Monday, March 28, 2022

Highlights - CIHR Biomedical Engineering Peer Review Committee Information Session

By Health Initiatives

On March 28, 2022, the Centre for Bioengineering and Biotechnology (CBB) hosted a virtual information session which featured Professor Douglas Hamilton, past Chair, and Milica Radisic, Scientific Officer of the CIHR Biomedical Engineering Peer Review Committee (BME PRC). The purpose of this session was to provide potential applicants to the CIHR BME PRC - Project Grant Competition a first-hand account of the ‘culture’ of the committee. The invited speakers shared what aspects of proposals are generally well-received by reviewers in BME PRC, what factors are considered most important, how the committee’s mandate is interpreted, and what types of proposals are transferred to or from other committees. They interacted with potential applicants and addressed their questions. The event was open to CBB members engaged in BME research.

Some Key Points

  • Before submission, review the committee’s mandate and make sure your grant aligns with it.
  • Ensure your summary page is a good fit with the mandate as it guides the chair and scientific officers in their decision whether to review your proposal. The BME committee typically gets 120 proposals and usually reviews 40-50.
  • Before choosing a PRC, it is recommended that you review the research interests/work of committee members to ensure that they have the expertise in your field.
  • It is important that your project is hypothesis-driven or based on a scientific inquiry.
  • The BME committee is more likely to fund projects in the early development stage. Projects at an advanced stage and undergoing clinical assessment are considered clinical trials or movement grants and are better served by other committees.
  • It is important to have a clinician collaborator. Ensure that the proposal is written with the clinical impact or relevance in mind – how would the project help the patient population?
  • Early career researchers are encouraged to apply. It is recommended that their team include some experienced researchers.
  • Projects without preliminary data are unlikely to get funded.