Foundation Grant: 2017-2018 competition results

The Foundation Grant: 2017-2018 competition has approved 36 research grants, for a total investment of $101,189,715Footnote 1. The average grant size is $2,810,825 over seven years.

Geographic distribution

Table 1: Application numbers and success rates by province
Province Applications submitted Applications funded Province-specific success rate
British Columbia 50 5 10.0%
Alberta 32 4 12.5%
Saskatchewan 3 0 0%
Manitoba 2 0 0%
Ontario 132 15 11.4%
Quebec 78 12 15.4%
New Brunswick 1 0 0%
Nova Scotia 5 0 0%
Prince Edward Island 0 0 N/A
Newfoundland and Labrador 0 0 N/A
Total 303 36 11.9%
Table 2: Proportion of applications submitted and funded
Province % Applications submitted % Applications funded
British Columbia 16.5% 13.9%
Alberta 10.6% 11.1%
Saskatchewan 1% 0%
Manitoba 0.7% 0%
Ontario 43.6% 41.7%
Quebec 25.7% 33.3%
New Brunswick 0.3% 0%
Nova Scotia 1.6% 0%
Prince Edward Island 0% 0%
Newfoundland and Labrador 0% 0%

Note: This table shows the applications from each province as a percentage (proportion) of the total number of applications: 1) submitted to the competition; and 2) funded through the competition. It does not include the success rates by province. For success rates, please refer to Table 1: Application numbers and success rates by province.

View full list of Foundation Grant competition recipients

Note: As some of the applications have been approved conditionally, these specific applications will not appear in the detailed funding decisions database until the conditions have been resolved.

Additional details

Breakdown of competition results

Table 3: Competition demographics by application numbers (within category)
Application breakdown Applications submitted Applications funded Category-specific success rate
Investigators who identify as female 84 10 11.9%
Submitted in French 5 0 0%
Pillar I – Biomedical research 196 27 13.8%
Pillar II – Clinical research 56 5 8.9%
Pillar III – Health systems / services research 27 2 7.4%
Pillar IV – Social / cultural / environmental / population health research 24 2 8.3%
Mid-career investigators 113 12 10.6%
Senior career investigators 190 24 12.6%
Table 4: Competition demographics by application proportions (within category)
Application breakdown % of applications submitted % of applications funded
Investigators who identify as female 27.7% 27.8%
Submitted in French 1.7% 0
Pillar I – Biomedical research 64.7% 75%
Pillar II – Clinical research 18.5% 13.9%
Pillar III – Health systems / services research 8.9% 5.6%
Pillar IV – Social / cultural / environmental / population health research 7.9% 5.6%
Mid-career investigators 37.3% 33.3%
Senior career investigators 62.7% 66.7%

Note: This table shows the applications in each category as a percentage (proportion) of the total number of applications: 1) submitted to the competition; and 2) funded through the competition. It does not include the success rates.

Peer Review Details

The Foundation Grant competition was supported by a three-stage competition and review process.

Stage 1

  • 303 applications were received and reviewed.
  • A total of 134 individual reviewers participated in the peer review process, which was monitored by 32 Competition Chairs. All applications were assigned to 4 reviewers.
  • The peer review process resulted in a total of 1212 individual reviews.
  • 187 applicants were successful at Stage 1 and were invited to submit a Stage 2 application.

Stage 2

  • 163 applications were received and reviewed.
  • A total of 93 individual reviewers participated in the peer review process, which was monitored by 19 Competition Chairs. All Stage 2 applications were reviewed by 5 reviewers.
  • The peer review process resulted in total of 815 individual reviews.
  • 58 applications were successful at Stage 2.
  • Of those 58 applications, CIHR identified the highest ranked applications to be considered for funding. These applications constituted the "green zone" and did not require further evaluation. The remaining applications moved to the final assessment stage.

Final assessment stage

  • The final assessment stage committee held a face-to-face meeting. The committee was comprised of 19 Competition Chairs from Stage 2, a Chair and a Scientific Officer.
  • 36 applications with high consolidated rankings and significant variation in those rankings were reviewed.
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