Is all or part of your research program concerned with health?
Are you worried that you are no longer eligible for SSHRC funding? Are you feeling a bit panicky about applying to CIHR?
You are not alone. Nor are your fears without some basis in reality.
But applying to the wrong agency or distorting your project description so it doesn’t sound like you are researching health is likely to diminish your chances of securing funding, not increase them. Sooner or later you are going to have to figure out CIHR.
I’m not an expert by any means but here’s what I know so far. If you have questions, or bits of information to add, or some anxiety that I haven’t addressed, leave me a comment.
SSHRC or CIHR?
Technically, social sciences and humanities researchers who research health issues (including health policy, health inequalities, social determinants of health, etc) have been eligible for CIHR since it was created in 2000.
The Canadian Institutes for Health Research was meant to be a very different organization than the Medical Research Council that it replaced. Everyone knows that radical change takes time. Bio-medical research still dominates CIHR. But change has been happening.
With the recent budget tightening at all three federal research councils, the potential for overlap between SSHRC and CIHR has come to the fore. CIHR is trying harder to address the concerns of social science and humanities health researchers. That included having a booth in the Book Fair at Congress, where I was able to talk to a program officer and pick up some leaflets.
The upshot of all this is that if you are engaged in health research, you really need to learn more about CIHR and start planning now for future funding proposals to go there instead of to SSHRC.
What’s the difference?
There are several differences between CIHR and SSHRC. I am not well versed in CIHR’s processes so what I share here should be considered the tip of the iceberg. But this will get you started.
The CIHR website is very complicated.
CIHR has a complicated structure. SSHRC has a relatively simple structure. This difference is reflected in the structures of their respective websites.
Don’t struggle with the website on your own. It is not an insult to your (considerable) intelligence to ask for help from an administrator in the research office. Everyone, including CIHR staff, recognizes that the website takes some getting used to. (I think they also recognize that “takes some getting used to” is an understatement.)
Save your considerable intelligence for writing proposals. Get help navigating the website.
You will have to have a system for finding out about funding opportunities.
SSHRC has relatively few funding opportunities and thus relatively few deadlines. Many social science and humanities researchers don’t even look at all of them but hold the Standard Research Grant (SRG) deadline of October 15th in their heads.
Many SSH researchers are also aware of the Workshops and Conferences grants and know that there are 2 deadlines a year in fall and spring. So when they are thinking about this, they go and check the specifics.
CIHR has general funding opportunities and funding opportunities in each institute. They also have more targeted opportunities. There are regular announcements about what is coming up, but there is no way you can figure out the one program you’ll be eligible for and then hold one annual deadline in your head.
Luckily, they have RSS feeds for categories of grants. So if you knew you wanted to apply for an Operating Grant (the thing most like an SRG), you could subscribe to the Operating Grants feed. CIHR even provides a handy explanation of RSS and how to subscribe to one.
They also send out a monthly newsletter to the e-mail list that your research office subscribes to. So letting the research office know what you are doing and what kinds of funding you are looking for (in as much detail as possible) is probably a good idea. They have a system for letting researchers know what is coming up and making sure researchers don’t miss deadlines.
CIHR calls their grants different things
As you can see by my Operating Grants example, you probably don’t even know what you are looking for on their “takes some getting used to” website.
Luckily, I had a very helpful conversation with someone at CIHR and can provide you with a handy (though probably incomplete) translation guide. The staff in your research office might also be able to help. The equals signs are meant to be approximate.
SSHRC Standard Research Grant = CIHR Operating Grant
SSHRC Research Development Initiative = CIHR Catalyst Grant
SSHRC Workshops and Conferences Grant = CIHR Meeting Planning and Dissemination Grant
What SSHRC calls Fellowships, CIHR calls Awards.
CIHR uses the Common CV and Research-Net
These are both Tri-council initiatives but not all councils use them. Even if you aren’t planning on applying yet, find out from your research office whether they offer training or support for learning how they work.
Apparently the Common CV causes considerable frustration the first time anyone uses it. But like any online CV, once you’ve got the initial data in there it should be easy to update.
If there is any chance that you will ever apply to CIHR for funding (even as a co-applicant), I strongly advise you to start entering your information in the Common CV.
Make a plan
Now that you have a general overview of the lay of the land, you need a plan. Panicking never helped anyone.
Identify your research goals.
What contributions do you want to make to knowledge? Is health your main focus? Or is it one line of inquiry in a broader program of research? Identify which research goals fit well with the SSHRC objectives and mandate and which ones fit better at CIHR.
If you have research goals that are better suited to SSHRC, that gives you more time to figure out how the CIHR system works. You can focus on those goals now, applying to SSHRC for funding. Then later, you can apply to CIHR much better prepared.
Identify which Institute(s) at CIHR is the best fit for your research goals.
A lot of funding opportunities are located within Institutes, so knowing which one is relevant to you helps you focus on those programs where you have the best chance of success. If possible, try to find other social science or humanities researchers who have been funded by that institute. They will be an important source of information about the process and any particular issues within the institute.
Some institutes have more experience with social science and humanities research than others. This doesn’t mean that you should pick your institute on that basis, because research goals are always the most important factor in the choice of institute. But it does mean that experiences with peer review can vary considerably depending on the institute and it it important to seek information from people who know the institute to which you are likely to apply.
Evaluate your publication strategy
No matter where you apply, your record of achievement is going to be assessed in terms of your contribution to a specific area of knowledge. At SSHRC, contributing to debates in your discipline is likely to be most important, followed by contributing to interdisciplinary debates, debates in cognate fields, etc.
At CIHR, your contribution to debates in health research, in the particular area covered by the Institute to which you are applying, is going to be most important. Yes, you still need to publish in your discipline. But if you aren’t publishing in health journals, you aren’t going to do well at CIHR even if the committee is sympathetic to social science and humanities research.
Look at your publications list as a health researcher might. Where are the holes? What do you need to do to fill them?
Build relationships
You need to build a network of health researchers. You may need to develop a relationship with a mentor who has experience with CIHR. You certainly need people familiar with CIHR to help you with future applications, perhaps by reading a draft or answering questions about the process.
Start attending more health related conferences. Meet other health researchers in your university who work in similar health areas. Figure out which person in the research office deals with CIHR applications.
Building such a network may also create opportunities to collaborate as a co-applicant on another project, thereby building your CIHR experience.
Get help
Yes, applying to CIHR is scary. But you don’t have to do it alone.
Further help should be available from your research office. The person with the information you need may not be the same person you deal with for SSHRC applications.
If research support is provided through your faculty office, you may need to go talk to someone in the Health Sciences faculty (or ask your Associate Dean of Research to arrange a meeting for health researchers in your faculty with someone from the other faculty to learn more).
All research councils have program officers whose job it is to answer your questions. At CIHR there are often 2 names listed with any funding announcement. One will be the person you talk to about procedural issues — what documents you need, where to find them, etc. The other will be the person you talk to about the relevance of your proposed project to the funding opportunity.
Asking questions about relevance is always a good idea. Grant applications take time and energy. If your research goals are not a good fit for a particular funding opportunity, your chances are not good even if you put together a great proposal and have a stellar record of achievement. Save your energies for programs that are a good fit for your goals.
Use research assistants (RAs). If you do health research, then your graduate students probably do health research. It is good training for them to learn more about how CIHR processes work. Paying an RA to enter your CV information into the Common CV, asking them to research funding opportunities and CIHR Institutes and set up RSS feeds for you, and getting them to write a first draft of an application are all excellent ways to get help with your application and train your grad students for future academic success.
Good luck!
