Research excellence, generally as reflected by ability to obtain continued extramural peer-reviewed grant support for a research program. Investigators working in industrial settings and policy makers may sometimes be included as appropriate.
Quality as a referee - breadth of knowledge, maturity of judgement.
Membership of the committee as a whole should satisfy:
The need to cover the range of research areas and relevant methodologies for which the committee is responsible.
Representation of all health research themes as appropriate for the committee's area of responsibility. They are as follows: 1) Basic Biomedical 2) Applied Clinical 3) Health Services and Health Systems and 4) Society, Culture and Health of Populations.
The necessity for reviewing capability in both English and French so that applications in either official language can be evaluated by the committee.
The need to avoid conflict of interest. Since persons from the same institution as the applicant must absent themselves from the room during the discussion, there is usually only one, and rarely more than two, member(s) from any one institution on a committee so that a reasonably full complement is present to review each application.
The need for turnover of committee members. Committee members usually serve no more than 3 consecutive years. However, Chairs and Scientific Officers may have been previous committee members, and may serve an additional three years as an officer of the committee.
The need for regional representation and representation by gender proportionate to membership in the Canadian health research community.
Chairpersons and Scientific Officers should:
Have recognized stature within the community.
Complement each other in terms of expertise, institutional affiliation etc. in order to be able to make reviewer assignments from a broad base of knowledge.
Be able to make the commitment in time required to interact with staff of the secretariat to facilitate the competition process.
Have the characteristics of leadership/diligence required of the position.
In addition, at least one of the two officers should be able to read French. Moving from Scientific Officer to Chair is discouraged. It should happen only in exceptional circumstances.
