Federal Granting Agency: CIHR

CIHR Project Grants

Spring 2027 Deadlines, Eligibility, CV and Review Guide

The CIHR Project Grant is CIHR's investigator-initiated health research program, with two competitions a year open to researchers at any career stage in all areas of health. The next is Spring 2027: registration is due February 3, 2027 and the full application March 3, 2027, with the Notice of Decision anticipated July 21, 2027 and funding from October 1, 2027. In the Spring 2026 competition, CIHR funded 439 of 3,344 applications, a 13.1% success rate.

Facts checked against cihr-irsc.gc.ca and ResearchNet on November 13, 2026.

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What is the CIHR Project Grant

The Project Grant program is designed to capture ideas with the greatest potential to advance health-related fundamental or applied knowledge, health research, health care, health systems and/or health outcomes. It supports research projects proposed and conducted by individual researchers or groups of researchers, at any career stage, in all areas of health, from discovery to application, including commercialization and knowledge translation.

CIHR runs two Project Grant competitions a year, in the fall and in the spring, each with a registration deadline four weeks before the application deadline. The current funding opportunity covers both the Fall 2026 and the Spring 2027 competitions, with about $800 million available across the two. Within each competition, $20 million is set aside for large grants (the top 2% of requested amounts) and $18.4 million (4.6%) for applications with an Indigenous health research focus.

Applications go through ResearchNet in two steps, registration and full application, and follow CIHR's eApproval process: the submitted application is routed electronically to the Institution Paid, which approves it on the applicant's behalf. The research proposal is limited to 10 pages in English or 12 pages in French, and academic applicants in Canada submit a CIHR Biosketch CV through the Canadian Common CV (CCV).

Official CIHR Project Grant program page

Project Grant key dates: Spring 2027 and Fall 2026

From the ResearchNet funding opportunity "Project Grant: Fall 2026 and Spring 2027" (launched June 30, 2026) and CIHR's Project Grant page.

Competition	Registration deadline	Application deadline	Notice of Decision	Funding start
Spring 2027 (202703PJT): next competition	February 3, 2027	March 3, 2027	July 21, 2027 (anticipated)	October 1, 2027
Fall 2026 (202609PJT): closed	August 12, 2026, 20:00 ET	September 9, 2026, 20:00 ET	January 28, 2027 (Notice of Recommendation January 14, 2027)	April 1, 2027

ResearchNet lists the Spring 2027 dates without a time of day; the Fall 2026 deadlines were 20:00 ET. Because the Institution Paid approves each application through eApproval, check your institution's internal deadline, which comes before CIHR's.

Funding available and recent success rates

From CIHR's official Project Grant results pages. CIHR's success rates exclude Priority Announcement and bridge grants.

Competition	Applications	Grants funded	Success rate	Total investment	Average grant
Spring 2026	3,344	439	13.1%	About $412 million	$935,663 over 4.44 years
Fall 2025	3,101	421	13.6%	About $413 million	$979,653 over 4.54 years

In both competitions CIHR applied an across-the-board reduction of 23.5% to the budgets of funded applications so it could fund more highly ranked projects. Results for Fall 2026 follow its Notice of Decision on January 28, 2027.

Eligibility

From the Fall 2026 and Spring 2027 funding opportunity. Every requirement must be met for an application to be eligible.

The Nominated Principal Applicant (NPA) must be an independent researcher or a knowledge user affiliated with a Canadian postsecondary institution and/or its affiliated institutions (including hospitals, research institutes and other non-profit organizations with a health research or knowledge translation mandate) at the time of funding. If the NPA is a knowledge user, at least one Principal Applicant must be an independent researcher.
An individual affiliated with an Indigenous non-governmental organization in Canada with a research and/or knowledge translation mandate, or such an organization itself, can also be the NPA.
The NPA must have their substantive role in Canada for the whole grant term, and the Institution Paid must be authorized to administer CIHR funds before funding is released.
Principal Applicants (optional) must be independent researchers or knowledge users, not trainees or people in a subordinate position on the research. Co-Applicants (optional) can be independent researchers, knowledge users, trainees or others.
The NPA must complete one of CIHR's online sex- and gender-based analysis training modules and upload the Certificate of Completion.
An individual or organization can submit no more than two Project Grant applications per competition as NPA; CIHR automatically withdraws extra applications, starting with the last one submitted.
Applications must comply with CIHR's Policy on Identical / Essentially Identical Applications.

