CFHSS Invites CPA to Meeting with CIHR, SSHRC, and Vice-Presidents of Research from Several Universities
In May, the Canadian Federation of Humanities and Social Sciences (CFHSS) invited CPA to attend a meeting on the funding of social determinants of health. In attendance at the meeting were representatives from CIHR and SSHRC, as well as the Vice-Presidents of Research from several universities. The purpose of the meeting was to “share experiences of granting agencies and of applicants/recipients/partners in funding research on the social determinants of health”.
Results of Two Member Surveys - CPA Sends Letters to NSERC re: Student Funding Eligibility Criteria and CIHR's Student Award Notification and Deferral Process
As previously noted, the CPA is continuing to liaise with NSERC regarding its student funding eligibility criteria and with CIHR regarding its Student Award Notification and Deferral Process (please see postings below for an overview of these issues).
To continue our advocacy efforts with both NSERC and CIHR, the CPA recently posted two brief member surveys and asked for your help in obtaining data regarding these matters.
Results from the surveys have been analyzed and summarized in letters that CPA sent to both NSERC and CIHR. Please click on the links below to view the letters. As always, the CPA invites your input on any advocacy efforts that you feel would help address these matters.
- Click here to access the NSERC letter.
- Click here to access the CIHR letter.
Two New Member Surveys re: NSERC Student Funding Eligibility Criteria and CIHR's Student Award Notification and Deferral Process
As previously noted, the CPA is continuing to liaise with NSERC regarding its student funding eligibility criteria and with CIHR regarding its Student Award Notification and Deferral Process (please see postings below for an overview of these issues).
To continue our advocacy efforts with both NSERC and CIHR, the CPA is seeking your help in obtaining data regarding these matters.
To collect this data, CPA is asking you to complete two brief surveys (each survey should take only 5 minutes to complete). The surveys can be completed in either English or French, and will remain open until February 18, 2011.
- Click here to access the NSERC Survey.
- Click here to access the CIHR Survey.
CPA Letter to Ontario's Minister of Health and Long-Term Care re: Suspension of Ontario Mental Health Foundation's Grant and Fellowship Program for New Awards for 2011-2012
January 19, 2011: In response to a notice regarding the suspension of the Ontario Mental Health Foundation's grant and fellowship program for new awards for 2011-2012, the CPA sent a letter to Ontario's Minister of Health and Long-Term Care. Click here to view the letter.
Ontario Mental Health Foundation Suspends Grant and Fellowship Program for New Awards for 2011-2012
(January 12, 2011): The Board of the Ontario Mental Health Foundation regrets to inform you that the Foundation’s grant and fellowship program for new awards will be suspended for 2011-2012; the Foundation’s program for new studentship awards will, however, go forward this year and all award programs will resume in 2012-2013.
The Foundation has traditionally relied on two sources of funds to support its research programs: earnings from the Foundation’s endowment and a transfer from the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (MOHLTC). Both sources have been affected by the economic recession; the earnings of the Foundation’s endowment have been drastically reduced and the transfer from MOHLTC was reduced by ten percent retroactively.
The Board of the Foundation will honour its funding commitments to current award holders. The Board will use funds from gifts and bequests to the Foundation - as much as $1.7 million -- to ensure that vitally-needed research and the careers of young researchers will not be interrupted.
For nearly forty-five years the Ontario Mental Health Foundation has provided funding to support critically needed mental health research in Ontario; for example, in 2010, the Foundation awarded over $3,000,000 in grants and fellowships. The Foundation requires stable Ministry funding to continue to achieve itsmission to promote the mental health of people living in Ontario, to prevent mental illness and to improve diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation through excellent, peer-reviewed research.
The Board encourages you and your colleagues to contact your Member of the Provincial Parliament and ask that they support continued funding for mental health research in Ontario.
William R. Avison, Ph.D.
Chair, Ontario Mental Health Foundation
CPA members at Dalhouise University write letter to CPA and NSERC about funding eligibility criteria for students in clinical programs
In response to NSERC's decision regarding funding eligibililty criteria for students in clinical programs, CPA members at Dalhousie University wrote a letter to the CPA (with a copy to NSERC) in which they highlighted the problems with NSERC's decision and provided clear evidence/data on the impact of this decision.
In early January, the CPA will be sending out a survey to the membership to obtain similar data from other psychology departments across the country so that we may continue our advocacy efforts regarding this very important issue. In the interim, we invite you to view the letter written by your colleagues at Dalhousie University and ask that you begin compiling information of a similar nature for the future survey.
