Internal Full Application Deadline Requirements

Meeting this deadline means:

• Submission of ROLA proposal.
• Submit your complete draft application in the ResearchNet portal.

Note: Applications can be returned upon request once they have been downloaded by Western Research. Please email researchoffice@uwo.ca to request the return of your application.

A structurally complete draft for institutional review will include:

• All application sections with updated draft content;
• The complete and final list of team members;
• Any partner organizations;
• All priority announcements you plan to include;
• Previous reviews and your updated response if you are resubmitting and including a response; and
• Any required attachments (including STRAC Attestations and/or Risk Assessment Form as required)

Please do not remove anyone from the team in order to submit for review as this has implications for Research Security requirements and eligibility checks.

Please do not include any placeholder text/attachments as this greatly reduces the effectiveness of the review and can result in errors not being caught prior to submission.

Note: A common delaying factor in submitting for the internal deadline is team member invitations not being accepted. Please complete the team member invites and various administrative elements of the applicatio

Applications will be reviewed in the order they are received in ResearchNet and applications received after the internal deadline will receive truncated reviews.

Final Check (recommended)

This step allows for a final check of the application while leaving enough time for applicants to make any necessary changes before 10 a.m. deadline day;

• Final version of the application submitted in the ResearchNet portal for a final check by your grants officer.

Note: If no errors are found in the final scan, then your GO will be in touch to schedule your application for final submission to CIHR.

External Full Application Requirements

Meeting this deadline means:

• Final version of the application submitted in the ResearchNet portal.

Note: When you submit your application in ResearchNet, it will be routed through Western Research for submission to CIHR prior to the sponsor deadline.

Narrative CV (New, Spring 2026)

CIHR is expecting to move to the tri-agency narrative style CV for the Spring 2026 Project Grant competition.  Additional information about the transition is available here.

Risk Assessment Form

If your research proposal involves one or more partner organizations from the private sector, the Nominated Principal Applicant will need to complete and upload a Risk Assessment Form with their application. 

• Additional information is available on the CIHR Research Security page and The National Security Guidelines for Research Partnerships

STRA Attestation Forms

If your research activities aim to advance any of the listed sensitive technology research areas, then a separate attestation form is required from each researcher with a named role on the grant application.

• Refer to the listed sensitive technology research areas page and Named Research Organizations page when completing your application. Additional information is available regarding CIHR Research Security and Policy on Sensitive Technology Research and Affiliations of Concern.

Note: Named roles include the Nominated Principal Applicant, Principal Applicants, Co-Applicants, Principal Knowledge Users, and Knowledge Users. It does not include Collaborators or other members of the research team not playing one of the applicant roles above (including, for example, graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, research staff, etc).

New Equalization Measures

Starting with the Fall 2024 Project Grant competition, CIHR will equalize Project Grant applications from nominated principal investigators (NPIs) who self-identify as a racialized person or who self-identify as a person with a disability. This intervention is based on the Tri-Agency Self-Identification Questionnaire, so please verify your responses as only those who self-identify as a racialized person/visible minority or having a disability will be eligible for this new equalization measure. Note: CIHR already equalizes in the Project Grant program, when needed, for early career researcher NPIs, female NPIs and applications submitted in French.

RCT & CMZ Headings and Evaluation Criteria

The headings and evaluation criteria for applicants submitting a randomized control trial (RCT) as a major component of their research proposal will be changing. In addition, based on feedback from peer reviewers, projects submitted to the commercialization (CMZ) peer review committee will need to adhere to a prescribed structure of research proposal headings.

Limiting Supplementary Attachments 

Items like publications, supplementary figures, & consent forms will no longer be permitted. Please consult the Project Grant application instructions for more information.

Formatting

CIHR is more strictly enforcing alignment with font and formatting requirements and reserves the right to withdraw your application if it does not meet these requirements, including larger margins of 0.79” / 2 cm (previous requirement was 0.75”) that contain no information, and single line spacing (NOT 6 lines of text per inch) with no condensed or narrow fonts.

Note: CIHR has implemented an automated process that scans the applications for compliance for font, margins, and line spacing that is able to catch even the smallest deviations that our reviews cannot.  Applicants are responsible for ensuring that all attachments comply with all formatting and spacing requirements. 

Attachment Template

CIHR has created a template for attachments with the new formatting. To avoid risk to your application, please use the provided template for all attachments and retain the template formatting.

• If you need to do any copy and pasting into the template, CIHR has suggested that you use the “merge formatting” toggle that appears by the text when you paste – see screenshot below
• If you would like more security in the process, you can also go into the options of Microsoft Word to change all pasting to default to “Merge Formatting” in the Advanced settings or through “Set Default Paste”.