Funding, News and Announcements

On behalf of Mark Filiaggi, CIHR University Delegate, Associate Vice-President Research

Hi everyone,

Following is a brief update from the July teleconference for CIHR University Delegates:

Foundation Scheme Pilot – Update

There were a total of 1,634 registrations for this competition, a higher than anticipated number attributed to the nearly 700 “new” investigators registered. CIHR is in the process now of validating eligibility and notifications should be out early next week. (CIHR did express some concern that not all of the applicants were sufficiently aware of the requirements for the program.) Included in this total were 107 registrations with multiple program leaders; while most had two or three, there were several with five or more (one had 8!) program leaders. The challenge, as noted in the program notes, will be in clearly articulating the synergy gained by having these teams. The question was raised whether there would be a change in review strategy given the higher than expected numbers. The short answer is “no”, though officials acknowledged they will be pushing the top end of application numbers to be assigned to reviewers. The intent is also still there to control the flow of applications from Stage 1 to Stage 2 so that success rates at Stage 2 remain “reasonable”, keeping in mind that CIHR expects to awards 120-250 Foundation grants in the first competition depending on total award amounts and length. I think we can expect significant culling of applications at Stage 1, more so perhaps than the ~50% that was initially suggested. As a final note, an updated guide to reviewers is to be released in the next two weeks. This should be a valuable tool for those finalizing their Stage 1 applications.

University Delegates Network

There was some discussion following from the face-to-face UD meeting in June regarding a review of the Terms of Reference for the University Delegates Network. All UDs on the call acknowledged the need for mentorship to be explicitly part of the “Roles and Responsibilities”, with efforts to pair new UDs with more experienced delegates; the UD Executive committee would look to manage this mentoring process.  In this context, it was agreed that the delegate term be increased from 3 to 4 years, with the potential for more than one renewal in part to ensure that experienced delegates remain in the network. It was felt also that smaller universities would benefit from this increased flexibility. Also expressed was the need to include an advocacy role (generally with respect to health research) within this Terms of Reference, though how this is to be worded still requires further discussion.  There was also general agreement to remove the requirement for the delegate to be CIHR-funded given the administrative role that some of the delegates currently hold within respective VPR offices.

College of Reviewers

The remaining time was spent discussing the College of Reviewers and planned recruitment. CIHR is expected to begin the first wave of recruitment soon, targeting in the first instance some current and recent past members of program committees; committee Chairs have been asked to evaluate the quality of reviewers on panels for this last Open Operating Grant competition. A policy is also under development that would make it a requirement for Foundation Grant holders to “actively participate” in the College, though what this participation might look like has not, as yet, been detailed.


OOGP (March 2014)

Funding results for this competition should be available on ResearchNet as of today (July 4). Fingers crossed for all those who took a run at this last round!


Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Regards,

Mark Filiaggi
CIHR University Delegate

Associate Vice-President Research
Filiaggi@dal.ca
(902) 494-7102