Update: CIHR's Notification Date and Deferral Policy of Student Awards
CIHR has gotten back to the CPA regarding their notification date for student awards. CIHR has informed the CPA that the timelines for the Doctoral Research Awards and Master’s Awards review processes are slightly staggered because they use the same peer review committees for both. From an administrative perspective, releasing the decisions for both these programs at the same time in early April would mean that CIHR would need to recruit 50% more peer review committee members to ensure that each reviewer has a reasonable number of applications to review. Furthermore, modifying these timelines would have an impact on CIHR's internal resources as they are fully allocated to accommodate the current operational requirements.
In addition to the significant impact on their current administrative processes and resources, CIHR has also noted that they do not have evidence that this is a widespread issue. Consequently, they will need to do a detailed analysis on the issue before they can consider changing the timelines and will do as part of an upcoming strategic and operational planning related to CIHR support for students and trainees.
In the interim, the CPA will endeavor to provide CIHR with evidence on the state of this issue. Check back soon as we will be posting a survey seeking your input on the state of this issue within your university.
CIHR: Notification Date and Deferral Policy of Student Awards
Following up on issues brought forward to the Scientific Affairs Committee by members, the CPA has been in discussion with CIHR regarding two issues. The first issue has to do with the timing of CIHR's notice regarding scholarships and awards, which at present is mid-July. This date is later than the date by which SSHRC and NSERC notify students. This is proving to be a problem for many students, faculty members and universities. As one example, in some cases, university acceptance is contingent on funding receipt and often times, students are not accepted because they don’t have funding, only to find out later they did get funding but don’t have a university spot. We are asking CIHR to move its award notification date so that they are consistent with those of SSHRC.
The second concern has to do with the length of time students can defer their awards. At this point in time, students are able to defer their award only until January of the next year. We have asked CIHR if it is possible to have the deferral period extended until the following September. This would allow students to apply to clinical programs and let the programs know they have funding.
CPA will continue to follow up on these issues with CIHR and will notify the membership accordingly of its discussions.
Update: Eligibility Criteria for NSERC Scholarships and Fellowships
Over the last few months, CPA has provided members with an update on the restructuring of the granting councils. Of particular concern to the membership is NSERC’s decision to explicitly not fund students in clinical programs regardless of the fact that they may have a basic science research focus. CPA developed a position paper in which it discussed its concerns, along with letter templates that could be used to write to each of the granting Councils.
On May 3, 2010, CPA received a letter from NSERC responding to concerns expressed by the CPA and other sources about its revisions to the Scholarship and Fellowship eligibility criteria. According to its guidelines NSERC does not support clinically oriented research; further, the aim of NSERC’s Scholarship and Fellowship program is to support students preparing for careers in the natural sciences and engineering.
In its letter to the CPA, NSERC acknowledged that some students in clinically oriented programs may be undertaking a research project that falls within the NSERC mandate and working under the direction of an NSERC-funded research supervisor. Because of this, NSERC has determined that students who are registered, or intend to register, in a clinically oriented program will be eligible for NSERC funding if:
- they propose a research project deemed eligible to be funded by NSERC; and
- they are supervised by a researcher holding an active NSERC Discovery Grant.
For the 2010 NSERC Scholarships and Fellowships competition, applications in the above situation will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. The eligibility clarification will also be reflected in the revised program literature.
View CPA's Response to NSERC's Revision: click here.
Re-structuring of the Granting Councils
In the Federal 2009 Budget, the government announced 2 billion dollars allocated to infrastructure for post-secondary institutions and 35 million to support graduate student research for each of CIHR and NSERC with 17.5 million for SSHRC. Recently, the granting councils underwent a strategic review in which they reviewed their mandates, re-structured their funding criteria and identified areas where operations could be streamlined to be made more efficient. One of the ways in which the granting agencies have re-structured has been through the elimination of various programs or aspects of granting programs.
Core funding of the Councils is not only essential to the advancement of knowledge but also provides the platform within which graduate student research takes place. One of the outcomes of the strategic review and cuts implemented by SSHRC is that SSHRC will no longer fund any health-related research. This is a particular concern to psychology whose health-related research is more likely to have fallen under the traditional mandate of SSHRC than other disciplines with a more biomedical focus. Another outcome of the strategic review that is of particular concern to psychology is NSERC's decision to no longer fund students in clinical programmes despite the fact that they are conducting NSERC-related research.
CPA Position Paper
Download CPA’s Position Paper on this issue.
Write a Letter to the Granting Councils and Your Member of Parliament
Download the template to a letter that you can send to the granting councils and your Member of Parliament regarding this issue.
Funding of Students in Combined Programs
CPA representatives met with representatives from SSHRC on April 27th, 2009. A major focus of this meeting was funding for post-baccalaureate masters students. Following meetings with CPA, SSHRC conducted a thorough analysis of the different types of programs in order to avoid unfairness in combined programs. Based on this analysis, SSHRC plans to move to allow all students in combined MAPhD programs to apply for MA funding in the first year.