Fall 2024 marked one of the U of A’s most successful (CIHR) competition cycle in terms of total funding in the last five years.
$20 million in new funding will come to the College of Health Sciences and the College of Natural and Applied Sciences.
Faculty research offices, centres and institutes, and individual researchers are seeing great benefit in the facilitated connections that arise out of the shared interests and resources offered by the college research offices, in close collaboration with the Research Partner Network (RPNet) in the Office of the Vice-President (Research and Innovation) (OVPRI).
Designed to enhance institutional research grant development and administrative efficiency, these intentional networked connections between the colleges and the VPRI are key to transformational impact across all areas of the U of A community — a One University approach that supports researchers and prioritizes high-quality research proposals through tailored and PI-driven support.
The U of A success rate of 21 per cent for fully funded CIHR awards in the Fall 2024 competition was above the national success rate of 17 per cent, marking the first time since 2022 that the U of A success rate exceeded the national average. In total, 121 applications were submitted, continuing an upward trend over the last five competitions.
- 25 projects received full funding across the College of Health Sciences (23) and the College of Natural and Applied Sciences (2)
- Five early career researchers (ECRs) were awarded full Project Grants
- Two ECRs, one in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, and the other in the Faculty of Nursing, who submitted two applications each received full funding for both, and were additionally awarded $25,000 Early Career Investigator Prizes.
- Three projects received Priority Announcement funding, which offers additional sources of funding for highly rated applications that are relevant to specific research areas
“Under One University, researchers applying to CIHR [and other granting agencies] have access to workshops, grant editing, concept discussions, peer review and one-on-one support within their colleges,” says , associate dean (health research), College of Health Sciences (CHS). “The success in this recent CIHR competition reflects the hard work, most notably from the principal investigators and their collaborators and many others who have willingly offered support and guidance.”
One of the recipients, , professor and chair, Department of Pediatrics, received full funding over five years for his research project on Altered Proximal Tubule Calcium Reabsorption: Molecular Studies Informing Targeted Kidney Stone Therapies.
His success in this competition, and the previous round of CIHR grants demonstrates that time-constrained researchers like Alexander can benefit from these intentional connections between the faculties, the college offices of research, the research partner network and the VPRI. He is also the beneficiary of the U of A’s — bridge grants such as this are an important factor in the application success rate.
“ (senior research partner, CHS, RPNet) and (research & innovation director, Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry) provided me access to professional grant-writing support that assisted me with grant editing and figure management,” says Alexander, adding that this support ensured that the grant applications were scientific and novel, but also understandable to peer review committees who may not have expertise in field-specific areas.
The new structure strategically places research partners within colleges and faculties, resulting in streamlined and expanded PI support.
“Grant competitions, particularly CIHR, are so competitive,” says Alexander. “You can have a great idea, but if you fail to articulate it well, and it’s not visualized well, it may be enough to knock you off the podium. It has to be packaged really tightly and the visuals have to convey the message. For many of us, it’s challenging to have the time and energy and even expertise to do that.”
, college dean & vice provost, College of Natural and Applied Science, says these results are a great example of the value-add of the new structure.
"We are creating a foundation of support and consistency, via the RPNet, across our research units so that we can maximize our impact,” she says. “The other great advantage in this structure is in the networked RPNet that is able to make connections across the institution to further support interdisciplinary work — something that we are all interested in achieving."
, director of RPNet in the OVPRI, says that by working together in a more targeted, coordinated and collaborative manner, researchers are empowered to achieve greater success through this expanded support network.
"We look forward to continuing this collective effort across all colleges and standalone faculties, refining our approach and further enhancing the resources we provide to help our researchers thrive not only with CIHR, but with other funding agencies as well — moving us forward as One University.”