Thursday, June 23, 2022

Highlights - CIHR Commercialization Peer Review Committee Information Session

By Health Initiatives

On June 23, 2022, the Centre for Bioengineering and Biotechnology (CBB) hosted a virtual information session which featured Dr. Kathleen Marsman from Borden Ladner Gervais LLP, the current Chair of the CIHR Commercialization (CMZ) Peer Review Committee (PRC) of the Project Grant Program. The purpose of this session was to give potential applicants to the CIHR CMZ PRC an opportunity to hear first-hand about the committee culture. Dr. Marsman shared what aspects are generally well-received by reviewers in CMZ, 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. She interacted with potential applicants and addressed their questions. The event was open to the University of Waterloo faculty, but ideally suited to the faculty/researchers in the areas of health and commercialization especially those involved in startups, close ties to companies, or with commercialization ambitions. Interested participants were encouraged to review the Commercialization Projects page for the commercialization criteria.  A video recording of the session is available upon request.

Some Key Points

  1. Review the CIHR’s webpage on Commercialization Projects for the evaluation criteria: https://cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/50439.html.
  2. Applications should include a Research/Technical Plan and a Commercialization Plan
  3. Research and Technical Plan evaluation criteria – some guidelines/tips:
  • Plan to take your research to the commercial level. Not basic research
  • Identify potential hurdles
  • Make your story, research or expected impact compelling
  • Track record of applicants – e.g., those with commercialization experience
  • Familiarity with the literature in the field and competitive/emerging tech
  • Ability of proposed experiments to strengthen IP position or generate new IP
  1. Commercialization Plan evaluation criteria – some guidelines/tips:
  • Review the points on the Commercialization Projects webpage and address the ones which apply to your project
  • No need for a full business plan, but make clear what the plan is – licensing, start up, involvement with a partner, etc.
  • Research can be outside Canada
  • Description of IP protection strategy, freedom to operate, prior art, market evaluation and opportunity as appropriate
  • Do a market and competition evaluation – some patent searching. Put in names of competitors. [Some reviewers are patent evaluators]
  • Commercial milestones
  1. Observations – Competition parameters and success rates
  • Co-applicants are very common, can bring bench strength
  • Commercial partners are common – letters of support or expressions of interest show you have some connections to the commercial world
  • 25% of reviewers are PIs with commercialization experience but the rest are from different sectors – with the majority from commercialization or tech transfer offices (e.g., patent agents/attorneys, VCs, people from industry)
  • Collaborative culture on committee, many long-standing members
  • Be sure to indicate that tech transfer is involved in the letter of intent (LOI), if that’s the case. Less than half of applicants mention that tech transfer will be involved
  • Success rate same as overall ~15-20% of fundable applications and 20% claw back on successful applications
  • Wide range of years and dollars but usually 2-3 years, important thing with dollar amount requested will not affect score based on priority, but if making lots of assumptions on a longer grant or success depends on a lot of factors, keep your story tight. More likely to be funded on a shorter grant that you can clearly do
  • Transfers between panels - transfers in will know that they are transferred in. Rare to have them transferred out
  • Transfers which "may have commercialization potential" are not accepted because they do not know the CMZ criteria and would be at a serious disadvantage. Only applications that pick CMZ as a first or second option are considered
  • You can request commercialization costs without applying to CMZ. Budget eligible across span of project grant panels or PRCs. But not all panels/PRCs will be used to seeing it, but worth adding if it makes sense for a non-CMZ panel
  1. Observations – What makes CMZ applications compelling?
  • Commercialization Plan is KEY. Need to have at least two pages addressing commercialization plan considerations. Work with your tech transfer office to answer the questions under the commercialization plan
  • Addressing IP
  • Partner involvement and support. Letters of support are important
  • Look downstream to regulatory considerations. Do not have to solve the problems but be aware of them - acknowledge them
  • Know the competition and the landscape you will be working in
  • Budget and terms of application need to be appropriate – realistic, do not overpromise
  • Tech level readiness varies. Avoid submitting early-stage projects or ‘fishing expeditions’ - come back after you have done those experiments, once you have leads
  • Re-application is very common. Implementing changes and addressing previous reviewers’ concerns are key to success.
  1. Different types of IP
  • Patent
  • Trademarking
  • Copyright
  • Trade secret
  • Know-how
  • Industrial design
  • (Regulatory & data protection)