Funding, News and Announcements

Hi everyone,

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

Foundation Pilot 1 Update

The Stage 2 reviews are now complete. CIHR did comment that for several of the applications the budget requests that did not appear to follow the guidelines posted for determining baseline amounts. They did acknowledge, however, that there was some confusion with applicants in this regard leading up to the Stage 2 submissions. CIHR is still shooting for May 15^th to notify applicants whether they will move on from Stage 2; don’t be surprised though if these decisions are delayed a few days. Applicants who are not successful at this stage will receive a decision package with reviews while those who are moving on will only receive a notification to this effect. These applicants will not know at this point whether they are in the “green zone” (to be funded) or in the “grey zone” (to be discussed further at Stage 3). CIHR expects to post final decisions on July 15^th. (Note that these decisions will be provided at the same time decisions will be released regarding the transitional Open Operating Grant competition.)

Project Scheme

The first full Project Scheme competition to replace the traditional OOG program will be in March 2016. CIHR clarified that those applying for the Foundation Scheme Pilot #2 (2015-2016) are eligible to submit an application to this competition. The review manual and interpretation guidelines won’t be available until the Fall to allow CIHR an opportunity to make some final adjustments based on feedback from the other Pilots making use of this Project Scheme. Several University Delegates encouraged CIHR to expedite this manual and guidelines as much as possible. CIHR did confirm that the New Investigator budget will be rolled into the Project Scheme (after the last competition in the Fall), with the funds going to support research costs, not salary. The application form associated with this Project scheme will be ~ 7 pages, down from the traditional 11-13 page OOG applications.

College of Reviewers

Activities will be ramping up over the next 8-12 weeks to formally launch the College. Over 3,800 individuals – many currently or recently active reviewers that have been validated by CIHR staff, Committee Chairs and Scientific Officers – have been identified for recruitment and have had profiles created. This profile consists of a “fingerprint” or expertise profile derived from the individual’s research output (obtained through Scopus). These individuals will be asked to review and validate their respective profiles (to make sure that it matches what they believe is their expertise) and agree to the terms and conditions for College members. Initial testing of the database will involve a handful of reviewers and Scientific Directors, with the remaining phased in as follows: Phase 1 - ~300 reviewers (Chairs; SOs; senior pillar 3 & 4 researchers); Phase 2 - ~500 reviewers (most recent OOGP reviewers); Phase 3 - ~1,000 reviewers (reviewers from the past year); and Phase 4 – the remaining ~2,000 reviewers. VPR offices will receive packages with the names of reviewers from that institution being recruited to the College, and will be asked to identify additional researchers that should be added. It was noted that some reviewers can be members of the public, keeping with the idea that this College will be for all programs. CIHR is also developing targeted recruitment strategies with Scientific Directors to make sure, for example, that there are enough experienced reviewers in specialized areas like aboriginal health; they are also looking at developing international agreements for reviewers.

UDs were briefly introduced to the technology suite for the College that will allow applications to be matched with reviewers. Essentially, “fingerprints” are created from the application abstract and matched to expert profiles. There are also functions like “similar experts” that will allow CIHR to find alternate reviewers when the initial choices are not available. This is a potentially powerful tool to be sure, but one that will strongly rely on validation of these profiles.

Federal Budget

Delegates were treated to an overview of the latest federal budget with regards as it relates to Canada’s research enterprise. Of note was a new ongoing investment of $15M in CIHR, with $13M designated for SPOR and the remaining $2M for antimicrobial resistance initiatives. CFI will also see a $1.3B investment over 6 years, starting in 2017-2018, while $42M has been set aside over 5 years for the Canadian Centre for Aging and Brain Health Innovation based out of Toronto. In addition, $14M will be provided over 2 years to the Canadian Foundation for Health Care Improvement. Finally, $9M is being added to the research support fund (otherwise known as the indirect costs program) to be split by the universities. Overall, it is clear that research investments are being made, though they are for the most part highly targeted.

I will be attending the University Delegates face-to-face meeting in Ottawa on June 18, where we will be discussing among other things the results of the 1^st Foundation scheme pilot – with a working session on Foundation design elements to identify / address “problem areas” in advance of the 2^nd pilot. Please let me know your thoughts on this program, or any other questions or concerns you might have that you would like me to bring to this meeting.

Regards,

Mark Filiaggi
CIHR University Delegate
Associate Vice-President Research
filiaggi@dal.ca
(902) 494-7102