Canada First Research Excellence Fund—2022 Competition: Guidelines for External Reviewers

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Background

The Canada First Research Excellence Fund (CFREF) is a tri-agency initiative of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). It is administered by the Tri-Agency Institutional Programs Secretariat (TIPS), which is housed within SSHRC. The competition was announced in November 2021 to allocate up to $1.4 billion to support large-scale research programs focusing on a strategic thematic area related to the institution’s research excellence strengths and aligned with the Government of Canada’s science, technology and innovation (ST&I) priorities for the CFREF and Canada Excellence Research Chairs (CERC) programs.

CFREF aims to boost the strengths of Canadian postsecondary institutions so that they can achieve global success in research areas that create long-term social and economic advantages for Canada.

CFREF invests approximately $200 million per year through a highly competitive peer review process to support selected Canadian postsecondary institutions in turning their key strengths into world-leading capabilities.

CFREF objectives are to support the full range of research—from fundamental to applied—and to give institutions the ability to:

• pursue the best in the world for talent and partnership opportunities to enable breakthrough discoveries;
• seize emerging opportunities and strategically advance their greatest strengths on the global stage; and
• implement large-scale, transformational and forward-thinking institutional strategies.

Incremental and small-step evolution of research objectives will not meet the goals of this program.

There is no maximum or minimum limit for the grant value, and the number of awards depends on the amounts requested in successful applications. Each institution can submit only one Letter of Intent (LOI) and application as the lead institution. There is no limit to the number of applications on which an institution can be listed as a partner.

Equity, diversity and inclusion excellence

The three federal research funding agencies are committed to excellence in research and research training, and therefore to achieving an equitable, diverse and inclusive Canadian research enterprise. EDI is essential to creating the excellent, innovative, impactful research needed to seize opportunities and respond to global challenges. To be successful, applications must demonstrate and implement the highest EDI standards.

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact the program at cfref-apogee@chairs-chaires.gc.ca.

If you are experiencing technical problems (e.g., difficulty viewing or downloading electronic forms), contact: websupport@chairs-chaires.gc.ca.

Overview of the application evaluation process

Awards are made following a rigorous, competitive, international peer review process. Only institutions that are successful at the LOI stage are invited to submit full proposals at the application stage.

Applications must demonstrate that the institution has the capacity for global leadership, is capable of being among the top 10 percent of centres of academic excellence globally and can sustain world leadership in the proposed area(s). The program’s objective is not to develop capacity where there is emerging potential. The proposed initiatives must integrate partner involvement and strong knowledge mobilization throughout the application. By doing so, institutions will further demonstrate the sustainability of their initiatives.

All applications will be held to the same standards of world-leading research excellence.

A three-stage review process will be applied at the full application stage:(1) written external expert reviews, (2) multidisciplinary review panel evaluation, and (3) selection board adjudication.

1. External reviewers – International external reviewers will be recruited to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the application’s Scientific strategy (Part B of the application), in relation to Criterion 1: Scientific merit and demonstrated capacity to lead on an international scale; and Criterion 2: Strategic relevance to Canada. The Implementation plans (Part A of the application) and the LOI will also be provided as context. Reviewers are screened to ensure they do not a have a conflict of interest in reviewing the applications. External review evaluations will be provided to the review panel.
2. Review panel – A multidisciplinary review panel will evaluate in detail the relative strengths and weaknesses of submitted applications, based on the selection criteria (excluding those covered in the LOI stage). The review panel provides individual ratings, consensus ratings and rankings to the selection board, ultimately to competitively award the funds available to proposals demonstrating the greatest potential to achieve world-leading research outcomes in areas that promise long-term economic advantages for Canada.
3. Selection board – The selection board provides recommendations to the tri-agency Steering Committee (see below) on the most strategic way to award the available budget for the competition among the proposals demonstrating the greatest potential to achieve globally leading research outcomes in ST&I priorities for the CFREF and CERC programs. The selection board will benefit from the reports from all previous review stages of the competition in making its final recommendations to the Steering Committee.

The Steering Committee is composed of the presidents of CIHR, NSERC, SSHRC and the Canada Foundation for Innovation (as an observer), as well as the deputy ministers of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada and Health Canada. The Steering Committee reviews the adjudication process to ensure that it is rigorous, objective, transparent, and consistent with the program’s objectives. The Steering Committee will ratify the funding recommendations of the selection board.

Equity, diversity and inclusion and early career researchers in research teams

Equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) are embedded as a foundational principle in CFREF’s objectives, expected outcomes and application and reporting requirements. To achieve its research excellence-based objectives and outcomes, the program requires the participation and contributions of students, trainees, personnel and researchers from underrepresented or marginalized groups. These groups include, but are not limited to, racialized minorities, Indigenous Peoples, persons with disabilities, women and individuals from LGBTQ2+ communities.

