Invitation: March 8th Open Forum on CIHR Strategic Initiatives and Proposed Reforms to the Open Suite of Programs & Peer Review Process
To RSVP, contact: Agatha Yim (agatha.yim@utoronto.ca)
Vice-President, Research, Paul Young invites interested members of the U of T research community, as well as colleagues from York and Ryerson Universities, to attend a Panel Discussion & Open Forum on CIHR Institutes & Strategic Initiatives and Proposed Reforms to the Open Suite of Programs & Peer Review.
This event will take place on Thursday, March 8th, 9:00 am -1:00 PM in Room 3154, Medical Sciences Building (1 King's College Circle). Panel members will include CIHR CSO & V-P Jane Aubin and Scientific Directors of CIHR Institutes. The session will be moderated by Professor Reinhart Reithmeier, U of T's CIHR Delegate.
This session will provide information and enable discussion on the topic of balance between open programs and strategic initiatives. In addition, the CIHR has recently released a Design Discussion Document on Proposed Changes to CIHR's Open Suite of Programs and Peer Review. The changes proposed are dramatic and will affect the way research grants are formulated, reviewed and funded. Key proposals include:
longer term program funding (7 years, @ an average of $300K p.a., 5 years for new investigators) based largely on an applicant's track record and comprising ~45% of the open grants budget;
shorter term project funding (3-5 years @ an average of $125K p.a.) based largely on new ideas and comprising ~55% of the open grants budget;
a review process that is application-focused and multi-staged (5-8 reviewers from the College of Reviewers at each of the first two stages) with a final face-to-face interdisciplinary committee meeting to make the final ranking.
Everyone interested in the future of the CIHR is urged to review the discussion document and attend the Open Forum to offer feedback to CIHR.
