The government of Canada released a budget on April 19th, 2021, the first for two years. It was, as anticipated, a high spending, deficit projecting budget that clears the ground for pandemic recovery with its centre piece being a national childcare plan (the best part, by far). Given the exemplary…

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research runs two primary funding competitions a year, in the Spring and Fall. The one last Spring (2020) was initially cancelled but the decision reversed and enabled by a switch to virtual reviewing. We’re currently at the tail end of the Fall 2020 competition adjudication…

It’s been awhile since posting anything about the Canadian Institutes of Health Research but given there are no other distractions today, November 6th, it seems a good time to do some tallying. Firstly, kudos to CIHR for running the once cancelled “Spring 2020” Project Grant competition over the Summer. Looking…

The CIHR Spring Project competition was running well. By February 5th, 2020 some 2716 applications had been registered and the deadline for submission was March 4th. On March 3rd I received an invitation to return to one of the CIHR Project grant panels that I’d participated in for the past…

There’s a federal election in Canada this Fall and all of the political parties are already jockeying for attention of potential voters who are largely focused on enjoying the few months of sunny weather prior to the inevitable freeze. Until the writ drops, the parties are relatively unrestricted in what…

Links to CIHR Let’s Talk Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3. This is the last input I intend to submit and it concerns the critical Project grant competition. There are two other survey topics on knowledge translation and support of early career investigators that others are much better placed…

So now the spotlight is on the Institutes… CIHR has 13 virtual institutes that each have a budget of ~$8 million and change and a mandate to identify gaps in research, create funding competitions (RFAs), consult with the community, etc. They are each run by a Scientific Director (50% position)…

In this episode, I’m answering the survey question, “How should CIHR spend its money?” Foreword: It is a concern to me to see CIHR stating that 80% of its budget is spent via investigator-initiated programs without being explicit about exactly which programs these are. The Project Grant program is ~$550…

Today the Canadian Institutes of Health Research launched their discussion phase for input into their next strategic plan (2020–2025). The discussion is open to anyone who registers and I’d encourage anyone remotely interested in health research in Canada to check it out and, more importantly, to submit answers and feedback…