Operating Grants Competition Overview of January 2008 Decisions

Determination of Grants Approved

In approving the results of the operating grants competition, the Research and Knowledge Translation Committee (RKTC) took into account:

• the number of applications to this competition, compared to historical numbers;
• the need to provide the highest level of funding, considering the constraints on CIHR's budget;
• the balance between size of grant and number of grants awarded.

Of the 1,784 applications received, 415 were approved for funding.

Budgets

Funding of these grants was made possible by reducing the recommended budgets of the funded proposals by a maximum 14%. For both new and renewal grants, no grant was reduced below $60,000 unless recommended by the peer review committee. CIHR is unable to fund the equipment requested on Operating Grants.

Additional Notes

1. A streamlining process was followed in order to allow committee members to focus their discussion on the most competitive applications. An application was not discussed at the committee meeting if it was considered not to be competitive by the committee and if the average of the primary and secondary reviewers' initial ratings was less than 3.5. In these cases, Scientific Officer notes are not provided.  
    
2. Rating scale and descriptors are as follows:

Descriptor	Range	Outcome
outstanding	4.5 - 4.9	MAY BE FUNDED - WILL BE DISCUSSED BY THE COMMITTEE
excellent	4.0 - 4.4
very good	3.5 - 3.9
acceptable, but low priority	3.0 - 3.4	NOT FUNDABLE - MAY OR MAY NOT BE DISCUSSED BY THE COMMITTEE
needs revision	2.5 - 2.9
needs major revision	2.0 - 2.4
seriously flawed	1.0 - 1.9
rejected	0.0 - 0.9

3. Approval of a grant by CIHR does NOT imply approval of the ethical conduct of the research. It is the responsibility of the institution to ensure that any CIHR grant involving human subjects, animals or agents identified in the Guidelines on Laboratory Biosafety is approved by the appropriate local review committee before the research is started. The institution is responsible for holding CIHR funds for the researcher(s) until the required approvals are obtained. Any applications that deal with human embryonic stem cells require the approval of CIHR's Stem Cell Oversight Committee and will not be funded until that approval is given.
     
4. The recommendation of the peer review committee is summarized in each applicant's decision package. The term and the average annual budget recommended by the peer review committee may exceed the amount of funding approved by the Research and Knowledge Translation Committee. This information may be valuable to applicants who wish to seek additional support for the research through other funding avenues.

The next deadline for receipt of applications is Monday, March 3, 2008. All grant applicants who intend to submit an application must register their intent to apply to CIHR by Friday, February 1, 2008.

Visit our website for more information on the registration process. Applications will be accepted only from those who have registered by February 1, 2008. If you register and then decide not to apply, please notify CIHR a.s.a.p. to indicate that you are withdrawing from the competition.