Funding, News and Announcements

Hi all,
Following are brief highlights from the July CIHR University Delegates teleconference:

Project Grant Update
CIHR reviewed two recent announcements regarding the 2017 Fall Project competition, including the request for applications and a very recent update from the President concerning changes to the upcoming completion; many of these changes largely reflect the discussion had at the face-to-face University Delegates meeting in June and summarized in my summary of that meeting a few weeks back. I encourage you to carefully review these changes, taking note in particular of the need to choose the relevant panel for review as had been done in pre-Reform days. It is absolutely essential that applicants craft an accurate summary for submission at the registration stage (Registration deadline: August 15^th), as this will dictate to a large extent the composition of the panels (note that reviewers will be recruited for a single panel). Substantial changes between this registration summary and the actual submitted application could result in a transfer of an application to another committee, a situation that CIHR (and quite frankly, you) will want to avoid. As it stands, there will be 53 panels derived primarily from the pre-Reform peer review structure (with some tweaking of mandates, so don’t forget to review before selecting your first and possibly second choice); note that there is also a “Commercialization” panel. Depending on the number of applications received, the number of panels could expand to 55. As with recent competitions, you will be limited to two applications as a nominated PI.

Webinars for applicants are commencing on July 20^th and will run through to September 8^th (application deadline is September 15^th). Additional webinars are planned for Chairs and SOs (August) and for reviewers (October). Recruitment of Chairs/SOs is well underway, and CIHR has been quite pleased with the response from the research community. I encourage all of you to review for this competition if asked.

Foundation Grant Update
Final assessments (Stage 3) for the 2016 Competition were completed earlier this past week. The final notice of decision is still expected to be August 3. A more detailed communication with respect to any changes to the Fall 2017 Foundation competition is now available on the CIHR website here. The intake for this next competition (registration deadline August 8, 2017 and stage 1 application deadline September 12, 2017) will remain open. If the discussion at the UD face-to-face is any indication, I would expect this program to be pared down for this next round, hopefully with some streamlining of the existing process.

College of Reviewers
CIHR is quite please thus far with “Wave 1” enrollment, with approximately 75% confirmation so far from the ~2000 requests sent out. A “welcome package” will be going out to confirmed College members shortly. Invites from Wave 2 nominations will commence around the end of August. Note that I have been in touch with your respective ADRs concerning institutional nomination of folks not currently populating Wave 1 lists; note that nominees should meet the College requirements. Please feel free to reach out to your ADRs directly if you wish to have your name put forward. I will be looking to get this compiled list to CIHR within the next 2 weeks (end of July). It is important to keep in mind that the ongoing enrollment in the College is separate from active recruitment currently underway for 2017 Project grant peer review (i.e., enrollment in the College does not necessarily mean you will be asked to review for the upcoming project competition); however, you can expect that the College will be working closely with Panel Chairs and SOs to populate the review panels.

Tri-Agency Policy on Data Management Plans
We were treated to a presentation (pdf) on what has been an ongoing data management initiative. You will want to become more familiar with the draft policy that has been developed, especially since – aside from a directed Institutional Strategy – it will be looking to require researchers to submit Data Management Plans and to deposit specified data for safe storage, preservation, curation and (if applicable) access by other researchers. The Tri-Agencies plan to launch a series of online consultations to advance discussions with the community as they look to inform the final design of the policy, so please keep an eye out for future announcements.

As always, please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.

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