Canada Research Chairs—10th-year Evaluation

The Canada Research Chairs Program, created in 2000, is currently undergoing its 10th-year evaluation. The consulting group Science-Metrix has been contracted to conduct the evaluation on behalf of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI). This is a routine program evaluation that is required by the federal government every five years. Given that this is the 10th anniversary of the Chairs program, the main evaluation objectives are to identify the successes of the program to date, to learn from our collective experiences, and to specify areas for improvement in order to ensure the program’s future success.

Data collection phase

The data collection phase of the evaluation process will take place between March and June 2010. As a result, Science-Metrix will be contacting a number of stakeholders in the near future to request their voluntary participation in one or more of the following activities:

1. a web survey of all universities’ vice-presidents of research and interviews with selected vice-presidents of research;
2. a web survey of all chairholders;
3. interviews with selected chairholders and their current and/or former students;
4. interviews with selected non-renewed chairs, unsuccessful chair applicants, researchers who declined/resigned a chair position, and Canadian expatriate researchers;
5. interviews with chairholders from the four designated groups and with unsuccessful chair applicants from the four designated groups;
6. a web survey of a sample of non-chair SSHRC, NSERC and CIHR grant holders (to serve as a comparison group); and
7. four focus groups with chairholders’ students that will take place in four locations across the country (Halifax, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver).

Timelines and key deliverables

Please note that the timelines for the Chairs program evaluation have changed. The final evaluation report and the management response are expected to be released publicly in early 2011.  

* subject to change

If you have any questions about this evaluation, please contact Shannon Clark Larkin, evaluation manager, Corporate Performance and Evaluation, SSHRC: 613-944-6232; shannon.clark-larkin@sshrc-crsh.gc.ca.