A look behind the scenes of CIHR’s largest program
The Project Grant program accounts for more than 50% of CIHR’s grants and awards budget.
We invest Canadians’ tax dollars through this program to support the most promising health research projects—and we take that responsibility seriously. The program is also incredibly competitive, so we owe it to the applicants to run a process that is fair and transparent.
It’s a big undertaking. CIHR runs two Project Grant competitions every year. Each one involves:
- 1,500 staff and researchers who spend approximately 53,000 hours supporting the competition and reviewing grant applications.
Let’s break it down further. For each Project Grant competition:
- Close to 1,400 peer reviewers—scientists with the expertise to review grant applications and recommend which ones CIHR should fund—volunteer their time.
- On average, each peer reviewer spends at least 6.4 hours reviewing every grant application assigned to them.
- As part of the review process, these peer reviewers are divided into 57 different committees. Together, these committees spend the equivalent of 145 days discussing, debating, and deliberating over which grant applications to recommend for funding.
CIHR staff are there to manage the process by monitoring peer review meetings to ensure quality control and helping reviewers interpret CIHR policy. For each Project Grant competition:
- Around 122 staff help orchestrate everything that’s needed to run a competition.
- Staff spend approximately 44,600 hours supporting applicants and peer reviewers, ensuring funds get into the hands of research institutions, and following up with grant recipients.
That’s how CIHR supports Canadian researchers with the power to change lives.
- Date modified: