Funding, News and Announcements

Hello everyone,

The December CIHR-UD meeting was held by webcast on December 6, 2018. Here are the highlights.

CIHR Update

Pierre Côté reported that Dr Michael Strong met with CIHR Governing Council on November 20. He spoke about the need for CIHR to deliver on the mandate as described in the CIHR Act. This was discussed further on November 21 meeting of Governing Council with Science Council.

There was a SPOR Summit held from November 13-15, attended by about 300 participants including CIHR staff. Information is available online. CIHR staff also attended several CARA conferences to address research administrators in November and December. They delivered tri-council updates to the groups.

CIHR is developing documents on ethics for research partnerships with patients, as an educational tool for researchers. These will undergo public consultation and feedback from researchers is also requested. Submissions will be accepted until Jan 28, 2019. Please see the following link for further details.

Staff announced that there is a new government portal for information on funded projects since 2001. The site is Open Government.

UDs were also advised of a job opening for Scientific Director position at the Institute of Ageing.

Update on Training Awards and Prizes

1. CIHR Gold Leaf Prizes Gold Leaf Prizes Gold Leaf Prizes Gold Leaf Prizes - Top 20 of 111 nominations going to Stage 2 review Feb 4, 2019
2. Governor General Innovation Awards - CIHR Nominations to Rideau Hall on December 7, 2018 7, 2018
3. Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships - 516 applications in peer review meetings January 29 -30, 2019
4. CIHR Fellowship - 1045 applications; Notice of Decision: April 30, 2019
5. CIHR Doctoral Research Awards - 1199 applications; Notice of Decision April 16, 2019
6. CGSCGS -Master’s Awards - Application Deadline December 3, 2018; Notice of Decision April 1, 2019

Strategic Funding Update

Funding Opportunities

1. Centres for HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis C and other STBBIs Research – Deadline 2018 -12 -11
2. Team Grant: SPOR iCT Rewarding Success – Deadline 2019 -01 -10
3. Team Grant: Sepsis Research Network – Deadline 2019 -01 -17
4. Team Grant: Transitions in Care – Deadline 19 -01 -24
5. Undergraduate Summer Studentship Award (2019) – Deadline 2019 -01 -24

Funding Decisions

1. Research Network on Lyme Disease (201806NLD) 1 funded of 1 application; $4.0M per 4 years
2. Building the Foundation of JPIAMR (201807BFJ) 1 funded of 1 application; $75k per 1 year
3. SPOR National Data Platform (201806NDP) 1 funded of 2 applications; $39M per 7 years
4. Team Grant: Transnational Team Grant Cardiovascular Research Projects (201806TCR) 3 funded of 5 applications; $862k per 3 years
5. Travel Awards -Institute Community Support (201808ISU) 176 funded of 222 applications; $218k per 1 year
6. Canada Research Chairs (201710CRC) 36 funded of 37 applications; $18M per 5 years
7. Canada Research Chairs (201710T1C) 27 funded of 27 applications; $37.8M per 7 years
8. Team Grant : Pathways Implementation Research Teams – Component 3 (201809PRT) 2 funded of 2 applications $3M per 5 years

Project Grant Update

Peer review meetings are in progress until December 12. Decisions will be released on January 23, 2019 via ResearchNet. Next project round will have registration deadline of February 6, 2019 and full application deadline of March 6, 2019.

Questions were asked about the inability of ResearchNet to implement an autosave function for reviewers. This has been investigated by CIHR and deemed to be too expensive or too difficult to implement at this time. Reviewers are recommended to generate their reviews offline and then insert into ResearchNet. Meetings regarding the Common CV are taking place this month and there should be an update in January.

Foundation Grant Update

Peer review Stage 1 is ongoing. CIHR anticipates a December 18 release of Notice of Decision. Questions about future of the Foundation program CIHR are subject of internal discussions currently, as well as about budget allocation and eligibility. Nothing to report at this time, CIHR hoping to provide more information to UDs at the January meeting.

New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF, Tri-Agency Fund)

This fund was announced on December 6, and is open to individual researchers and networks. When fully employed, there will be 3 streams: Exploration, Transformation and International. Exploration is the first program being launched immediately; other streams will be announced later. The inaugural LOI is due January 11, with full application due February 7 and funding to be announced before March 30.

Maximum value for each successful proposal is $125k per year for 2 years. This inaugural program is intended for Early Career Investigators only. Other streams will be for larger projects and open to all researchers. Application instructions and FAQs are available. There will be a new application portal on the SSHRC site to facilitate this competition. The intent of the program is to fund research that is international, interdisciplinary, and high risk. It is expected that the NFRF will accelerate research in Canada, to improve the economy and quality of life in Canada.

It was also announced that the Networks of Centers of Excellence program will be winding down and the funding in the NCE program will be redirected to the NFRF program. New NCEs that are being announced will be for maximum of 5 years, and non-renewable. Renewing NCEs will be offered 3 year phase out funding.

The NFRF will be using the Canadian research and development classification standard which is in development. Open consultations on this will occur over the winter with targeted stakeholders and subject matter experts. The classification is based on Australian and NZ standards and is being adapted for Canada.

Questions from the UDs were addressed. High risk and feasibility appear to be contradictory (no response from CIHR). Length of the proposals is not clear – this will be available on the website when known. Funds earmarked for NFRF will be in addition to those moved from the NCE. It is not yet known when the other streams of the NFRF will be announced.

College of Reviewers

Alison Jackson presented an overview of the College of Reviewers. She reported that part of the role of the college is to monitor college member workloads when invited for peer review. Approximately 2% of college members were solicited for peer review more than 3 times. Conversely 43% did not perform peer review at all, due to lack of availability or mismatch in expertise requirements. The college is working to make better use of under-utilized members. There remain some areas where the college has gaps in expertise (cancer therapeutics, youth health) and where there is a need in emerging priority areas. There will be a new phase of targeted recruitment that will include engagement of non-academic individuals to support peer review processes. The college will continue to monitor peer review quality.

Next CIHR-UD meeting is on January 10, 2019. Happy Holidays and Bye for now!!

Roger McLeod
CIHR University Delegate
Associate Dean (Research)
Faculty of Medicine