Dear Colleagues:
I am pleased to announce that the projects component of the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation's Open Grants Competition (OGC) is being transferred to CIHR, beginning with the Fall 2004 call for proposals.
Since 1997, this unique program has supported high-quality applied health services/policy and nursing research that has had direct benefits for one of CIHR key mandates, strengthening the Canadian health care system. It has brought together health services/system and nursing decisions-makers with researchers at all levels, to increase the quality, relevance and usefulness of their research. Furthermore, it has developed a merit review system comprised of peers drawn from both the research and decision-making communities to evaluate the grant applications.
By funding research, building capacity and transferring knowledge, the program has provided researchers with a better understanding of applied health services research concerns and issues from the perspective of those tasked with designing and managing the system.
CIHR will maintain the OGC as a separate entity from our other programs, with separate dedicated staffing, merit review, and funding. In collaboration with CHSRF, CIHR will continue to support the nursing leadership, organization and policy theme through this competition. At the same time, CIHR plans to expand the range of eligible themes to include thematic health services/policy priorities of all CIHR's Institutes that wish to take advantage of the 'built partnerships model'.
In addition to CHSRF and the Nursing Research Fund, CIHR is looking forward to working in close collaboration, during the transfer phase and beyond, with the national network of current and future provincial and thematic partners who are key to the success of this unique initiative. We look forward to building strong, collaborative relationships with these partners.
We are committed to upholding the philosophy of this competition, including the focus on linkage and exchange - the regular sharing of ideas between researchers and decision makers. To this end, we will maintain the requirement for partnerships with decision makers and matching funding and we will use merit review panels.
If you have any questions concerning the transfer of the OGC to CIHR, please send your inquiries to: OGCProjectsTransfer@cihr-irsc.gc.ca
I am looking forward to the opportunity of 'growing' the OGC projects competition, and feel that this represents an important step forward in our transformative evolution.
Sincerely,
Alan Bernstein, OC, PhD, FRSC
President, Canadian Institutes of Health Research
For more information on the OGC projects transfer:
[ External Site | Help ]
For more information about CHSRF's innovative applied health research projects:
[ External PDF (90 KB) | Help ]
