CIHR’s commitment to official languages
Only a small number of the grant applications CIHR receives every year are written in French. In addition, on average, French applications have typically requested smaller funding amounts than English applications. This has resulted in a relatively low number of French grant applications receiving funding and a lower amount of total funding awarded for French applications.
We acknowledge that there are many reasons why Francophone applicants would choose to submit applications in English, including the composition of research teams, the prevalence of English publications and journals, as well as researchers’ confidence in the peer review process for applications submitted in French.
At CIHR, we are committed to removing all barriers to equitable access to our funding programs, and this includes linguistic barriers.
Our promise to you is that you will always be invited to apply for funding in your official language of choice. All of our application and training instructions, materials, webinars, and services from our Contact Centre staff will always be made available in both English and French. And when it comes to peer review, you can be confident that your application will be peer reviewed by those with an ability to review in whichever language, English or French, the application was submitted. As the Government of Canada’s health research investment agency, we take our official languages obligations seriously. We have taken steps to break down linguistic barriers, but we recognize there is more work to do. We promise to continue to look for opportunities to foster the full recognition and use of both official languages in our operations and in the broader health research ecosystem in Canada.
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