Funding, News and Announcements

Hi everyone,

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

Changes to the Institutes

There continues to be some concern and an equal measure of confusion over changes planned for CIHR’s Institutes. CIHR reiterated that there is no loss in budget for the Institutes but rather a formalization of what is already happening with respect to pooling of 50% of Institute funds to enhance signature initiatives and promote cross-Institute collaborations ($4.3M would be “Institute specific” initiatives, with $4.3M earmarked for this common pool of funds). While these common funds would need to be leveraged in some way (in-kind; actual dollars, etc.), there is no requirement for 1:1 matching. How one successfully accesses this common pool (much of which is already currently committed) still remains to be fully articulated, but requests will need to be championed by at least two scientific directors; additional decision making criteria will be guided by CIHR’s “RoadMap”. There will also be some re-organizing of reporting relationships for some Institute staff in order to create more integrated, cross-cutting teams embedded within CIHR. Re-alignment of the Institute Advisory Boards is still under discussion, though interestingly “re-structuring” has replaced “clustering” in these discussions with IAB Chairs and other IAB members; feedback will be going to Governing Council this month. Evaluating Institutes on a regular cycle is still a priority within CIHR, and while any evaluation will encompass “performance” and “relevance”, may details regarding how this evaluation will be framed remains to be worked out.

CIHR Open Programs

CIHR has received 3,328 registrations for the last transitional Open Operating Grant competition, a little lower number than was expected but still significant nonetheless. You can expect 450-600 of these to be funded in keeping with the most recent history of success rates for this competition. The final number will depend in part on what transpires with the Foundation grant competition. UDs were asked to remind applicants to leave sufficient time in advance of the application deadline of March 2 to populate the Biosketch (the newer, more abbreviated version of the application CCV) being piloted in this competition. The Biosketch will be used for all “Project scheme” funding opportunities moving forward.

CIHR will also be working towards integrating Open legacy programs (eg., Proof-of-Principle, New Investigator Award, etc.) into the Foundation and Project schemes. Some, like the Knowledge Synthesis program, have already been used to pilot new Project Scheme design elements. Approximate deadlines for the final competition for each of these programs is as follows:

*Actual

With respect to the New Investigator award, there was some indication that this would morph into an operating grant rather than a salary award.

College of Reviewers Update

CIHR continues to build the College of Reviewers, looking first to current and recently active reviewers and recruiting as well Chairs and Scientific Officers. Reviewers will be asked to agree to a set of terms and conditions, and to validate a reviewer profile. There will also be a number of targeted recruitment approaches with Institutes to address areas where there are gaps in reviewer expertise. Senior leaders will also be recruited to act as expertise cluster leads; CIHR plans to launch an expression of interest process soon. CIHR has invested in some new technology to assist in the development of profiles for College members and in the matching of reviewers to applications. Curriculum has also been developed, together with a mentoring program, to train reviewers. CIHR will be revisiting the question of whether College members will be excluded from taking part in evaluating a competition to which s/he has applied. Note that this College will not be in place for the Stage 2 Foundation applications. In addition, no applicants currently in Stage 2 are acting as reviewers.

Institution Engagement

CIHR has commenced its consultation visits with institutions, with topics to include Institute Modernization, reforms to the Open programs and CIHR’s new strategic plan (Roadmap II). Note that Dalhousie will be hosting CIHR on April 2, 2015. More details regarding this visit, which will include a “Town Hall” meeting, will follow in the coming weeks.

Foundation Scheme Pilot

CIHR has been receiving a fair bit of feedback regarding the Stage 2 application process for the Foundation scheme, with much of this focused around budgets; expect to see more prescriptive details for this section in the next go-round. Some applicants have also found some of the available space very limiting, especially if they are combining more than one operating grant within this application. CIHR reiterated that those who are unsuccessful in this first Pilot are eligible to go into the second Pilot commencing July/August 2015, but should make sure to pay close attention to any comments received.

As always, 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