ResearchNet - RechercheNet

Table of Contents

• Description
• Objectives
• Eligibility
• Guidelines
• Performance Measurement
• Review Process and Evaluation
• How to Apply
• Contact Information

Description

A new investigator is defined as a researcher who has held a full time research appointment (i.e.: faculty appointment providing eligibility to apply for grants and/or supervise trainees), for a period of 0 to 60 months.

Funds Available

CIHR and partner(s) financial contributions for this initiative are subject to availability of funds. Should CIHR or partner(s) funding levels not be available or are decreased due to unforeseen circumstances, CIHR and partner(s) reserve the right to reduce, defer or suspend financial contributions to grants received as a result of this funding opportunity.

• The total amount available for this funding opportunity is $12,000,000 enough to fund approximately 40 awards. The maximum amount per award is $60,000 (including fringe benefits) for up to 5 years.

Applicants may not receive more than a total of five years of salary award funding through CIHR New Investigator funding opportunities. This includes funding through CIHR's Priority Announcements.

Objectives

The objective of the New Investigator Salary Award program is to provide outstanding new investigators with the opportunity to develop and demonstrate their independence in initiating and conducting health research through provision of a contribution to their salary.

Relevant Research Areas

Funds are available for this competition to support New Investigator Salary Award applications in specific research areas:

• New Investigator Salary Award: Winter 2015 Priority Announcement (Specific Research Areas)

Eligibility

Eligibility criteria for all CIHR research funding programs apply. The business office of the institution of an eligible Nominated Principal Applicant generally administers CIHR funds. Refer to the Individual Eligibility Requirements regarding the eligibility requirements for individuals and institutions.

Eligibility to Apply

For your application to be eligible:

• The Nominated Principal Applicant must be an independent researcher.
• The Nominated Principal Applicant must be appointed at an eligible institution (See Institutional Eligibility Requirements for eligibility process and associated timelines.

At the time of application, applicants must meet all the following eligibility criteria:

• have obtained a full time professional degree (MD, DVM, etc...) or PhD degree within the last 10 years. Individuals that fall outside of the 10-year eligibility period due to career interruptions or delays for the purpose of childrearing, illness, or health-related family responsibilities; or, for health professionals only, who have engaged in post-degree non-research related clinical training (residency, etc.), must submit a justification to explain why they feel they should be considered eligible.
• the Nominated Principal Applicant must have a full-time academic or research appointment, or a formal commitment to a full-time academic or research appointment at an eligible institution.
• hold a full-time appointment as an independent researcher (i.e.: faculty appointment providing eligibility to apply for grants and/or supervise trainees) for a period of 0 to 60 months. If the applicant does not yet meet this condition, the applicant needs to have a formal commitment from the Institution to a full-time appointment as an independent researcher, with an effective start date as of the commencement of the award. This commitment must be demonstrated in the Dean of Faculty/Research Director Letter.

Note 1: All time spent in research appointments will be taken into consideration when determining eligibility. Should an applicant hold or have held a part time appointment, CIHR will count that time as 50% (e.g.: a one-year part-time appointment will count for 6 months towards the 60 month maximum).

Note 2: Leaves of absence, as indicated in the Leaves of Absence section under Employment of your Academic Common CV, will not count towards the 60-month maximum.

• have a written commitment from the Institution to protect a minimum of 75% of the applicant's time for research for the duration of the award.
• hold peer-reviewed operating funds (e.g. Foundation grants, large group grants, project scheme grants, etc.) as a Nominated Principal Applicant or Principal Applicant as of the earliest possible start date for the New Investigator award (i.e., July 1, 2016). If the applicant does not meet this condition, the applicant must seek competitive peer-reviewed operating support from CIHR or another research funding organization as a Nominated Principal Applicant or Principal Applicant in order to meet all Conditions of Funding. This must be demonstrated in the Research Funding History section of the Academic Common CV.

Randomized Controlled Trials

Applications involving Randomized Controlled Trials (RCT) are accepted and encouraged where appropriate based on scientific and methodological grounds.

Guidelines

General CIHR Guidelines

This funding opportunity will comply fully with the policies and guidelines as outlined in the CIHR Grants and Awards Guide. Applicants are encouraged to demonstrate the use of Gender and Sex-Based Analysis in applications. CIHR also recognizes the importance of engaging citizens in its funding opportunities. CIHR encourages researchers to involve citizens where appropriate, and to provide in their research proposal a brief description of how they intend to involve them when applicable. Please see CIHR’s Citizen Engagement Framework for more information.

