Call for proposals: Training modules

For the past three years, the Centre de recherches mathématiques (CRM) and the Centre interuniversitaire de recherche en analyse des organisations (CIRANO) have collaborated as part of En Avant Math! to promote the development of a highly qualified mathematical workforce.

The CRM is launching a call for proposals as part of the 2022-2024 grant – specifically short training modules aimed to enhance the mathematical and statistical expertise of workers in fields crucial to economic development.

The main goal of this project is to develop short courses on one of the following four themes: mathematics and statistics for data science; mathematics and statistics for health sciences; mathematics and statistics for finance; mathematics and statistics for cyber security. The proposed format of the training modules is three online videos of about 10 to 15 minutes per selected topic.

The training modules will be aimed at people who have work experience in the respective fields, and who already have a basic level in mathematical sciences (comparable to first-year university courses), but who seek to further their expertise given the current requirements of their professional field.

We are looking for teams composed of researchers/professionals with experience in mathematical and statistical sciences and a good knowledge of their applications in the targeted fields and one or more students and/or postdoctoral researchers.

The selected teams will have access to a production company, technopedagogical experts and a maximum of $50,000 for fellowships, postdoctoral salaries and teaching grants, as detailed below.

The development of training modules will be done in two stages

1. Selection of the theme and development of the general plan for a training module.

After receiving the letters of intent from the teams, a committee of experts will select the teams that will be retained. This committee will also monitor the project.

The selected teams will proceed with the identification of the content of these training sessions relevant to the chosen theme as well as the development of a general plan for the training module, which will be composed of three 15-minute video clips.

For this stage, the selected teams will obtain a maximum grant of $20,000 – including scholarships and support for meetings – to develop the content.

After the grant is awarded, teams will have 4 months to submit a brief that contains a detailed proposal with the content of the training and a justification for the choices made. Midway through the four months, teams will meet with the evaluation committee to assess and, if necessary, adjust their work.

2. Production of the training modules.

Following the submission of the briefs from stage 1 and their approval by the evaluation committee, teams will move on to the development and production of their training modules. Teams will benefit from the technical support of a production company – namely, our partner, SOFAD – and from the assistance of technopedagogical experts.

At this stage, up to $30,000 (excluding module production costs) will be made available to each team, allowing for teaching allowances and salaries or scholarships for graduate or post-doctoral students.

For stage two, teams will have 6 months to develop their module. There will be coordination and follow-up meetings with the committee of experts every two months.

A final report with an assessment of the final product and a financial statement will be submitted by the end of March 2025.

FORMAT OF THE LETTER OF INTENT  

The letter of intent must contain the following elements:

• Title of the project
• Name of the team leader and affiliation
• Name of collaborators and affiliation
• Theme chosen and justification of the theme in relation to the team’s expertise.

IMPORTANT DATES

1

The project proposals must be sent in pdf format to the competition organizers by email, specifying in the subject of the email: “Projet Modules EAM” to projets@crm.umontreal.ca 

En Avant Math! is made possible by a grant from the Ministère des Finances du Québec. The objectives of this initiative are to promote the mathematical sciences and raise the level of numeracy of the Quebec population as well as to develop and support the interest of young people from preschool to university in the mathematical sciences.