How to apply in ResearchNet

A registration must be submitted to be eligible to submit a full application.

Before you start

Every participant except collaborators needs a CIHR PIN, completes the Tri-Agency Self-identification Questionnaire and keeps their My CIHR Profile up to date, including the correct Primary Affiliation.

Registration (Spring 2027: February 3, 2027)

Identify participants (the NPA cannot change between registration and application; others can), enter proposal information, complete the summary (a missing summary withdraws the registration), enter budget information and suggest up to two peer review committees with a justification. No CV is needed at registration.

Full application (Spring 2027: March 3, 2027)

Add CVs, the research proposal (10 pages in English, 12 in French) with references as a separate document, the budget justification, the SGBA+ training certificate and any mandatory attachments, and choose up to three Priority Announcements. Information entered at registration is pre-populated.

Research security forms

If any partner organization is from the private sector, attach a Risk Assessment Form covering all of them, with a risk mitigation plan. If the research aims to advance a listed Sensitive Technology Research Area, every researcher with a named role completes a STRAC attestation form, combined into one PDF. Peer reviewers see neither.

eApproval and submission

When the NPA submits, the application goes electronically to the Institution Paid, which reviews it and submits its approval to CIHR. The NPA can delegate access to up to five people, separately at each stage.

CV requirements: CCV now, tri-agency CV not before Fall 2027

For the Fall 2026 and Spring 2027 competitions, all academic applicants working or residing in Canada, whatever their role, upload a CIHR Biosketch CV completed through the Canadian Common CV (CCV). Knowledge users, non-academics, Indigenous organizations and international applicants can submit either a Biosketch CV or an Applicant Profile CV of up to three pages, which must include 5 to 10 expertise keywords. Collaborators do not submit a CV, and no CV is needed at registration.

CIHR is moving its competitions to a narrative-style tri-agency CV, but has confirmed it will not be used for the Project Grant competition until Fall 2027 at the earliest, with at least a year's notice before it is implemented. Each funding opportunity states which CV format it requires.

How applications are reviewed and scored

Two criteria

Criterion 1, Concept: significance and impact of the research. Criterion 2, Feasibility: approaches and methods, and expertise, experience and resources. Randomized controlled trials, commercialization, Indigenous health research and Tri-Agency Interdisciplinary applications have additional criteria or headings.

Three reviewers per application

Committee Chairs, Scientific Officers and CIHR staff assign each application to three committee members based on declared expertise; each reviewer receives a maximum of 8 to 10 applications. External referees can be added when specific expertise is needed.

Streamlining and discussion

Committees focus their discussion on the top 40% of applications by preliminary rating; the rest are streamlined unless a member objects. For discussed applications, the reviewers reach a consensus score and every member votes within plus or minus 0.5 of it.

From score to funding

Applications are rated 0 to 4.9, ranked within their committee and converted to a percent rank. Those rated 3.5 or higher are funded across committees in percent-rank order until funds run out, and CIHR equalizes success rates for early career researchers, female NPAs, French-language applications and NPAs who self-identify as racialized or as a person with a disability.

Recommendation, then decision

The Notice of Recommendation shows your percent rank zone about two weeks before the Notice of Decision, so you can decide whether to resubmit. At 90% and above an application will be funded; from 75% to 89.99% it may be; below 75% it will not receive full grant funding.

DORA

Peer review follows the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment: reviewers are asked not to use journal-based metrics, such as Journal Impact Factors, as a surrogate for the quality of individual publications.

Sex- and Gender-Based Analysis Plus (SGBA+)

The NPA must complete one of the sex- and gender-based analysis training modules from the CIHR Institute of Gender and Health (Sex and Gender in Biomedical Research; Sex and Gender in Primary Data Collection with Human Participants; or Sex and Gender in the Analysis of Secondary Data from Human Participants) and upload the Certificate of Completion. All applicants must integrate sex and gender into their research design, methods, analysis and interpretation, and/or dissemination of findings when applicable; addressing them only in the sex and gender textbox is not enough.

Reviewers assess whether sex- and gender-based analysis is a strength, a weakness or not applicable, and that assessment is reflected in their written evaluation and the overall score. CIHR defines sex as a set of biological attributes and gender as socially constructed roles, behaviours, expressions and identities, and applies SGBA within a diversity framework that considers factors such as ethnicity, socioeconomic status, disability, sexual orientation, migration status, age and geography.

