in the workplace

• Cost-benefit analysis of individual and organizational interventions targeting sleep (promotion or prevention of disorders) in the context of OHS risks ;
• Challenges in diagnosing and managing sleep disorders in the workplace: Tools for promotion, prevention, screening or intervention ;
• Sleep, fatigue and drowsiness as psychosocial risks in OHS ;
• Sleep among executives and managers ;
• Social representations of sleep from an organizational point of view.

We encourage teams to consider equity, diversity, and inclusion issues in their proposal (Click here to learn more).

Budget

The Sleep Network has brought together a group of financial partners to support this call for pilot projects. We currently have a budget envelope of approximately $90,000, which will enable us to fund at least three pilot projects (maximum of $30,000 per project).

Eligible Expenses

This program allows expenses for :

• Remuneration (salary and benefits) or scholarship supplement :
  • research professionals (salary);
  • 1st, 2nd and 3rd cycle students (scholarship supplement or salary);
  • postdoctoral fellows (salary).
• Purchase of hardware, software and small research equipment costing less than $10,000;
• The cost of access to computing resources;
• Acquisition of and access to databases and biobanks;
• Platform access costs (computing, microscopy, etc.).

We invite you to consult the FRQ common general rules and the Network Management and Governance Guidelines for full details on eligible expenses.

Eligibility

• The person submitting the application (principal investigator) must be affiliated with a managing institution in Quebec (according to FRQ rules), must be a member of the Network and must have researcher status 1, 2 or 3 according to the general common rules of the Fonds de recherche du Québec.
• A student, clinician or research professional may apply, provided he or she is accompanied by a principal investigator who meets the criteria described above and who will act as the nominated principal applicant to manage the funds at their institution.

Priority will be given to early-career researchers in order to collect preliminary data and prepare grant applications to provincial, federal, and international agencies. An early-career researcher is defined as someone who has held their first independent research position for five years or less. The CIHR definition of early-career researcher will be used. The characteristics of this definition can be accessed by clicking here. A second priority will be given to mid-career and experienced researchers who are launching new projects and need preliminary data.

The deliverable expected at the end of the project is a funding application to provincial or federal funding agencies or other relevant organizations.

How to submit an application 

The application must be submitted via a virtual platform that is accessible here. You will need to submit the following documents on the submission platform:

1)  Project description (PDF file, maximum 4.5 pages, excluding references, single-spaced, 2.5 cm margins, standard font, font size 12) which includes:

• Project summary: Problem, conceptual framework, methodology including recruitment, data collection, and analysis strategies;
• Presentation of the collaborative process and integration of the next generation ;
• Expected benefits, results and knowledge transfer ;
• Consideration of EDI aspects ;
• Preliminary timeline.

2)  Budget and justification (PDF file, maximum 1 page, single-spaced, 2.5 cm margins, standard font, font size 12)

You will also need to provide the following information on the submission platform:

• Team composition: Last name, first name, affiliations, role, and career level of each team member.
  • It is mandatory to indicate the name of the principal investigator responsible for the project as well as the legal name of their managing institution (according to the FRQ rules).

For any question, please write to info@reseausommeil.ca. Applications must be submitted by January 31, 2026. You will need to submit your application here. 

IMPORTANT For projects that were not selected during the first edition of the SST call for pilot projects and are being resubmitted, an additional document must accompany the two documents that will be submitted for this application. This document, which must be no longer than one page (PDF file, single-spaced, 2.5 cm margins, standard font, font size 12), must provide responses to the comments that were sent following the announcement of the results of the last competition. Since reviewers will not have access to past applications and reviews, this document should explain how these comments have been taken into account in the new version of the project.

Evaluation criteria 

1)  Relevance and impact (40 points)

• Suitability of the project in relation to the objectives set out in the call for proposals;
• Relevance and potential impact of the project in the field of OSH and sleep studies;
• Quality of knowledge transfer initiatives and participatory processes;
• Advantage: Contribution (financial or in kind) from a partner.

2)  Scientific (60 points)

• Rigour and scientific quality of the project, including consideration of EDI aspects;
• Team composition and integration of the next generation to promote interdisciplinary and intersectorality;
• Project feasibility (budget and schedule in line with the objectives).
• Leverage potential
  • If the project aims to support the submission of a large-scale funding application to a funding agency (e.g., SSHRC, CIHR), it must clearly outline its potential to contribute to this application, specifically identifying the preliminary data targeted and its usefulness in relation to a specific objective.
  • If all of the project's needs can be covered by the $30,000 grant, the project must clearly outline its potential to foster interdisciplinary, intersectoral collaborations in the medium term and describe what form these contributions could take and their benefits for the Sleep Network.

Submissions will be evaluated initially by the Relevance and Impact Evaluation Committee. This committee will be made up of partner representatives (e.g. employers, private sector, unions, citizens). Submissions accepted by the Relevance and Impact Evaluation Committe will then be evaluated by the Scientific Evaluation Committee.This committee will be composed of peers and will include at least one intern/student.

Important definitions when writing the proposal

It will be important to clearly understand the definition of knowledge transfer when drafting the application. Knowledge transfer in the context of this competition refers to the means used to share and disseminate the project's benefits among the various stakeholders. This concept also includes the relevance of the knowledge developed for the populations concerned by the sharing and dissemination of the project's benefits.

In addition, it is essential to properly frame OHS projects. As part of this call for pilot projects, OHS projects aim to protect the physical and mental health of workers by preventing work-related accidents and illnesses, in addition to promoting physical and mental well-being at work. This involves considering the work context or the populations of workers subject to specific working or employment conditions. Examples of projects that do not meet the objectives of the competition: Human resources management projects targeting recruitment, training, development, labor relations, etc., in order to optimize human capital management for the achievement of organizational objectives; clinical intervention projects with individuals that are not related to work. These projects focus more on employee management. It will be very important to keep these nuances in mind when writing the project description.

Timeline of the competition

• End of September 2025: Launch of the call for pilot projects
• January 31, 2026: Deadline for project submissions
• February - April 2026: Relevance and impact evaluation, followed by scientific evaluation
• Mid - April 2026: Announcement of the results of the call for pilot projects
• Spring 2027: Meeting to share preliminary results of projects funded by the Sleep Network and its partners

Funding conditions

If the submitted project is accepted, funds cannot be transferred until ethical approval or proof of ethical exemption for the project has been received. Ethical approval or exemption must be appropriate for the funded project, i.e., it must come from the ethical authority deemed competent by the principal investigator's (nominated principal applicant's) managing institution and adequately cover the project's location.

In addition, funds transferred to the principal investigator's (nominated principal applicant's) managing institution cannot be transferred to another institution at a later date. Secondary transfers are not permitted.Eligible expenses are those recognized by the Fonds de recherche du Québec. Click here for more details on eligible expenses.

Finally, any publication or communication resulting from the project must mention the support of the Sleep Network, and a copy must be sent to info@reseausommeil.ca.

Scientific and financial report

No later than 6 months after the end of the project, a scientific report (maximum 1 page) presenting the spin-offs of the project must be sent to info@reseausommeil.ca. This report enables the Sleep Network to document the impact of its activities.

A financial report must be produced by the managing establishment at the end of each fiscal year.