Wednesday, November 23, 2022

Highlights - CIHR Health Services Evaluation & Interventions Research Peer Review Committee Information Session

By Health Initiatives

The purpose of this session was to give potential applicants to the Health Services Evaluation & Interventions Research (HS) Peer Review Committees of the CIHR Project Grant program an opportunity to hear first-hand about the committee ‘culture’. The information session covered what types of proposals are regularly seen in the three HS committees, what aspects are generally well-received by reviewers, what factors are considered particularly important, how the committees’ mandate is interpreted, what types of proposals are transferred to or from other committees, and how the 3 committees differ. The current Chairs, Drs. Paula Rochon (HS1) and Andrea Gruneir (HS3) commented on these issues, provided grant-writing tips and interacted with potential applicants on their questions. A video recording and a slide deck of the session are available on the CIHR Resources SharePoint site.

Some Key Points

  1. Review the CIHR Peer Review Committee Mandates – Project Grant Program webpage for the committee mandates of Health Services Evaluation & Interventions Research (HS) and its adjacent committees such as Health Policy & Systems Management (HPM), Public, Community & Population Health (PH1) and Knowledge Translation (KTR).
  2. In Spring 2022, the 3 HS Panels were divided along the following topical areas:
  • HS1: access to care, continuing care, digital health, disparities/health inequities, education & training, intensive care unit, patient safety & medical error, primary care, safety & quality improvement, surgery (improvement)
  • HS2: addiction, cancer, mental health, neurological conditions, opioids & narcotics, pharmacology & adverse events
  • HS3: cardiovascular/kidney/circulatory, children/youth health, chronic disease, diabetes, HIV/IST/hepatitis, maternal health, musculoskeletal health
  1. Grant writing tips for the HS Panels
  • (Re-)read the instructions and evaluation criteria
  • Structure your proposal outline in line with these instructions and criteria, and include keywords, major terms and suggested headings from the request for proposals (RFP)
  • Start early to identify your idea, objectives and core team and develop them in an organized and clear manner
  • Include preliminary data in your proposal
  • Work together with experts, collaborators and/or statistical analysts
  • Review other highly rated grants in your institution
  • Include a Gender-Based Analysis Plus (GBA+) framework. For resources, visit GBA+ at CIHR and Women’s College Research Institute’s The Health Researchers Toolkit
  • Check to ensure your proposal meets all requirements and is logical to follow
  • Provide a figure to summarize the overall research flow
  • Review these resource guides: CIHR’s Guidebook for New Principal Investigators and Advice for a Young Investigator (Santiago Ramón y Cajal, 1998)