CIHR’s mandate states that our commitment to excellence applies equally to research and knowledge translation, with the ultimate goal of ensuring that the results of research are transformed into policies, practices, procedures, products and services. For more information about incorporating knowledge translation in your proposal, please see Guide to Knowledge Translation Planning at CIHR: Integrated and End-of-Grant Approaches.

Official Languages

CIHR is committed to promotion of and compliance to the applicable parts of the Official Languages Act. As such, CIHR encourages applicants to submit proposals in the Official Language of their choice and commits to ensuring high quality review of applications submitted in either Official Language. In addition, applicants are encouraged to consider the inclusion of Official Languages and Official Language Minority Communities in their research where appropriate. Please see Official Languages at CIHR for more information.

Allowable Costs

Recipients should review the Use of Grant Funds section of the Tri-Agency (CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC) Financial Administration Guide for a complete listing and description of allowable costs and activities.

Global Health Research and International Collaborations

As outlined in the CIHR Grants and Awards Guide Global Health Research Section and the International Collaborations Section,applicants who are eligible for CIHR funding may apply to CIHR’s funding opportunities for funds to support research to be carried out in, or in direct collaboration with researchers and/or knowledge users based in, other countries. CIHR contributes to, and supports international research projects and international collaborations to address a range of research areas, including but not limited to established priorities in global health research and contributes to the development of health-research capacity both internationally and at home.

Conditions of Funding

Successful applicants funded through this funding opportunity and any other persons working on the project must comply fully with the CIHR Funding Policies. Policies and guidelines cover areas such as Applicant Responsibilities, Official Languages policy, Access to Information and Privacy Acts, and Acknowledgement of CIHR's Support. Successful applicants will be informed of any special financial requirements prior to the release of funds or when they receive CIHR's Authorization for Funding (AFF) document.

In addition to CIHR standard guidelines and requirements, the following special requirements shall apply:

• The award must be accepted within 15 working days of the date of offer or the award will be cancelled and offered to the next highest ranked and fundable applicant.
• Award recipients must commence the award on the first day of any month between July 1 following the application deadline and March 1 of the following year.
• The award is conditional on the success of the applicant in securing competitive peer-reviewed operating support from CIHR or another research funding organization as a Nominated Principal Applicant or Principal Applicant.
• Award recipients must devote a minimum of 75% of their time to research. This represents no less than 30 hours per week. They may engage in teaching and/or clinical practice to a limited extent, and there is no restriction on the time they spend in the supervision of research trainees. Time spent within the 75% of protected time on clinical practice must be related to the award recipient's research and be undertaken with the agreement of the Head of the Department and the Dean of Faculty or Research Director.
• Award recipients must hold a full-time appointment as an independent investigator at the time of taking up the award, and throughout the term of the award, at an eligible institution.
• Award recipients must not be registered for a higher degree during the tenure of the award.
• Award recipients must read and agree to the communication requirements.

Access to Information Act and Privacy Act, and the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA)

All personal information collected by CIHR about applicants is used to review applications, to recruit reviewers, to administer and monitor grants and awards, to compile statistics, and to promote and support health research in Canada. Consistent with these purposes, applicants should also expect that information collected by CIHR may be shared as described in the Conflict of Interest and Confidentiality Policy of the Federal Research Funding Organizations.

CIHR as a federal entity is subject to the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act, therefore the requirements of these two statutes will apply to all information located in CIHR’s premises including, without limitation, cost-sharing agreements related to this funding opportunity and all matters pertaining thereto.

While respecting the application of the Privacy Act to federal entities, all signing parties involved in a collaborative agreement will also be bound by the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). All personal information (as identified by the PIPEDA) collected, used or disclosed in the course of any commercial activity under collaborative agreements related to the Funding opportunity will be collected, used and disclosed in compliance with the PIPEDA.

Tri-Council Guidelines for Health Research Involving Aboriginal People

Applicants, whose proposed research will involve Aboriginal People, please consult Ethics of Health Research Involving First Nations, Inuit and Métis People.

Communication Requirements

Funding recipients are required to acknowledge CIHR, its institutes and partners in any communication or publication related to the project. See Communication of Competition Results for details on CIHR’s communication requirements. The contributing internal collaborators/partners will be identified on the Authorization for Funding (AFF) and decision letter.