Knowledge translation and commercialization

The Project Grant funds knowledge translation projects as well as discovery research, and when applicable, reviewers consider knowledge translation and commercialization approaches and the opportunities to apply findings nationally and internationally. There is no formal partnering requirement, but depending on the proposal, peer reviewers may reasonably expect a commitment from engaged knowledge users or other partners. Reasonable knowledge translation, networking, commercialization (including patent costs for the IP) and community-based research expenses are eligible if justified. Proposals with a randomized controlled trial as a major component must follow CIHR's RCT headings, which include a trial knowledge translation plan, and commercialization proposals for the Commercialization committee must include a Research and Technical Plan and a Commercialization Plan.

Budget rules

Funding levels are proportionate to the requirements of the research proposed; there is no fixed grant amount.
Enter budget amounts as totals for the whole grant, not yearly amounts; CIHR divides the total equally across the years of the project.
Round each category to a multiple of $1,000, and make the total request a multiple of $5,000. Justify each category in up to 3,500 characters; eligible expenses follow the Tri-Agency Guide on Financial Administration.
An RCT requesting $250,000 or more in any funding year must go to the RCT peer review committee.
An application requesting more than the large-grant envelope ($20 million per competition) is withdrawn.
Information for the public, such as websites, pamphlets and guidelines, must be in English and French, accessible to screen readers and written in plain language; translation costs are eligible.

Where GrantOps fits

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CIHR Project Grants frequently asked questions

When is the next CIHR Project Grant deadline?

The next competition is Spring 2027: the registration deadline is February 3, 2027 and the application deadline is March 3, 2027, with the Notice of Decision anticipated on July 21, 2027 and funding starting October 1, 2027. The most recent competition, Fall 2026, had a registration deadline of August 12, 2026 and an application deadline of September 9, 2026 (20:00 ET); its Notice of Recommendation is due January 14, 2027, its Notice of Decision January 28, 2027, and funding starts April 1, 2027.

Do I need a CCV for the CIHR Project Grant?

Yes, if you are an academic applicant working or residing in Canada: whatever your role on the application, you upload a CIHR Biosketch CV completed through the Canadian Common CV (CCV). Knowledge users, non-academics, Indigenous organizations and international applicants can submit a Biosketch CV or an Applicant Profile CV of up to three pages. Collaborators do not need a CV, and no CV is required at registration. CIHR has said the narrative-style tri-agency CV will not be used for the Project Grant until Fall 2027 at the earliest, with at least a year's notice.

Who is eligible to apply for a CIHR Project Grant?

The Nominated Principal Applicant must be an independent researcher or knowledge user affiliated with a Canadian postsecondary institution or its affiliated institutions (such as hospitals and research institutes) at the time of funding, or an individual affiliated with, or itself, an Indigenous non-governmental organization in Canada with a research or knowledge translation mandate. The NPA must have their substantive role in Canada for the grant term and complete a sex- and gender-based analysis training module, and the Institution Paid must be authorized to administer CIHR funds. If the NPA is a knowledge user, at least one Principal Applicant must be an independent researcher.

How many Project Grant applications can I submit per competition?

Up to two as Nominated Principal Applicant. If you submit more, CIHR automatically withdraws the last ones submitted, based on their timestamp. If one of your applications is approved for full funding above the cut-off, your second application in the same competition is not eligible for the equalization measures.

What is the CIHR Project Grant success rate?

In the Spring 2026 competition, CIHR funded 439 of 3,344 applications, a 13.1% success rate, for about $412 million. In Fall 2025 it funded 421 of 3,101 applications (13.6%), for about $413 million. These success rates exclude Priority Announcement and bridge grants. Fall 2026 results follow the Notice of Decision on January 28, 2027.

How much does a CIHR Project Grant pay?

There is no fixed amount: funding is proportionate to the requirements of the research proposed. In Spring 2026 the average grant was $935,663 over 4.44 years, after a 23.5% across-the-board reduction to the budgets of funded applications. About $800 million is available across the Fall 2026 and Spring 2027 competitions, with $20 million per competition for large grants (the top 2% of requested amounts); an application requesting more than that envelope is withdrawn.

What does CIHR require for SGBA+?

