• The principal researcher must be a full-time faculty member or a full-time Ph.D. student at a Canadian college or university when submitting the letter of intent for the CPA–CAAA or the proposal for the CAAA research grant.

• The principal researcher must be a CAAA member when submitting the letter of intent for the CPA–CAAA or the proposal for the CAAA research grant.

• All researchers involved in the project must be a CAAA members during the grant period.

• The principal researcher cannot hold more than one active CPA Canada–CAAA and CAAA grant at any time.

• Any funding for a research project cannot solely be for completing master's theses or doctoral dissertations.

• If the principal researcher is a past grant(s) holder, then the researcher must have completed bi-annual progress reports (or the final progress report) on the past grant(s) before applying for new grants.

• Any new authors joining the research team after the principal author receives the award letter must become CAAA members during the remainder of the grant period.

It is CAAA policy that no sitting CAAA Board Member may apply for research grants during their term of office, nor in the six (6) months immediately following their departure from the CAAA Board. In addition, members of a research sub-committee may not apply for awards adjudicated by that committee during their term of office.

Applicants may not submit identical or substantially similar projects to concurrent CPA–CAAA and CAAA Research Grant programs.

These include, but are not necessarily limited to: 

• Hiring research assistants for tasks defined in the project's budget.

• CAAA membership is not an eligible use of research grant funding.

• The total awarded funds should not be designated to travel only.

• Purchase or rental of special data sets, software, etc.

• Funds may not be reallocated from other expected uses to purchase computer hardware or software not requested in the research proposal. 

• Transportation and subsistence costs for data gathering, developing research arrangements, etc.

• Telephone, postage, photocopying, typing, etc.

• Course release (teaching buyout), particularly where full-time involvement in the project will require the researcher(s) to forgo other income (e.g. from summer teaching and research leave). Applications for course release as an eligible cost should include a statement by the university authority (normally a Department Chair or Dean) that course release will be permitted. 

• Travel expenses: The total amount of the grant is available to you for research expenses; the CAAA no longer holds back $1,000 for travel expenses to be claimed separately. 
  • A maximum of $1,000 of the research funds should be for travel costs for presentations at a AAA, CAAA, and ASAC Annual Conference. 

Note: The researcher may only charge to the grant expenses that are directly related to achieving the grant objectives and generally consistent with the expected costs described in the research proposal.

The CAAA will make a direct deposit to the principal researcher's institution for retention on your behalf in a grant account. If overhead costs cannot be avoided, applicants should contact the CAAA Office by e-mail to make alternative arrangements. The researcher may only charge to the grant expenses that are directly related to achieving the grant's objectives and generally consistent with the expected costs described in the research proposal. 

Research funds will be available to the investigator until the deadline specified in the award letter. After this deadline, it is expected that any unspent research monies will be returned to the CAAA.

A request to extend the deadline would be rare and must be submitted in writing. See "Research Grants Extension Request." All such requests would be directed to the Research Chair, who has complete discretion.

Letter of intent is reviewed by the sponsoring organization, whose reviewers may be experts in accounting practice but unaware of the current literature in your research area.

The letter of intent is limited to one single-spaced page, so you must be clear and concise. You must include a cover page with project title, full name, institution and current e-mail address. The letter should focus on three issues: research question, research method, and relevance. There is no need to review the related academic literature or provide a budget and timeline, as these items belong in your full proposal.

• Clearly describe the research question.
• Concisely describe the proposed research method. For example, are you using archival data, a questionnaire, or an experiment where will you use subjects and/or data?
• Clearly describe the project’s relevance, focusing on practice and on the sponsoring organization’s criteria.

The following information should be provided when submitting the full BLIND proposal. (See more information in the Guidelines.)

• Title page:
• Title of the project.
• All author(s)’ names, affiliations, and e-mail.

• Objectives, purpose and expected contributions, and its relationship to existing research in this area.

• Plan, including steps to be taken, methods to be employed in conducting the research, and data sources (if any).

• Timetable including major time commitments (teaching, research, and administration) during the period of the proposed research.

• Detailed budget, including estimated costs and stipends. Unusual items and stipends (course release) must be specifically justified. Inadequate justification may result in reduction of the amount of the award.

• Other funding obtained or applied for the project.
•  If you have submitted, or intend to submit, the proposal to other funding agencies, this information must be included.
• The description should indicate whether the CAAA is being asked to fund the entire project or a component of a larger research program.
• If this project is a part of a larger research program, then the application should describe how the proposed project fits within the larger program.

• Details of previous CPA–CAAA & CAAA research grants and related outcomes for the previous five years should be provided in a separate document.

• Curriculum vitae of all applicants. If more than one author all CVs can be combine in one PDF.

The researcher must agree to the terms and conditions of financial support as described by completing the Survey Monkey. A link will be provided in the award letter.

Certificate of Ethics 

Successful applications involving experimentation with human subjects are required to submit a Certificate of Ethics from their institution's committees on research on human subjects as soon as possible after receiving notification of their award. A Survey Monkey link will be provided in the award letter to submit the Certificate of Ethics.

If approval is not required by the applicant's institutions, a statement to that effect must be included in the application.

The principal researcher will respond to periodic requests, typically on a bi-annual basis, from the Office of CAAA for progress reports on the status of the research project. The researcher will include copies of working papers, papers presented at conferences, and published papers with progress reports. The Office will send a copy of all such documents to the funding organization.

The principal researcher will undertake and attempt to complete the research project described in the proposal submitted to the Research Committee. The research project must be completed within 24 months.

In the event of exceptional circumstances, due to an illness of the principal researcher or co-author(s), which prevents continuing the work on the project, the principal researcher should contact the Office of CAAA by e-mail as soon as practical to discuss any new term to continue or terminate the project. All unspent funds shall be returned to CAAA. 

The project shall be considered complete when the resulting working paper(s) are accepted and presented at a peer-reviewed academic conference or published in a journal, whichever comes first. The project will also be considered complete if the principal researcher indicates that work is no longer continuing the project due to unforeseen circumstances other than illness. 

Nothing in this document precludes the researcher from attempting to publish more than one paper in more than one journal.

The researcher will give appropriate credit to the CAAA and the organization which provided the funds for the research project in any papers and publications resulting from it.