Supporting early career researchers is a tri-agency priority, as it enhances Canada’s position as a world leader in building talent and strengthening the research ecosystem. CFREF initiatives are expected to implement measures that specifically support early career researchers.

EDI in the selection process

CFREF-funded initiatives are expected to demonstrate exceptional leadership in contributing to transforming their research discipline and Canada’s research ecosystem to help it become equitable, diverse and inclusive. Institutions are required to take active and rigorous measures to prevent the systemic barriers that may result in individuals from underrepresented or marginalized groups receiving unequal access to, or being excluded from participating in, the opportunities provided by the grant. This includes the composition of the initiative’s governance committees, evaluation processes used to provide funding within the initiative, and recruitment and selection processes.

All funded CFREF initiatives will be required to develop an initiative-specific EDI action plan within the 12 months following the grant start date. This EDI action plan will be assessed by TIPS, either administratively or by expert reviewers. The quality of the strategy used to develop this comprehensive and innovative EDI action plan will be assessed in Criterion 3: Quality of implementation plans.

The quality of the research proposal in considering and implementing EDI (i.e., Gender-Based Analysis Plus (GBA+) / Sex- and Gender-Based Analysis Plus (SGBA+) in the research questions, design, methodology, data collection, analysis and interpretation, and dissemination of results, as relevant, will be assessed in Criterion 1: Scientific merit and demonstrated capacity to lead on an international scale.

The quality of the proposed research in its inclusion of Indigenous research that is co-created and co-led by and with First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples—as investigators, students, trainees, partners and collaborators—and in its recognition of Indigenous ways of knowing, and how it will extend research knowledge in the field that is significant for Indigenous Peoples and communities, will be assessed in Criterion 1: Scientific merit and demonstrated capacity to lead on an international scale.

All reviewers are required to consistently guard against unconscious bias influencing the decision-making process, whether this bias is based on a school of thought; fundamental versus applied research; certain subdisciplines; areas of research or approaches (including emerging ones); size or reputation of an institution; or the age, personal identity factors, sex, gender or race of the applicants. All reviewers are cautioned against judging an application based on these factors. Reviewers are encouraged to read the following documents that were shared with applicants to help them with addressing EDI considerations: Best Practices in Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Research, EDI considerations at each stage of the research process, Status of Women Canada’s information on GBA+, and the SGBA+ section of the CIHR website.

For applications involving Indigenous research, panel members should familiarize themselves with SSHRC’s Indigenous Research Statement of Principles and Guidelines for the Merit Review of Indigenous Research (specifically, the section describing key concepts for the merit review of indigenous research).

The multidisciplinary review panel and the selection board will include EDI and Indigenous champions, who will help support the program’s EDI priorities in the selection process.

Accessing the review material

You must complete your review using the Convergence Portal. The portal is supported only on the latest versions of Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Apple Safari and Mozilla Firefox. The portal may appear to function in other browsers, but technical problems can occur, such as information being improperly captured in the system without the user being aware. Use of an unsupported browser is strongly discouraged.

As an external reviewer, you will receive an email with detailed instructions asking you to log in (or create an account) in the Convergence Portal to complete your profile and accept the reviewer terms and conditions. After accepting the terms and conditions, you will have access to the reviewer dashboard on the Convergence Portal. From your dashboard, you must first declare any conflict of interest (COI), if applicable. The Ability to review tab will provide you with a summary of the application(s) to help you determine whether you have a COI.

Once the applications are assigned to external reviewers, you will have access to the Reviewer Assignments tab. You will have access to a PDF copy of each applicant’s submission, both their input into modules in the Convergence Portal and supporting documents they prepared according to Application instructions.

To assess the application and the supporting documents (listed below), you will also have access to the LOI submission and the multidisciplinary review panel feedback provided to institutions at the LOI stage, for reference. Reviewers are encouraged to first read the LOI and review panel feedback provided to understand the context in which the full application was developed.

