Assign Applications

After recruitment of peer reviewers to individual Peer Review Committees (PRCs) is complete, CIHR assigns applications to PRCs and to reviewers. All eligible applications that are complete and received by the appropriate competition deadline date are entered into the competition and assigned for review.

Assign Applications to a Peer Review Committee

If a funding program requires multiple PRCs with mandates targeting specific areas of research (because of the breadth of research to be reviewed and/or the number of applications received), the following process is used to assign applications to a PRC:

  • Applications are initially assigned to a committee as requested by the applicant
  • CIHR staff review initial committee assignments and make preliminary adjustments as required (e.g., to balance committee loads, to minimize conflict of interest issues, etc.)
  • PRC Chairs and Scientific Officers review applications with CIHR staff to confirm assignment of applications to their committee. Applications are reassigned if they are more appropriate to the mandate of another committee and can be better assessed by that committee.

Note that CIHR (acting on the advice of the PRC Chairs and Scientific Officers) is the final authority for the assignment of applications to PRCs.

Assign Applications to Reviewers

After confirming the assignment of applications to PRCs, applications are assigned to reviewers as follows:

  • Reviewers examine the names and institutions of the applicants and declare any conflicts of interest
  • For applications with which they do not have a conflict, reviewers read the application summaries and indicate their level of expertise
  • The PRC Chair and Scientific Officer, along with CIHR staff, assign the applications to at least three reviewers based on their level of expertise

There are two types of reviewers – internal and external:

  • Internal reviewers attend a PRC meeting and are assigned to an application, either as a primary or secondary reviewer, or as a reader. Primary and secondary reviewers lead the review of an application during a PRC meeting and prepare a written review. Readers act as a discussant during a PRC meeting.
  • External reviewers are retained for specific applications only when specific expertise is required; they prepare a written review but do not attend the meeting.

CIHR always ensures that each PRC has the appropriate expertise to review the applications assigned to that PRC:

  • For standing PRCs, the permanent membership may be supplemented by invitee members as required for each competition, based on the applications received
  • For all PRCs, written external reviews are occasionally sought from experts who are not members of the PRC and who are asked to comment on specific aspects of the applications, thereby assisting the PRC in conducting a thorough review

For more information, please see Grant Application Review Process: Before the Meeting: Assigning Applications in the CIHR Peer Manual for Grant Applications.