CIHR hikes grants

CMAJ would like to correct and clarify aspects of the article, “CIHR hikes grants to young researchers,” by Paul Webster, published online May 16, 2016.

Paragraph 3 states: “The CIHR [Canadian Institutes of Health Research] rejects both ideas, said Peggy Borbey, director general of CIHR’s Investigator-Initiated Research Branch.” In fact, the journalist was paraphrasing Michel Perron, CIHR vice-president external affairs and business development. Regarding the call for a national summit, CIHR President Dr. Alain Beaudet is on the record as stating that CIHR would be “pleased to participate in such an event as appropriate.” On the matter of the call for an independent, international review, Perron said there is not yet enough evidence after only one round of grants for such a review, and that these reviews are routinely done by CIHR every five years (next one in 2019/2020). However, Beaudet recently announced that an international, external review of the peer review process is being fast-tracked to late 2017.

Paragraph 5 states: “ ‘We received a troubling signal about the future of research and we want to address it,’ Borbey added.” In fact, Perron made the statement, not Borbey. It was also a paraphrase, rather than a direct quote.

The second part of this quote states: “We now expect that ECIs [early-career investigators] will do very well in the next round.” It is attributed to Borbey, which is correct, but is in fact a paraphrase, not a direct quote.

CMAJ sincerely apologizes for these errors.