Operating Grant: 2009-2010 - Funding Decisions Notification (September 2009 Competition: 200909MOP and 200910MOP)

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) is pleased to announce the results of the Operating Grant: 2009-2010 competition.

Determination of Grants Approved

In approving the results of the Open Operating Grant competition, Scientific Council (SC) took into account:

the commitment to fund 400 to 450 grants and to increase the average value of these grants;
the number of applications to this competition, compared to historical numbers;
the need to provide the highest level of funding, considering the constraints on CIHR's budget;
the balance between size of grant and number of grants awarded; and
the integration of the Randomized Controlled Trials (RCT) program into the Open Operating Grants program.

Of the 2186 applications received, 1401 were fundable and 401 were approved for full-term funding through the Open Operating Grant program and associated Priority Announcements programs.

Of the 1401 fundable applications (rated 3.5 and more), 1349 were non RCT (operating grants) and 382 were approved, while 52 were RCT and 10 were approved for funding through the Operating Grants program. The remaining 9 applications were approved through Priority Announcement programs.

Total investment from Open Operating Grant competition: $ 232.8 million over approximately 5 years
Average annual grant amount from Open Operating Grant competition: $139,401
Because some of the applications were approved based on meeting conditions, these specific applications will not appear in the detailed funding decisions database until and unless conditions are met.

Additional One-Year Grants (200910MOP)

There were 7 new grants approved for one year and are non-renewable. This funding was made possible due to funds available in the current fiscal year.

Budgets

Funding of these grants was made possible by reducing the recommended budgets of the funded proposals by a maximum 13.9%. This still represents an increase in the average value of grant compared to the previous competition. For both new and renewal grants, in any given full year of funding, no grant was reduced below $60,000 unless recommended by the peer review committee.

Additional Notes

A streamlining process was followed in order to allow committee members to focus their discussion on the most competitive applications. An application was not discussed at the committee meeting if it was considered not to be competitive by the committee and if the average of the primary and secondary reviewers' initial ratings was less than 3.5.
Rating scale and descriptors are as follows:

Descriptor	Range	Outcome
outstanding	4.5 – 4.9	May be funded – will be discussed by the committee
excellent	4.0 – 4.4
very good	3.5 – 3.9
acceptable, but low priority	3.0 – 3.4	Not fundable - May or may not be discussed by the committee
needs revision	2.5 – 2.9
needs major revision	2.0 – 2.4
seriously flawed	1.0 – 1.9
rejected	0.0 – 0.9

The recommendation of the peer review committee is summarized in each applicant's decision package, available through ResearchNet. The term and the average annual budget recommended by the peer review committee may exceed the amount of funding approved by Scientific Council. This information may be valuable to applicants who wish to seek additional support for the research through other funding avenues.

The deadline for receipt of applications to the next open Operating grant competition is Monday March 1, 2010. All applicants who intend to submit an application to this competition must register their intent to apply to CIHR by Monday, February 1, 2010.

Visit our website for more information on the registration process. Applications will be accepted only from those who have registered by February 1, 2010. If you register and then decide not to apply, please notify CIHR a.s.a.p. to indicate that you are withdrawing from the competition.

Funding Decisions Data Report

200909MOP: Access the "Operating Grant" funding decisions data report.