Performance Measurement

CIHR is committed to collecting and disseminating information on the outputs and impacts of the research it funds. This information is an important part of CIHR accountability within the Federal Government and to Canadians:

• The Nominated Principal Applicant must contribute to the monitoring, review and evaluation of CIHR’s programs, policies and processes by participating in evaluation studies, surveys, workshops, audits and providing data or reports as required for the purpose of collecting information to assess progress and results;
• The Nominated Principal Applicant must also encourage their associates, trainees and administration to participate in the monitoring, review and evaluation of CIHR’s programs, policies and processes as required.

Review Process and Evaluation

Review Committee

A CIHR review committee will evaluate the full applications. The committee may be drawn from one of CIHR’s pre-existing committees or may be created specifically for this funding opportunity. Committee members are selected based on suggestions from many sources including the institute(s)/ branch(es) and partner(s), following the Conflict of Interest and Confidentiality Policy of the Federal Research Funding Organizations.

For information on CIHR’s peer review process in general, see the Understand Peer Review section of CIHR’s website.

For information about peer review committees, see the "Peer Review Committees and Mandates - New Investigators" section of CIHR's website.

Evaluation Criteria

Peer review will be conducted in accordance with the CIHR Peer Review Guide for Training and Salary Awards and the CIHR Reviewers’ Guide for New Investigator Salary Awards. Applications may be reviewed by experts and generalist reviewers. As such, applicants are encouraged to write the application for a generalist audience.

The general criteria for evaluating applications can be found in the above guides.

Funding Decision

Upon completion of peer review, CIHR will receive the ranking list, ratings and recommendations on funding level and award term for the applications that fall in the fundable range and have been determined to be relevant to the specific research areas and objectives of the initiative. The list will be used for funding decision-making purposes and will remain anonymous unless applicants have provided written consent to share nominative information.

Applications will be funded from the top down in order of ranking as far as the budget will allow.

Applications that receive a rating below 3.5 will not be funded.

How to Apply

Important: Please read all instructions to familiarize yourself with the application process before applying. For new applicants or for those wanting a reminder of the main application procedures, an overview of CIHR's application processes can be found under Application Process. Note that these are general instructions only as the specific application instructions for this funding opportunity are located below.

• The application process for this funding opportunity is comprised of one step: Application.
• To complete your Application, log into ResearchNet and create an application for the New Investigators Salary Award funding opportunity
• Follow the instructions in the New Investigator Salary Award "Application" instructions along with any additional instructions found below under “Specific Instructions”.
• Reminder to applicants: Please ensure that your application is complete (includes all required signatures) and is submitted on time to CIHR.
• In order to ensure fairness in the evaluation of applications, equivalent time must be guaranteed for the assessment of each complete application. As a result, CIHR will not accept updates to applications after the application deadline.

Submission Requirements

This Funding Opportunity participates in the eApproval process. As such, once submitted the application will be electronically directed to the proposed Institution Paid for review and approval. The eApproval process allows Administrators at the Institution Paid to review and electronically approve an application for which the applicant has identified them as their institution. Once the application is reviewed and approved by the Institution, it will be submitted electronically to CIHR on behalf of the applicant. When completing the application on ResearchNet, detailed instructions on the eApproval process are available in the "Electronic Approval tool - Applicant's Guide" under the “Enter Proposal Information” task, "Details" subtask.

Specific Instructions

Eligibility Justification

For those that fall outside of the eligibility period (e.g.: PhD within the last 10 years or full-time appointment for a period of 0-60 months) due to career interruptions or delays for the purpose of childrearing, illness, or health-related family responsibilities; or, for health professionals only, who have engaged in post-degree non-research related clinical training (residency, etc.), a justification to explain why they feel they should be considered eligible is required. This justification must be provided by attaching a document (limit of half a page) under the "Attach Other Application Materials" task in ResearchNet.

Please also review the CIHR New Investigator Salary Award – Frequently Asked Questions.

Contact Information

For questions on CIHR funding guidelines, how to apply, and the peer review process contact: (Updated: 2015-09-15)

New Investigator Salary Award Program Delivery Coordinator
Canadian Institutes of Health Research
Telephone: 613-948-2682
Fax: 613-954-1800
Email: new.investigators@cihr-irsc.gc.ca

If you are experiencing technical difficulties with your Research Net account or the e-Submission process contact:

CIHR ResearchNet Support
Canadian Institutes of Health Research
Telephone: 613-941-9080
Email: support@researchnet-recherchenet.ca