 Discussions focused on how the UD's could support CIHR with its future initiatives, notably through its communication and engagement activities.  The two day session was very productive and covered a variety of subjects.  A session with Dr. Strong also took place. This was a great opportunity for the UDEC to share their ideas and inputs with the CIHR executive team.  We value the discussions that took place and look forward to continuing this type of engagement in the future. University

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... egates Annual meeting  The UD annual meeting will take place in Ottawa sometime during the last two weeks of June.  We are in the process of validating dates internally. A Doodle poll will soon be circulated to all UD members to identify preferred options and finalize the meeting date. Questions from Members Q: It would be nice to plan these meetings a bit further in advance, as I am already away most of the last 2 weeks of June. A: Thank you for your feedback. We will be as proactive as possible with our planning in the future to allow for timely coordination. New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF) Update The adjudication process for the inaugural competition was completed and applicants were notified last week. The results of the competition that was just completed will be made public over the coming weeks. More details about future competitions, including information about the application process, will be shared as they become available. We invite you to visit the NFRF website for updates: http://www.sshrccrsh.gc.ca/funding-financement/nfrf-fnfr/index-eng.aspx Volunteer week -April 7-13 Next week is National Volunteer Week, and we want to take a moment today to extend our thanks to this group for its contributions to CIHR. Your volunteerism is key to CIHR's ability to serve its community. Beginning with the 2016 Foundation Grant competition, CIHR committed that, regardless of career stage, the number of female applicants moving forward to Stage 2 would be proportionate to the application pressure at Stage 1. As you can see in this table, females represented 29% of the applicants at Stage 1, and an equal proportion of female applicants were invited to Stage 2 (29%). Questions from Members Q: When will the 2019 Collaborative Health Research Projects (CHRP) funding opportunity be announced/posted? A: It is anticipated that the FO will be published in early May. Q: What was the across-the-board cuts for the CHRP? A: The across-the-board budget cuts that take place in the "open" programs do not apply/take place in a Priority-Driven Research competition, such as CHRP. Q: Has the idea of instituting a cap on grants, to increase grant funding success, been discussed at Science Council? Is there any traction for this idea? A: While we are unable to provide any information at this time, we recognize that this is a topic of interest for the research community. We will discuss this further internally and explore the option of adding this item to the annual UD meeting agenda in June. Q: Discussions with various institutions regarding the April 2 nd CHRP results identified massive budget cuts (~40%). Why was this done if Priority-Driven fund did not have across-the-board cuts and peer review approved budgets? A: There are no across-the-board cuts for this program. Any budget reductions for a given project would have come from the peer review committee recommendations, as the members did review and discuss the requested budgets. It should be noted that the amounts provided in the funding decision only reflects CIHR's contribution to the grants. Federal Budget See slides for additional information. Questions from Members Q: When does the leave coverage come into effect? A: We can expect something in the next fiscal year but we do not have any dates yet. Q: The increase in CIHR budget since 2010 is roughly 2% per year. I don't think that this covers the increased costs of operating research programs over this period. Is there discussion of this at the highest levels? A: In the end, this is a political decision on which we have little input. It is important to note that Budget 2018 provided a historical investment in investigator-initiated research.