Funding, News and Announcements

Following are the highlights from the November CIHR University Delegates teleconference:

Project Scheme 2016 Pilot Update
Registration for the first live pilot of the Project Scheme will open on November 16, 2015 with a closing date of January 18, 2016; no applications will be accepted that do not adhere to this deadline. A very important thing to note here: the Summary of the Research Proposal component of the registration as well as the List of Participants for the proposed project CANNOT change from the registration through to the submission of the full application in March. The proposal will be used to identify the areas of expertise required for the review, while the latter will be used for conflict checking for potential reviewers. The participants list includes “knowledge users” if they have a role as a principal applicant on the project, but does not include “collaborators”. CVs can be updated at the full application submission stage but the roles of participants in the application cannot change. Complete registration instructions can be found here.

Apparently there has been some confusion surrounding the application format and in particular the use of figures. CIHR confirmed that there is an attachment component as part of the application but that this attachment will be a maximum of two pages. Figures and data tables can be included within this attachment but must adhere to formatting requirements. This attachment is NOT intended to supplement the application content (eg., with publications). An additional concern brought to the table concerned the use of preliminary data, as there had been some indication from CIHR to individual researchers that such data was not allowed. CIHR confirmed that preliminary data in support of the project was welcome for these applications and could be included in the 2-page attachment.

CIHR indicated that within this Project Scheme they will be establishing a “special consideration” (referred to as Partnered/Integrated Knowledge Translation or iKT) to incentivize the meaningful engagement of partners and knowledge users in research; in a nutshell, CIHR will be allocating a portion of the Project Scheme budget (yet to be determined) for KT or commercialization projects that have a partner and/or knowledge user. To be deemed eligible, applicants will be asked to self-identify their project as having this iKT approach and include a partner, knowledge user or both. This “special consideration” is essentially acknowledging the fact that programs other than the old OOGP (eg. CIHR PoP) have been rolled into this Project Scheme and CIHR does not want to see these other programs “disadvantaged”. I suspect we will see some greater detail around this “special consideration” component in the coming weeks.

The application requirements, peer review criteria and manual, along with interpretation guidelines for this competition are not yet available but have been promised by the end of November. Training modules will be offered around mid-December. CIHR is anticipating approximately the same volume of applications as has been typically seen with the Open Operating grants competition (~3,000).

CIHR Foundation Scheme 2015 Updates
Stage 1 reviews are currently underway for the 911 applications deemed eligible, with the focus currently on gaps in expertise for a small number of applications. As indicated previously, all new/Early Career Researchers will be reviewed separately at all stages in the process. In addition, Virtual Chairs will be able to communicate directly with reviewers during this Stage 1 process. CIHR is still anticipating Notice of Decisions on December 1. Updated Stage 2 application, budget and peer review requirements will be coming out at the end of November.

College of Reviewers Update
CIHR appears to be taking a slight pause on recruitment (it was noted by UDs that several researchers included in lists sent out to their respective universities as “being recruited in October” have yet to be contacted by CIHR). No explicit explanation was provided, but it sounds as if there are still a few kinks in the recruitment software database (“fingerprints”) to work out. In the meantime, CIHR will be putting out a call soon for College “Chairs” (formerly referred to as “Expertise Cluster Leads”) who are expected to provide strategic guidance in the building of the College as a national resource. They will be looking for 9 “Chairs” in total (expect another name change), with individuals being internationally recognized health research leaders with experience as peer reviewers in a diversity of roles. Ultimately, these leaders will be appointed by the Chief Scientific Officer, with consideration given to the diversity of applicants and their expertise.

Changes in Government
David Marchand, Manager of Policy and Government Relations at CIHR, provided a brief overview of changes in government that could have implications for CIHR. His full presentation can be found here. It was noted that the new Minister of Health is a family physician, and there is an overall emphasis on evidence-based decision-making and science in general. There are also a number of key electoral commitments in the health domain to keep an eye on, including new Centres of Excellence in Mental Health and PTSD, and the promise of a new Health Accord with priorities in home care services, pan-Canadian collaborations in health innovation, available high-quality mental health services, and affordable prescription drugs.

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