Funding, News and Announcements

Minutes prepared by Eileen Denovan-Wright, Associate Dean Research, Faculty of Medicine

1. CIHR Updates

Anti-racism engagement sessions The Chair shared with the Network information about the work CIHR in partnership with an External Advisory Committee on Anti-Racism is developing an action plan to address systemic racism across all aspects of the CIHR funding system.

Reminder: Institute Advisory Boards and Standing Committees of Governing Council Recruitment is ongoing for

• The Standing Committee on Institutes: applications due by May 1
• CIHR Institute Advisory Boards: applications due by May 22.

2. Canada Biomedical Research Fund (CBRF)

An update about the Canada Biomedical Research Fund (CBRF) was presented to UDs. The CBRF is part of Canada’s Biomanufacturing and Life Sciences Strategy along with the Biosciences Research Infrastructure Fund (BRIF) and both programs will be delivered through an integrated competition in collaboration with the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI). CBRF will invest $250M and the BRIF will invest $500M in research infrastructure. The fund will support three to five research hubs. Research hubs are coalitions of research and research-training actors.

3. Research Data Management Plan (DMPs)

DMPs are living documents that can be modified to accommodate changes throughout the course of a research project. The content and length of DMPs depend on the research project, but all DMPs should describe:

• how data will be collected, documented, formatted, protected and preserved;
• how existing datasets will be used and what new data will be created;
• where data will be deposited, and whether and how data will be shared;
• responsibilities and succession plans;
• ethical, legal and commercial constraints.

CIHR will be implementing DMPs through a phased approach and is committed to communicating with all stakeholders regarding DMP assessment and resource development. The Digital Research Alliance of Canada has developed various resources to support researchers in developing data management plans, including DMP Assistant, DMP Exemplars and DMP Templates. CIHR is exploring using these resources to support our grant applicants and is considering what other resources should be developed,

Note: DMP Resources for Dalhousie Researchers are available through the library.

4. CIHR Policy Guide WHO Joint Statement on Public Disclosure of Results from Clinical Trials

The Network received information on CIHR’s Policy Guide on Public Disclosure of Results from Clinical Trials. CIHR published a Policy Guide outlining existing and new policy requirements for CIHR-funded clinical trials to meet and exceed our commitments under the WHO Joint Statement. These requirements are an important step towards CIHR’s commitment to make the results of Canadian health research more accessible, including increased rigor in monitoring open science policy compliance. The release of this Policy Guide signals CIHR’s intent, starting with clinical trials, to move towards requiring immediate open access.

As per the new requirements, Nominated Principal Investigators receiving CIHR grant funds for clinical trial research on or after January 1, 2022, must comply the CIHR Policy-Cinical Trials to remain eligible for new CIHR funding.

CIHR will begin to monitor policy compliance this year, with a review of this process planned for fall 2023. CIHR is available to assist with interpretation of the new Policy Guide.

Note: CIHR has followed-up from unanswered questions raised during the UD meeting regarding open access policies.

Q: Wouldn't that also include preprint servers which are free?

A: CIHR requires all clinical trial publications, including pre-prints and peer-reviewed publications, to be made immediately open access (i.e., made freely available online from the date of publication). Preprints can be posted to an online preprint server that offers free and immediate open access on its website. If a preprint progresses to a peer-reviewed journal publication, to be compliant with the policy requirements, CIHR requires grant recipients to:

• Option 1: publish their clinical trial results in an open access journal or in a journal that offers free and immediate open access on its website; and/or
• Option 2: deposit the final, peer-reviewed, full-text manuscript in online repositories (e.g., institutional, discipline or adoptive), in Canada or elsewhere, that are open access.

Please note that these two routes are not mutually exclusive.

For more information, you are encouraged to read about Preprints at CIHR.

Q: Can open access include "accepted" manuscripts in institutional open repository?

A: Under the “Online Repository” option, the author(s) must archive the final full-text peer-reviewed manuscript (the post-print), or the published version where allowable, from the date of publication. The manuscript must include all tables, figures, images and appendices, and generally does not include the formatting or pagination that is included in the journal-published version (the version of record). Grant recipients should refer to the journal’s copyright and self-archiving policies and/or speak directly with the journal's editorial staff to verify whether they have permission to immediately archive the post-print in order to abide with a funder’s policy. To be compliant with the policy requirement regarding publications (i.e., to ensure publications describing clinical trial results are open access from the date of publication), grant recipients can:

• Option 1: publish their clinical trial results in an open access journal or in a journal that offers free and immediate open access on its website; and/or
• Option 2: deposit the final, peer-reviewed, full-text manuscript in online repositories (e.g., institutional, discipline or adoptive), in Canada or elsewhere, that are open access.

Please note that these two routes are not mutually exclusive.

5. Project Grant Competition Update

Spring 2022 Project Grant Competition

• Application Deadline: March 16, 2022
• Anticipated Notice of Recommendation (NOR): June 30, 2022
• Anticipated Notice of Decision (NOD): July 14, 2022
• Funding Start Date: October 1, 2022

Reminder: ResearchNet keeps a list of current funding opportunities.  ResearchNet - RechercheNet