Funding, News and Announcements

Hi everyone,

Following are highlights from the May CIHR University Delegates teleconference:

Project Scheme 2016 Pilot Update
Reviewer assignments are ongoing for the 3,818 full applications received. This process is taking longer than anticipated and despite a ~ 4 week delay, CIHR is committed to a July 15 funding announcement date. The University Delegates questioned why some reviewers have only 1 or 2 proposals at the moment and what this might mean with respect to ranking scores. CIHR staff has indicated that when reviewer assignment is complete, each reviewer will have 8 to 12 applications to evaluate. CIHR will also be following up with institutions to confirm the status of “early career researchers” (defined by CIHR as 0-60 months from an academic appointment). Note that the additional $30M investment in the recently announced budget will be entirely dedicated to the ongoing and future Project Grant competitions, with a focus on early career investigators.

While we await the outcome of this first Project Scheme pilot, CIHR announced that the second pilot will be launched in June, with a registration deadline in August and applications due in September. Please keep those timelines in mind as you plan your summer holidays.

Foundation Scheme – Pilot 2 Update
Stage 2 review of 260 applications is now complete. A total of 171 reviewers were enlisted, with all but 2 of the applications having 5 reviewers. Unlike the first pilot, there will be NO notification given to investigators regarding the status of their applications; last year, those not moving on to Stage 3 (final assessment) were made aware of this in May. CIHR’s argument for not doing so this time out was a bit convoluted, but was premised on the notion that those not moving on to Stage 3 would have “an advantage” in preparing for the next Foundation competition over those who did move on to Stage 3 but were ultimately unsuccessful; lost on the staff was the presumption that most, if not all, investigators will already be preparing in some way for the next competition in the event they are unsuccessful. At the other end of the spectrum, those “green lighted” after Stage 2 (not requiring further deliberation at Stage 3) will not know of their success until the July 15 funding announcement because of the “need for Council approval”. In the meantime, the first “open” Foundation competition call is expected to come in June, with registration and application deadlines in the Fall. A few of the UDs suggested that the Foundation Scheme be put on hold until analyses of the first two pilots are complete (and in the interim beef up the budget for the second Project scheme pilot); while this notion gained some momentum, UDs were ultimately split on this strategy particularly without knowing the outcome of the second pilot – and CIHR certainly did not appear open to creating a gap in this funding opportunity. Note that data and analyses from the first pilot are to be released shortly.

College of Reviewers Update
CIHR received 100 Expressions of Interest for the College Chair positions. A second EOI call will go out this week targeting expertise in “patient and citizen engagement”. The approximately 15 College Chairs are expected to be named in late June / early July.

As always, please feel free 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