CIHR Research Development Seed Grant

The CIHR Research Development Seed Grant provides financial support for the development of a first successful application to the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Project Grant Competition as the nominated principal applicant (NPA).

Guidelines

Terms and Conditions

Eligibility

Principal Investigator

• Holds a full-time tenured or tenure-track position at Carleton at the time of application (i.e., appointment date on or before the applicant submission deadline).
• Does not hold or have held CIHR funding as an NPA or principal applicant.
• May hold either NSERC or SSHRC funding.
• Intends to submit a competitive CIHR Project Grant proposal as the NPA within the next 12 to 18 months.
• Has not been awarded a Research Development Grant (SSHRC Explore, NSERC or CIHR)  as a principal investigator (PI) or co-PI within the past three years. Previous recipients of a Research Development Grant proposing a similar research project must clearly explain how they are planning to respond to committee comments. 
• NEW: the final report for the previous award must have been submitted.
• Does not hold a SSHRC Exchange Grant: Knowledge Mobilization.
• A professor may only submit one application as a PI or co-PI in a given gate to the Research Development Grant (SSHRC Explore, NSERC or CIHR, whether Early Career Researcher or Bridge streams).

Co-Principal Investigator

• Holds a full-time tenured or tenure-track position at Carleton at the time of application (i.e., appointment date on or before the applicant submission deadline).
• Has not been awarded a Research Development Grant (SSHRC Explore, NSERC or CIHR) as a PI or co-PI within the past three years. Previous recipients of a Research Development Grant proposing a similar research project must clearly explain how they are planning to respond to committee comments. 
• NEW: the final report for the previous award must have been submitted.
• Does not hold a SSHRC Exchange Grant: Knowledge Mobilization.
• A professor may only submit one application as a PI or co-PI in a given gate to the Research Development Grant (SSHRC Explore, NSERC or CIHR, whether Early Career Researcher or Bridge streams).

Team Member

• Anyone is eligible, no CV submission is required.

Budget

Expenses must be eligible under the Tri-Agency Guidelines for Use of Grant Funds.

Eligible Expenses

• Stipends to students and postdoctoral fellows;
• Salaries of technical and professional staff;
• Materials, supplies and services;
• Research travel (e.g., field work); and
• Knowledge dissemination (e.g., travel to present papers at technical conferences).

Note: small equipment (i.e., computers) cannot account for more than one third of the total budget.

Ineligible Expenses

• Professional development activities;
• Partnership-building activities;
• Large equipment and renovations; and
• Teaching release.

Note: transfers of funds to other institutions are not permitted.

Evaluation

Applications will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

1. Criterion 1: Concept (50%)
   • Significance and impact of the research
     • Creativity of the idea;
     • Rationale of the project idea is sound;
     • Overall goals and objectives are well defined and clear; and
     • Anticipated project contributions are likely to advance basic health-related knowledge, health care, health systems or health outcomes.
2. Criterion 2: Feasibility (30%)
   • Approaches and methods (80%)
     • Appropriateness of the approaches and methods;
     • Timelines and related deliverables are realistic; and
     • Potential challenges are identified and the mitigation strategies are appropriate.
   • Expertise, experience and resources (20%)
     • Appropriate expertise and experience to lead and deliver the project outputs and to achieve the proposed contributions;
     • Appropriate level of engagement and/or commitment from the applicants;
     • Appropriateness of the environment to enable the conduct and success of the project; and
     • Adequate demonstration of the applicant’s productivity and progress of their research program.
3. Criterion 3 (10%)
   • Consideration of sex, gender and other identity factors in the research design.
4. Criterion 4 (10%)
   • Appropriateness of budget to support the project (realistic and well justified).

Contact Us

Christine Rivas: christinerivas@cunet.carleton.ca