Applicant resource: How to highlight your research contributions and impacts
July 2023
CIHR is committed to funding excellent research. An important part of that is recognizing a wide range of research outputs in the review process and ensuring that researchers’ work is assessed on its own merits.
CIHR wants to ensure that peer reviewers look beyond the traditional indicators of productivity when assessing contributions and impacts. We ask peer reviewers to avoid using metrics (e.g. number of publications and citations; size/number of research grants) in isolation and to avoid using journal-based metrics (e.g. Journal Impact Factors) as surrogate measures of quality and impact.
Historically valued
- Publications and citations
- Reports and books
- Prestigious awards
- Number/size of grants
- Knowledge mobilization outputs & activities
Other valuable research outputs
- Influence on policy and practice
- Public engagement (including public, patients, providers, policymakers/government, researchers, industry, mainstream and social media)
- Community-based participatory research
- Training & mentorship
- Volunteerism
- Guidelines, standards, software and tools
- Networks, collaborations and partnerships
- Datasets, code and infrastructure development
- Commercialized and open-access products
Tips
- Think broadly when choosing contributions and impacts to highlight
- Include indicators of quality (e.g., distinctions-based, meaningful and culturally safe health research) and impact (e.g., influence on policy and practice, health and societal outcomes) directly
- If relevant, provide context to support peer reviewers in assessing your track record (e.g., leave history, career stage, area(s) of research, experiential knowledge and lived and living experience, diverse career paths, family responsibilities, pandemic impact, barriers to entry facing individuals from underrepresented, rights-holding and/or equity-deserving groups)
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