2009 Competition Results
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 up to two programs this competition, pending the recommendations of the review process, and sought applications within the following priority theme areas:
- Workforce and the work environment; and
- Quality and patient safety.
The competition emphasized:
- 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 a mix of decision makers and researchers. Decision makers included representatives from a provincial ministry, a regional health authority and a national health research funder; 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 two members from the eastern provinces, two from Ontario, two from Québec and three from the western provinces. Mr. Jack Altman and Ms. Judith Ritchie served as the panel co-chairs and Dr. François Champagne and Dr. Mark Bisby were the scientific officers for this full-scale application stage. All were instrumental in guiding the panel through the application review workload.
Results
Four applications were invited to the full-scale stage within the two priority theme areas of the Foundation: workforce and the work environment; and quality and patient safety. Of the four invited applicants, three submitted full-scale applications, which were reviewed by the merit review panel.
The merit review panel met on May 15, 2009 to review these applications and did not recommend any applications for funding. Using published review criteria, the panel rated the full-scale applications on two dimensions — potential impact and scientific merit. All teams will receive detailed feedback from the panel regarding the strengths and weaknesses of their proposals.
The following table shows the distribution of the REISS 2009 applications received by theme and region.
| Theme/Region | LOI* Eligible (Received) | FSA** Received (Invited) | FSA Recommended by Merit Review Panel |
| Workforce and the work environment | 6 (7) | 2 (1) | 0 |
| Quality and patient safety | 5 (7) | 1 (2) | 0 |
| Atlantic | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 |
| Quebec | 4 (4) | 3 (3) | 0 |
| Ontario | 4 (5) | 0 (0) | 0 |
| West | 3 (5) | 0 (1) | 0 |
| Total | 11 (14) | 3 (4) | 0 |
* letter of intent
** full-scale application
This was the last REISS competition; in 2009-2010 - the Foundation will be embarking on new strategic directions for research and research use programming.