The IDRC SSRA will be given out for best research practices in the following five thematic areas:

THEMES

Enhancing Food Security
Research and studies that aim at enhancing the food and livelihood security of marginalized and vulnerable communities, through increasing practical opportunities for enhancing and diversifying food production, improving access to markets (value chains) and securing rights.

Climate Change and Adaptation
Research and studies that develop integrated approaches to support building local resilience and adaptive capacity, particularly amongst vulnerable communities. This may involve research on enabling mechanisms underlying both planned and autonomous adaptation strategies (e.g. adaptive infrastructure or risk pooling/ transferring mechanisms or larger questions of governance and disaster risk reduction).

Rural Innovation Systems
Research and studies on innovation processes and innovation systems of relevance to the rural economy; this may include both formal ( science and technology based) and non-formal innovations ( such as tacit- knowledge based); the ways of generating knowledge, linking to and learning from other knowledge actors and using knowledge for tangible outcomes to benefit rural people; research on policy and regulatory processes that influence these innovations; rural innovation capacity in the context of national development.

Equity in Health Systems
Research and studies that aim to ensure that all people may attain a level of health that enables them to participate actively in the social and economic life of the community in which they live. This would include applied research which is necessary to identify priority problems and to design and evaluate policies and programmes that will deliver the greatest health benefits, making optimal use of available resources.

Social Inclusion
Research and studies that focuses on existing social cleavages; the exclusion of some groups from social and economic rights (especially in the case of women); citizenship rights & political rights (participation and capacity to mobilize/organise by all groups in society especially those marginalized); and, conflict and insecurity induced by nation building.

Up to Ten Research Awards will be given in five key thematic areas.