Preface

CIHR is Canada's major federal funding agency for health research. Its mandate is "to excel, according to internationally accepted standards of scientific excellence, in the creation of new knowledge and its translation into improved health for Canadians, more effective health services and products, and a strengthened Canadian health care system."

CIHR uses a number of mechanisms to achieve its mandate - one of these mechanisms is the President's Fund. This fund has an annual budget allocation of $400,000 from the CIHR Grants and Awards Budget to be used at the President's discretion.

The following information serves to describe the parameters for method of allocation of the CIHR President's Fund.

Objective

CIHR uses the President's Fund to provide grants that are used to:

• support organizations and initiatives whose goal is consistent with CIHR's vision, mandate and strategic directions; and provide assistance for seminars, education programs and other research related events that are hosted by research or educational organizations where the objectives of the event align with the interests of CIHR overall and not individual Institutes;
• to provide special, one-time grants or awards in aid of research where the circumstances fall outside CIHR's other programs.

CIHR's contribution to these initiatives helps to fulfill its role in raising awareness of the importance and value of health research to the health of Canadians, to strengthening the health system, and to contributing to the economy.

NOTE: Effective April 1, 2007, the President's Fund will no longer provide financial assistance for knowledge translation related conferences, workshops and symposia. If seeking support for this type of event please our website.

Procedural Requirements

The criteria to be used in assessing the appropriateness of requests are listed below:

1. Consistent with CIHR's mandate, vision and strategic directions;
2. Promotes equity and excellence in the funding of health research;
3. Provides outreach and profile potential for CIHR;
4. National or international in perspective;
5. Potential for promoting CIHR and its mandate;
6. Includes support from other organizations and partners;
7. Availability of funds in the President's Fund budget and forecasted future demands.

Process

Requests for grants from the President's Fund budget will be processed in the following manner:

1. All requests made by individuals or organizations with a health research mandate, must be in writing and express details of the event/initiative as follows:
   • the amount of funding requested; dates; clearly stated objectives; scope and deliverables;
   • the type of research-related activities for which support is requested;
   • the anticipated size of the target audience and the specific intended use of the CIHR grant (e.g., travel of trainees to a conference);
   • if the grant is for support of a research project or researcher, the reasons why this request should be supported outside the regular competition process;
   • justification for the amount and duration of the grant or award.
2. Once a written request is received that includes all of the required information described above, it will be submitted to the CIHR Executive Management Committee for discussion.
3. Approval rests with the President.
4. All decisions will be provided in writing, normally within six weeks of receiving the request.

Terms & Conditions

In addition to CIHR's normal conditions and eligible expenditures, grants from the President's Budget are subject to the following conditions:

• appropriate recognition of CIHR must be provided in the grant recipient's press releases, web sites and promotional material; and,
• recipients of grants from the President's Fund must provide a letter summarizing the outcome of the initiative. This letter should be addressed to the President, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, 160 Elgin St., Ottawa ON K1A 0W9.

Additional requirements may be determined by the President, particularly in the cases of large contributions.

Contact

Requests to the CIHR President's Fund should be addressed to:

President, Canadian Institutes of Health Research
160 Elgin St.
Ottawa ON K1A 0W9.

For questions about this fund contact:
Annette Wilcox on behalf of the President's Office
Canadian Institutes of Health Research
Telephone: 613-954-1974
E-mail: awilcox@cihr-irsc.gc.ca