The PDF document is organized as follows:

• Application details
• Invite partner institutions
• Partner institutions
• Partners
• Collaborators
• Core personnel
• Socio-economic objectives
• Science, technology and innovation research priority areas
• Fields of research
• Alignment with federal research funding agencies
• Keywords
• Summary of the implementation plans
• Summary of the scientific strategy
• Proposed budget
• Additional suggested reviewers and reviewer exclusions

Supporting documents

In the Convergence Portal, you will have access to the following documents, provided in a single PDF document:

• Supporting documents: Changes from the LOI (2 pages in English, 2.4 pages in French)
• Supporting documents: Implementation plans – Part A (15 pages in English, 18 pages in French)
• Supporting documents: Performance management plan – Part A
• Supporting documents: Scientific strategy – Part B (30 pages in English, 36 pages in French)
• Supporting documents: References (no page limit)
• Supporting documents: Budget table
• Supporting documents: Budget justification (20 pages in English, 24 pages in French)
• Supporting documents: Letters of support from partner institutions (2 pages per letter in English, 2.4 pages in French)
• Supporting documents: Letters of support from partners (2 pages per letter in English, 2.4 pages in French)
• Supporting documents: Letters of support from collaborators (2 pages per letter in English, 2.4 pages in French)
• Supporting documents: Core personnel biosketches (20 pages total in English, 24 pages total in French)

Applications submitted in French

Applications submitted in French are assigned to reviewers who have a reading comprehension of the French language.

Submitting your review (ratings and comments)

Each application will be assigned to five or more external reviewers who will assess the scientific merit, the capacity to lead, and the strategic relevance to Canada. You will be assigned to review application in your area of scientific expertise.

After reading this guideline, the application and the LOI material (the full LOI submission and the LOI review panel documents), follow the instructions provided in the Convergence Portal to complete and submit your ratings and comments for the scientific strategy, in relation to Criterion 1: Scientific merit and demonstrated capacity to lead on an international scale; and Criterion 2: Strategic relevance to Canada. Implementation plans and the LOI are provided for context, as external reviewers do not rate Criterion 3: Quality of implementation plans.

To assign ratings, please refer to the Definition of ratings.

In the comment boxes in the Convergence Portal, please provide objective feedback describing both the strengths and weaknesses of the application for each of the elements for Criterion 1 and Criterion 2 that were not assessed in the LOI. Your written comments should be clear and concise, using objective and constructive language. Because your comments will be provided as feedback to the applicant, you should ensure that you provide sufficient detail. To ensure the confidentiality of the review process, please avoid providing information that identifies you.

When you are ready to submit your assessment in the Convergence Portal, review your ratings and comments to ensure they are complete. Click the “Submit Assessment” button to complete the assessment of each assigned Application. The status of your submission will change to “Submitted.” No changes can be made after that point. 

We ask that your reviews be completed in the Convergence Portal by the date specified in your email invitation.

Evaluation criteria and rating scale

The Definition of ratings is provided for the evaluation criteria and includes the rating scale you will use to score the application assigned to you. As external reviewers, you are asked to provide ratings and comments only on Criterion 1 and Criterion 2.

The Application instructions  provides the instructions given to applicants, for your information.

Applications must meet a minimum rating of “Fully Satisfies” for all three criteria. An application with a scientific strategy that differs significantly from the contents of the LOI (with respect to the area of research and its alignment with the science, technology and innovation (ST&I) priority research areas) will not be accepted. The multidisciplinary review panel will confirm that the application still aligns with the science, technology and innovation (ST&I) priority research areas at the application adjudication stage. Applications will be withdrawn if they do not align. However, proposals will ultimately be differentiated during the full application stage based on their potential to achieve world-leading research outcomes in areas of long-term economic advantages for Canada.

Rating scale

As per the Definitions of ratings, the rating scale is as follows:
Fully satisfies and exceeds (FSE)
Fully satisfies (FS)
Mostly satisfies (MS)
Does not satisfy (DNS)

Adjudicated elements

The following table describes how key supporting documents of the overall application correspond to the criteria assessed by external reviewers (Criterion 1 and Criterion 2).

For evaluation by the external reviewers:

• Scientific strategy (Part B of the application)

For reference:

• Implementation plans (Part A of the application)
• Performance management plan
• LOI and comments from the review panel

When evaluating the Scientific strategy (Part B of the application), please use the information provided under the four main headings in the proposal.

