Institutional Signatures on CIHR Applications: Clarification for Affiliated Institutions

(2009-02-27) As communicated in our E-Alert on December 18, 2008, CIHR updated our signature requirements to more accurately reflect our legal obligation. By signing applications, authorized officials at institutions (including affiliates) and organizations accept all points found under the statement "Meaning of Signatures on Application Forms" outlined in the CIHR Grant and Awards Guide. In response to questions received from the research community regarding the changes made, we offer the following clarification.

If an applicant's institution or organization cannot meet all of the responsibilities under the statement "Meaning of Signatures on Application Forms", the institution(s) or organization(s) who can meet the other responsibilities must also sign the application.

For example, when the signature from the Institution Paid is required, the authorized official at the Institution Paid must ensure that they have the authority to bind the institution or organization to each and every point below:

  1. the appropriate authorized official (i.e., has the authority to bind the institution or organization to the general conditions governing grants and awards, as per the statement "Meaning of Signatures on Application Forms" outlined herein) has signed the application;
  2. the Applicant has met or will meet the eligibility requirements at the time of application;
  3. the institution agrees with the content of the application and will provide the committed resources;
  4. the Applicant has not submitted same (or very similar) grant proposals in response to more than one Agency program with overlapping review periods;
  5. agrees to the release of the public summary of the grant or award and to the publication of the organization's name as a supporter of the initiative;
  6. the institution will abide by the "Tri-Agency (CIHR, NSERC & SSHRC) Memorandum of Understanding on the Roles and Responsibilities in the Management of Federal Grants and Awards (MOU)";
  7. the institution agrees to comply with CIHR's data protection requirements and has adequate safeguards in place to protect sensitive information entrusted to it by CIHR for the purpose of administering applications and resulting grants and awards; and
  8. if the Applicant discloses any potential intellectual property arising from the research, he or she and the institution will endeavour to obtain the greatest possible economic benefit to Canada from the resulting commercial activity. (This requirement for disclosure is not intended to supersede any intellectual property ownership policy that the institution might already have in place.)

If the authorized official cannot bind the institution to one or more of the points above, the authorized official from the other organization(s) who can commit the organization to the other point(s) must also sign the application form.

Note that:

  • Applicants include the Nominated Principal Applicant, Other Principal Applicant(s), Co-Applicant(s), and may include Decision Maker(s); and
  • It is possible that an authorized official at an institution or organization from which there is no applicant must also sign the application. For example, the institution pays the salary for the resource that is at another institution eligible to receive CIHR funding.

In such instances, the appropriate authorized official (i.e., the individual who has the authority to bind the institution or organization to the statement "Meaning of Signatures on Application Forms" outlined in the CIHR Grants and Awards Guide) at the institution or organization must update the signature page of the application form (i.e., change the printout) by:

  1. Manually printing the name of the institution or organization;
  2. Manually printing their name;
  3. Affixing their signature;
  4. Manually printing or signing the date.

CIHR will continue to review our signature requirements to try to simplify this process as well as to meet our legal obligations.