CIHR Guidelines on Complete Applications

1. Scope

The following guidelines aim to facilitate understanding of CIHR's general practices regarding complete applications. These guidelines are intended to be read in conjunction with the CIHR Application Administration Guide, particularly Part 5: Administrative Management of CIHR Applications, Section 5.4 Application Completeness.

For additional information, consult the General Application Process Overview and the Complete Applications - FAQ.

2. General Practices and Considerations

CIHR runs many competitions and receives thousands of application submissions per year. Delays caused by follow-up and processing of incomplete application submissions put undue strain on competition timelines, including the peer review process and the reporting of funding decisions. Therefore, when an application is determined to be incomplete with respect to the required documentation, CIHR will notify the nominated principal applicant and provide a specific deadline to redress, after which the application may be withdrawn from the competition. However, when CIHR deems an application to be ineligible with respect to the stated eligibility conditions, the application may be withdrawn without prior notice to the applicant and no opportunity to redress. These decisions are determined on a case-by-case basis and CIHR will notify the nominated principal applicant after withdrawal, as appropriate.

Many CIHR funding opportunities have identical application requirements, but in certain cases additional materials are required or conditions must be met. Refer carefully to the "How to Apply" section of a given funding opportunity and seek clarification from CIHR immediately if any aspects are unclear.

2.1 Amendment Requests

Requests to make application amendments after the competition deadline are only permitted under exceptional circumstances or when explicitly permitted by the funding opportunity.

2.2 Missing Signatures

Despite the general practices outlined above, CIHR has a legal obligation to follow up with the nominated principal applicant regarding any missing signatures from individuals/participants identified on the application (principal applicants, co-applicants, etc.) or authorized officials of the administering institution. Note that hand-written signatures (original or copied) are only required when the functionality of electronic consent is not available for the funding opportunity or is otherwise not applicable to the applicant role or administering institution.

Date modified:

2019-11-06