Update on COVID-19 Funding Opportunities and the Fall 2021 Project Grant Competition

CIHR would like to provide information to the research community on its latest COVID-19 funding opportunities and the Fall 2021 Project Grant competition. As part of Government of Canada's continued response to address the health challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, CIHR continues to launch and support several COVID-19 funding opportunities. These rapid response competitions are supported by new funding provided to CIHR and are targeted at COVID-19 priority areas.

We also continue to invest in the Project Grant program, which supports research across all areas with the greatest potential to advance health-related fundamental or applied knowledge, health care, health systems, and health outcomes. The competition is a high priority for CIHR and it has now returned to its pre-pandemic timelines. CIHR continues to ensure stability in the Project Grant program and the policies that underpin it. Applicants have until August 18, 2021 to register to the 2021 Fall Project Grant competition. Please visit What you should know about the Fall 2021 Project Grant competition.

You will note that the application deadline for both competitions, the Operating Grant: Emerging COVID-19 Research Gaps & Priorities July 2021 and the Fall 2021 Project Grant, are scheduled the same week of September 13, 2021. CIHR has made this decision based on a number of factors (e.g., time available/required for applicants, reviewers, CIHR staff, need for stability within the Project Grant Program, urgent nature of the COVID-19 funding opportunities) and their impact on all involved in the competitions. Since the timelines for the first Emerging COVID-19 Research Gaps & Priorities and the Spring 2021 Project Grant competitions were similar in nature, we also considered the amount of overlap of NPIs that applied to both competitions, which was low.

CIHR has also provided pre-announcements for the rapid response competitions to provide advance notice for the research community to prepare and make a decision on which funding program is best suited for them.

In this vein, CIHR is pleased to announce the upcoming launch of the Wider Health Impacts of COVID-19 Funding Opportunity in early September. The application deadline for this upcoming competition will be in November. For more details on this competition, please read the pre-announcement about the Wider Health Impacts of COVID-19 Funding Opportunity.

Applicants interested in applying to these competitions are encouraged to review the objectives of each and may apply to more than one provided that they submit different applications.

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