Operating Grant: 2009-2010 - Funding Decisions Notification (March 2010 Competition: 201003MOP)
Determination of Grants Approved
In approving the results of the Open Operating Grant Program (OOGP) competition, Scientific Council (SC) took into account:
- the commitment to fund at least 400 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.
Some Facts
Total applications OOGP: 2230
Fundable applications (rated >= 3.5): 1435
Total non-RCT applications: 2063
Total RCT applications (as declared by applicant): 167
Total fundable non-RCT: 1354
Total fundable RCT: 81
Total funded non-RCT: 363
Total funded RCT: 27
Total estimated multi-year priority announcements: 15
Total estimated funded this competition: 405
*In addition results are being finalized for an estimated 31 priority announcement grants building on the OOGP competition.
Budgets (for OOGP only, does not include priority announcements)
- Total investment from Open Operating Grant competition: $ 230 million over 5 years
- Average total grant size from Open Operating Grant competition: $589,634
Funding of these grants was made possible by reducing the recommended budgets of the funded proposals by a maximum 17.5%. 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
1. 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.
2. 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 |
3. 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.
4. Because some of the applications were approved based on meeting conditions, these specific applications will not appear in the detailed funding decisions data report until and unless conditions are met.
The deadline for receipt of applications to the next open Operating grant competition is Wednesday September 15, 2010. All applicants who intend to submit an application to this competition must register their intent to apply to CIHR by Monday, August 16, 2010.
Visit our website for more information on the registration process. Applications will be accepted only from those who have registered by August 16, 2010. If you register and then decide not to apply, please notify CIHR as soon as possible to indicate that you are withdrawing from the competition.
Funding Decisions Data Report
Access the "Operating Grant" funding decisions data report.