COVID-19

How was this COVID-19 research funded?

To support the research showcased in this collection of stories, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) has managed a number of funding opportunities to support projects across the country focused on COVID-19 research.

These funding opportunities are part of CIHR's core business. As the federal health research investment agency, CIHR manages over one hundred funding opportunities each year. While every funding opportunity has specific eligibility guidelines (in terms of who can apply for funding and what type or area of research the funding opportunity is meant to support), the process typically follows the same broad steps:

• Step 1: Funding opportunity launch

  CIHR launches the funding opportunity, which is a call for applications that contains the information an applicant would need to know, such as the application deadline, eligibility, research areas, and funding available. Applicants are notified of opportunities through CIHR's main newsletter, the outreach or newsletters from CIHR Institutes, social media, and other networks.

• Step 2: Application submission

  Eligible individuals submit applications to compete for the funding. For most funding opportunities, applicants submit their applications through an online portal called ResearchNet.

• Step 3: Peer review

  CIHR processes the applications and arranges for them to be peer reviewed by inviting experts from the health research community to become members of review committees and evaluate the applications.

  These experts, called peer reviewers, can include health researchers, health-related professionals, policy makers, community leaders, patients and citizens. They all volunteer their time to support this review process.

  Note: Applications are not evaluated by CIHR staff. The funding decisions are based on the recommendations from these expert reviewers.

• Step 4: Funding decisions

  Applications are ranked from highest to lowest, based on the results of peer review and any other relevant parameters outlined in the funding opportunity.

  CIHR awards funding to the top-ranked applications, continuing down the ranking list until the budget for the funding opportunity is spent in full.

  After this careful review of all submitted applications, the funding is awarded in the form of grants to successful applicants.

• Step 5: Post-award administration

  After the funding is awarded, the recipient must normally seek research ethics approval from their institution before the research activities can begin.

  The grant funds are held in trust at a Canadian postsecondary institution and/or its affiliated institutions (including hospitals, research institutes and other non-profit organizations with a mandate for health research and/or knowledge translation) associated with the recipient. The recipient can also be affiliated with an Indigenous non-governmental organization in Canada with a research and/or knowledge translation mandate, or the recipient could be the Indigenous non-governmental organization itself.

  The institutions must follow a specific set of guidelines to authorize grant expenditures. CIHR, along with the other federal granting agencies, will periodically conduct financial monitoring exercises. A separate process exists for allegations about the responsible conduct of research.

• Step 6: Final reports

  It is important to note that these grants are not the same as government contracts. Although successful applicants must submit a final report at the end of their grant (the funding has a distinct start/end date), the recipients are operating independently. This means that the funding is typically not tied to milestones or other measures, and the Government of Canada does not own the intellectual property arising from the work nor can it directly benefit from the outcome(s) of the research.  

Since February 2020, CIHR and partners have followed this process to run numerous funding opportunities supporting COVID-19 research. These opportunities have covered a broad range of topics, such as COVID-19 vaccines, treatments, diagnostics and testing technologies, effective public health communications, and the social impacts and other unintended consequences of the pandemic.

Date modified:

2020-11-12