2007 Highlights and Funding Recommendations
The Foundation will fund one program under each of the priority theme areas, as per the stated objective for the competition and the budget envelope available for this competition. Please refer to the list of full-scale applications that were recommended for funding.
Twelve applications were invited to the full-scale stage within the four priority theme areas of the Foundation: nursing leadership, organization, and policy; primary healthcare; managing for quality and safety; and management of the healthcare workplace. All 12 were submitted and reviewed by the merit review panel.
Competition objectives
The Research, Exchange, and Impact for System Support (REISS) competition sought proposals for four-year programs, which include components in research, capacity development and knowledge exchange, as well as periodic deliverables over the course of the program. The Foundation committed to funding one program in each of its four priority theme areas:
- management of the healthcare workplace;
- managing for quality and safety;
- nursing leadership, organization, and policy; and
- primary healthcare.
The competition continues to emphasize:
- the importance of partnerships and the sharing of issues and ideas with decision makers to maximize the potential impact of the research;
- projects that have a national focus and/or make comparisons across jurisdictions; and
- a co-financing formula of one external dollar for each Foundation dollar.
Competition process
The REISS competition was conducted using a two-stage process: 1) an open invitation for, and review of, letters of intent; and 2) the review of invited full-scale applications.
The full-scale application merit review panel was composed of an equal mix of decision makers and researchers and included expertise in each of the priority theme areas. Decision makers included a representative from a national agency, a provincial ministry and a regional health authority; senior researchers included representatives from various disciplines. In addition, the panel included a postdoctoral intern drawn from the pool of CHSRF/CIHR Postdoctoral Award holders.
Panel members represented all regions of Canada with one member from the eastern provinces, one from Quebec, two from Ontario, and two from the western provinces. Mr. Jack Altman was the chair and Dr. François Champagne and Dr. Mark Bisby were the scientific officers for this full-scale application stage. They were all instrumental in guiding the panel through the application review workload.
Results
Twelve full-scale applications were invited and received. The merit review panel met on May 25, 2007, to review these applications.
The panel rated the full-scale applications on two dimensions — potential impact and scientific merit, using published review criteria.
Although six of the 12 full-scale applications ranked in the "fundable" range (potential impact of significant and scientific merit of good), the panel recommended funding one program under each of the four priority theme areas in which applications were received, as per the stated objective for the competition of funding one program per priority theme. Please refer to the list of full-scale applications that were recommended for funding.
The following table shows the distribution of the REISS 2007 applications and merit review panel recommendations by theme and region.
| Theme/Region | LOI* Eligible (Received) | FSA** Invited and Received | FSA Recommended by Merit Review Panel |
|---|---|---|---|
| Management of the healthcare workplace | 5 (8) | 2 | 1 |
| Managing for quality and safety | 7 (10) | 4 | 1 |
| Nursing leadership, organization, and policy | 6 (6) | 4 | 2*** |
| Primary healthcare | 5 (6) | 2 | 0*** |
| Total | 23 (30) | 12 | 4 |
| Atlantic | 1 (5) | 0 | 0 |
| Quebec | 9 (9) | 6 | 0 |
| Ontario | 7 (9) | 4 | 3 |
| West | 6 (7) | 2 | 1 |
| Total | 23 (30) | 12 | 4 |
* letter of intent
** full-scale application
*** A second program submitted under the nursing leadership, organization, and policy theme was recommended for funding under its secondary theme (primary healthcare) by the merit review panel, as it felt the program was a better fit under that theme.
Of the four programs being funded in the 2007 allocation, three administering organizations are academic organizations and one is a hospital.
Co-sponsorship
This competition required a co-sponsorship commitment at a 1:1 minimum level; however, the total value of the REISS 2007 program funding is $4.24 million. The Foundation's $1.86 million contribution has leveraged $2.39 million from co-sponsors, which represents co-sponsorship at a 1:1.3 level.
The following table shows the funding recommendations by amount of co-sponsorship dollars leveraged.
| 2007 REISS Funding by Co-sponsor $ Leveraging | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Offered Funding | # | $ from CHSRF | $ Co-sponsor Cash | $ Co-sponsor In-kind | $ Total |
| Total = | 4 | $1,856,433 | $1,565,511 | $821,355 | $4,243,299 |
| Average/program = | n=4 | $464,108 | $391,378 | $205,339 | $1,060,825 |
