Program Updates
August 16, 2010 | The Canada Research Chairs Secretariat has updated the interface and instructions within its online forms in preparation for nominations to be submitted on October 18, 2010.
The main changes are as follows:
- Research Support section in the Curriculum Vitae: Tier 1 renewal nominees may now list research support sources from the previous seven years.
- File attachment in the Curriculum Vitae: presentation format of the research contributions and publications record has now been updated.
- File attachment in the Nomination form:
- page limit of the proposed research program has been updated from 5 to 6 pages.
- the section "Exclusion of potential reviewers" now appears in the online form itself, rather than in the file attachment section.
- Nomination form: the section "Chair Information" now includes a new question asking whether a Tier 2 nominee has held a previous Tier 2 position within another institution.
For the nomination cycle of October 2010, nominations prepared using either version of the forms/instructions will be accepted by the Secretariat.
June 8, 2010 | The program's policy on teaching load reductions has been modified.
April 30, 2010 | The following changes are now in effect:
- The schedule of nomination deadlines has been updated.
- A "Renewal Calendar" is available to help institutions determine the last possible submission date for renewal nominations.
- Regarding letters of reference:
- Letters of reference can now be sent to the Secretariat directly by the nominating institution or by the referee.
- The Secretariat will no longer be systematically verifying letters of reference to ensure that they adhere to the program's conflict of interest policy, as it is the responsibility of the nominating institution to ensure that a conflict of interest does not exist between the nominee and the referee in cases where letters should be "conflict free".
- In instances where a conflict of interest must not be present, the letter must include a statement from the referee declaring that there is no conflict of interest.
- The Secretariat will no longer be editing the evaluations submitted by the College of Reviewers prior to them being sent to institutions.
March 8, 2010 | The Interdisciplinary Adjudication Committee met in November 2009 and in February 2010 to adjudicate the 2009-1 (April 2009) cycle of Canada Research Chair nominations.
January 11, 2010 | As of January 2010, a pre-screening process for Tier 2 justifications is being implemented as a one-year pilot.
January 7, 2010 | Deadline dates for the submission of Chairholder Annual Reports have been updated.
November 25, 2009 | If an initial nomination is not recommended for funding, the university can nominate the same nominee two more times, for a maximum of three nominations, should its chair allocation permit.
November 18, 2009 | The program has introduced the following important change: the effective start date of new Chairs may be no earlier than the first day of the month in which notification of the award occurred.
October 9, 2009 | As of the Spring of 2009, SSHRC is no longer funding research which falls under CIHR’s mandate. Effective immediately, this policy also applies to Canada Research Chairs allocations. Universities nominating researchers in the area of health must ensure that they nominate them under the appropriate agency chair allocation. For guidelines on how to select the appropriate agency allocation for your Canada Research Chairs nominations in the areas of the social sciences and humanities please consult SSHRC’s website.
To minimize the impact of this policy on universities, renewal nominations of researchers in a SSHRC allocation conducting health research which falls under CIHR’s mandate will be ‘grand-fathered’ and allowed to remain in a SSHRC allocation. Universities submitting new nominations in the area of health must ensure that they nominate them to the appropriate agency chair allocation. Universities are encouraged to use the corridor of flexibility to change a SSHRC allocation to a CIHR allocation if necessary.
October 6, 2009 | Information on the Emerging Negative Decision (END) process for renewal nominations that are not recommended for support by the Interdisciplinary Adjudication Committee has now been posted.
October 6, 2009 | A policy regarding chairholders as electoral candidates has been introduced. A university must inform the Secretariat if a chairholder is participating as a candidate in any election (municipal, provincial or federal). If the chairholder is successful in the election, the Chair will be terminated immediately and the phase-out period of six months for the payment of outstanding commitments or new expenditures from the balance in the Chair’s account will apply. If the chairholder is not successful, the leave may be terminated at the request of the university.
August 7, 2009 | SSHRC's Corporate, Performance and Evaluation Division has mandated Science-Metrix to carry out the tenth-year evaluation of the Canada Research Chairs program, in preparation for the renewal of the program’s terms and conditions.
August 7, 2009 | The program has clarified its policy on the duration of Tier 2 Chairs. If a researcher resigns from a Tier 2 Chair position at one university and accepts a Tier 2 Chair at another university, he or she cannot be nominated for a third term, regardless of the number of years in the initial term.
August 4, 2009 | The Secretariat recently updated its conflict of interest policy, which governs the peer review of Chair nominations by the College of Reviewers. Because Chair nominations are not in direct competition with one another, College members nominated in a given cycle may now review nominations from the same cycle.
July 27, 2009 | All nominations that include a Tier 2 justification are peer reviewed by IAC. Note that "administrative errors" (e.g. missing the renewal submission date) will not be accepted as a Tier 2 justification. Nominations that include a justification of that nature will be withdrawn from the nomination cycle by the Secretariat.
July 21, 2009 | The Interdisciplinary Adjudication Committee met in April 2009 and in June 2009 to adjudicate the 2008-2 (November 2008) cycle of Canada Research Chair nominations.
February 5, 2009 | The program has introduced the following important changes:
January 27, 2009 | The Chairs Program now has an open submission process for the nomination of foreign researchers.
January 19, 2009 | The schedule of nomination deadlines has been updated and the anticipated decision and announcement dates were changed.
December 12, 2008 | As per the SRP instructions, the submission of a paper copy of the Strategic Reseach Plan and of its summary is no longer required.
December 5, 2008 | The Chairs program is now operating with only two intake cycles per year.