CIHR reverses position with reinstatement of spring grant competition

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research is back on track to launch its $245-million Spring 2020 Project Grant competition.

On May 4, CIHR placed a moratorium on all existing and any new non-COVID-19-related funding opportunities, as a result of the pandemic and the redirection of government priorities to address the pandemic, CIHR president Dr. Michael Strong told the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health May 19.

“At the time, CIHR could not be certain about the reliability of critical infrastructure required to deliver the project grant competition, which requires the review of thousands of applications in a short period of time, just after all CIHR employees had been directed to work from home,” he told Parliamentarians.

“We made the very difficult decision to ensure that these funds would be saved for the fall of 2020 project grant competition, but at the same time, we also began exploring options to support both the researchers and the trainees impacted by this decision, as well as those impacted by the shutdown stemming from COVID-19 of the broader research programs.”

In the end, CIHR decided to salvage the spring competition, announcing May 28 that it will now be held this summer with the peer review process occurring between June and August using video-conference panels. Plans are still in place to hold another grants competition in the fall though timelines may be adjusted.

The news came as a relief to many in the research community who had opposed the cancellation. “This was absolutely the right thing to do,” tweeted Dr. Eric Benchimol, a University of Ottawa researcher and pediatrician at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario. “Canadian researchers can withstand changes in timelines, peer review strategies, and uncertainty. We can’t stand firing research staff or stunting Canadian science.”