The NPA must complete one of the CIHR Institute of Gender and Health's online sex- and gender-based analysis training modules and upload the Certificate of Completion. Applicants must integrate sex and gender into the research design, methods, analysis and interpretation, and/or dissemination when applicable, and addressing them only in the dedicated textbox is not enough. Reviewers assess sex- and gender-based analysis as a strength, a weakness or not applicable, and this is reflected in their score.

How are Project Grant applications reviewed?

Each application is assigned to three reviewers on a peer review committee. Committees focus their discussion on the top 40% of applications by preliminary rating, and the rest are streamlined unless a member objects. Applications are assessed on Concept (significance and impact) and Feasibility (approaches and methods; expertise, experience and resources), rated 0 to 4.9, ranked within their committee and converted to a percent rank. Those rated 3.5 or higher are funded in percent-rank order until the budget runs out, with equalization for designated groups.

Can I resubmit an unsuccessful Project Grant application?

Yes. Unsuccessful applicants can resubmit to a later Project Grant competition, and the Notice of Recommendation arrives about two weeks before the Notice of Decision to help you decide. You can include a response to previous reviews of up to 2 pages in English or 2.5 pages in French, and you must attach all the reviews and Scientific Officer notes from the competition you respond to. Reviewers treat resubmissions as new applications.

Does the Project Grant require a knowledge translation plan or partners?

There is no formal partnering requirement, although peer reviewers may reasonably expect a commitment from engaged knowledge users or partners, depending on the proposal. Reviewers consider knowledge translation and commercialization approaches when applicable, and these costs are eligible if justified. Proposals with a randomized controlled trial as a major component must follow the RCT headings, which include a trial knowledge translation plan, and commercialization proposals need a Research and Technical Plan and a Commercialization Plan.

What research security forms apply to the Project Grant?

If the proposal involves one or more private-sector partner organizations, you attach a Risk Assessment Form covering all of them, with a risk mitigation plan, under the National Security Guidelines for Research Partnerships. If the research aims to advance a listed Sensitive Technology Research Area, every researcher with a named role completes a STRAC attestation form. Peer reviewers do not see these forms, and CIHR can terminate or suspend funding if the Government of Canada determines an unacceptable national security risk.

Can Foundation Grant holders apply to the Project Grant?

Yes, within limits. A Foundation Grant holder in the role of Program Leader can apply as Nominated Principal Applicant or Principal Applicant only in the 18 months before the Foundation Grant expiry date, and is subject to the same application limits as other applicants. The most recent Foundation Grant cohort CIHR lists (the 2018-19 competition) had grants expiring June 30, 2026, and CIHR is moving the funding previously allocated to the Foundation Grant program into the Project Grant program as it becomes available.

Primary sources

Every figure on this page comes from these official CIHR and ResearchNet pages, read on November 13, 2026. CIHR updates its pages without notice and is consulting on changes to the Project Grant program; confirm the details on the official page before you apply.

Project Grant Program (CIHR), including the next important dateshttps://cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/49051.html (read November 13, 2026)
Funding opportunity: Project Grant, Fall 2026 and Spring 2027 (ResearchNet)https://www.researchnet-recherchenet.ca/rnr16/vwOpprtntyDtls.do?progCd=11435&language=E&org=CIHR (read November 13, 2026)
Project Grant Program: Application Processhttps://cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/49806.html (read November 13, 2026)
Project Grant: Application Instructionshttps://cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/49560.html (read November 13, 2026)
Peer Review Manual: Project Granthttps://cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/49807.html (read November 13, 2026)
Project Grant Program: Results (funding decision process)https://cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/51315.html (read November 13, 2026)
Project Grant: Spring 2026 resultshttps://cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/54787.html (read November 13, 2026)
Project Grant: Fall 2025 resultshttps://cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/54594.html (read November 13, 2026)
Update on CIHR's transition to the tri-agency CV (March 19, 2026)https://cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/54668.html (read November 13, 2026)
Update on the Fall 2026 Project Grant competition (July 8, 2026)https://cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/54778.html (read November 13, 2026)
How to integrate sex and gender into researchhttps://cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/50836.html (read November 13, 2026)
Transition planning considerations for Foundation Grant holdershttps://cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/51600.html (read November 13, 2026)

Questions about a specific application go to the CIHR Contact Centre: support-soutien@cihr-irsc.gc.ca, 613-954-1968 or 1-888-603-4178 (toll free).

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