Heading 1: Overview of proposed scientific strategy, including knowledge mobilization – This section provides a high-level description of the proposed research initiative.	Not adjudicated
Heading 2: Originality and positioning of the proposed research – This section provides information and insights on the originality and positioning of the proposed research vis-à-vis existing national and international capacity. Heading 3: Potential for the proposed research to provide breakthrough impact on a global scale – This section provides insights and evidence of the expected contributions and impacts on the research area(s). Heading 4: Potential for the institution to demonstrate global research leadership in the proposed areas – This section describes how the institution plans to build on its current strengths and provides evidence of the potential for the initiative to enhance/consolidate its leadership position in the research area(s). Heading 5: Equity, diversity and inclusion in the research – This section describes how the institution will consider and implement EDI, as well the inclusion of Indigenous research that is co-created and co-led by and with First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples.	Criterion 1: Scientific merit and demonstrated capacity to lead on an international scale
Heading 6: Potential for the proposed research area to create long-term economic advantages – This section describes prospective benefits to Canada from the proposed research strategy. Heading 7: Ability of the proposed initiative to leverage additional resources and promote knowledge mobilization through partnerships – This section provides evidence of the relevance of the proposed research to research users by demonstrating the initiative’s potential to leverage contributions from the private and/or public sectors, international research institutions, as well as academic and philanthropic organizations, both in Canada and abroad. Heading 8: Potential for the research results to foster innovation – This section outlines the required knowledge mobilization strategy, including plans for innovation, commercialization and contribution to public policy, as appropriate.	Criterion 2: Strategic relevance to Canada

A research program proposal (or scientific strategy) will have one common strategic thematic area. The proposal can include multiple sub-themes within the thematic area. The research program proposal must clearly demonstrate how these sub-themes are linked and how they can be combined to provide a coherent strategic focus under an integrated institutional leadership and governance structure. In its proposal, the institution must make the case for the choice of theme and sub-themes and must describe how advancing these would serve the institution’s overall strategic focus for global excellence. Institutions are advised that submitting a scientific strategy with multiple sub-themes, some of which do not meet the standards of excellence expected for the CFREF, would weaken the overall competitiveness of the proposal. Such an approach could raise doubts about the institution’s ability to self-assess its global position and to establish objectives aligned with its demonstrated strengths (as assessed in Criterion 1). It could also reveal a weakness in the institution’s ability to make the difficult choices that will undoubtedly be required to successfully implement an initiative of CFREF’s scale and scope.

Budget requests

Both Parts A and B of the application will include a high-level budget request and justification. Reviewers must provide comments on the budget requests for Part B. Please consider the following:

• Does the amount requested seem reasonable, appropriate and justified, particularly for infrastructure upgrades and equipment purchases?
• Are there any items that could be cut from the budget or item amounts that could be reduced?
• Does the initiative/ activity appear feasible given the amount requested?
• Has the EDI strategy/action plan been sufficiently budgeted for?
• Do you have any other concerns or items to flag for our attention?

The budget request also enables reviewers to see the planned distribution of the proposed investment across budget categories and to assess whether this aligns well with their own appreciation of where an institution needs to ramp up its capacity and its activities.

There is no maximum or minimum limit to the amount that an institution can request, nor is there a prescribed award size. CFREF grants have seven-year terms, starting in 2023. It is expected that the budget requested will allow the institution to achieve global leadership and impact in the proposed area of research.

The 2022 competition has a budget of approximately $1.4 billion over seven years.

Program staff will conduct an administrative review of the budget items. A list of allowable costs can be found here: Eligible and ineligible expenses.

Handling documents used in peer review

Review documents contain personal information as well as information that, if disclosed in an unauthorized manner, could reasonably be expected to cause serious injury (such as prejudicial treatment or loss of reputation or competitive advantage) to an individual, organization or government. Therefore, these documents are subject to regulation under the Privacy Act, the Access to Information Act and the Policy on Government Security. Protocols must be followed to ensure that information contained in applications, internal and external reviews, and panel discussions remains strictly confidential. Improper or unauthorized collection, use, disclosure, retention and/or disposal of this information can result in a privacy breach. Please refer to the Guide on Handling Documents Used in Peer Review for further details.

Legal and ethical information

Responsible conduct of research

Canada’s federal research funding agencies—CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC—are committed to fostering and maintaining an environment that supports and promotes the responsible conduct of research. The Tri-Agency Framework: Responsible Conduct of Research sets out the responsibilities and corresponding policies for researchers, institutions and the agencies that, together, help support and promote a positive research environment.

Confidentiality

External reviewers must read and agree to the Conflict of Interest and Confidentiality Agreement for Review Committee Members, External Reviewers, and Observers describing expectations and requirements.

Privacy Act

Personal information refers to any information about an identifiable individual. Based on the Privacy Act, personal information provided by applicants must be used only for assessing applications, making funding decisions, and related uses describing applicants at the time that their personal information is collected. Members are reminded that the use or disclosure of this information for any other purpose is illegal. It is important for panel members to adhere strictly to the guidelines set out in the Conflict of Interest and Confidentiality Agreement for Review Committee Members, External Reviewers, and Observers.

Canadian Human Rights Act

The activities of CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC are subject to the Canadian Human Rights Act. See Purpose of Act.

Official Languages Act

All external reviewers and program staff must be aware of their obligations and rights under the Official Languages Act.