CIHR can't meet demand for top-ranked health research due to funding constraints

Latest competition's success rate only 25%

The implementation of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research's (CIHR) ambitious mandate is being thwarted due to inadequate funding. Late last month, Canada's primary health research funding agency revealed that 600 research proposals ranked 'very good' or better could not be funded through its September/05 Open Operating Grants Competition.

CIHR was able to fund just 454 proposals from a slate of 1,833 applications - a success rate of only 24.8% - the lowest for the competition since its inception. The rate would have been even lower had CIHR not instituted an across-the-board, 18% cut to all awards. The success rate for new applicants was even lower (21%), which could have a serious negative effect on the ability of institutions to retain their best new researchers.

The competition's total value was $203 million over five years, with an average grant size of $111,483. CIHR, which holds open operating grants competitions twice a year, allocated $307 million for FY05-06. A recent decision by its governing council raised the annual allocation by $47 million to $354 million for FY06-07. But the need remains far greater than CIHR is able to meet.

"CIHR's budget is just not keeping pace with the rapid growth in the number of applications for operating grants; a 9% increase in one year and 23% over two years," stated Dr Mark Bisby, CIHR VP research portfolio, in a recent letter to the health research community. "Comparing the September 2005 competition with CIHR's first competition in 2000, there has been an increase of 537 applications, with the greatest increase in biomedical applications (374), followed by population health applications (121) ... The greatest driver of the increased application pressure is the re-invigorated biomedical research community."

CIHR president Dr Alan Bernstein has long advocated an increase to the agency's base funding. Its Blueprint strategic plan of 2003 set a target of $1 billion by FY07-08 (up from the current $700 million) as well as a multi-year funding commitment that would allow for stable funding of its researchers. The request has been a constant ever since, most recently in Bernstein presentation to the Standing Committee on Finance last October.

"This is an ambitious target, but an essential one if CIHR is to deliver on its Parliamentary mandate," stated Bernstein.

U OF T & MCGILL BIG COMPETITION WINNERS

Not surprisingly, the Univ of Toronto and its affiliated research institutions received the largest single share of latest competition awards. It received $42.6 million for 91 research projects out of 303 applications, accounting for 21% of the competition total. Including its affiliates, U of T scored a 30% success rate.

McGill Univ and its affiliated institutions received the second largest share of funding - $25.4 million - with 56 proposals being funded from a slate of 203. Its overall success rate was 27.6%. The Univ of Montreal and its affiliates ranked third with $17.9 million. A total of 39 proposals were awarded for a success rate of 20.1%

The Univ of British Columbia ranked fourth with $16.7 million for 41 funded applications and a success rate of 26%.

The Univ of Alberta ranked fifth with $14.3 million. Its success rate was 29% with 35 of 119 proposals receiving funding.

The Univ of Ottawa ranked sixth, benefitting from the strength of its affiliated Ottawa Health Research Institute. The OHRI received $6.2 million for 13 successful applications, boosting the U of O's total to $12.9 million. The blended success rate was 29.3%.

Ranking seventh was Laval Univ, which had 22 applications funded for a total of $10.3 million and a success rate of 22%. The Univ of Western Ontario and its affiliates ranked eighth, with $9.3 million for 19 successful applications and a 24% success rate.

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