CIHR 2012 DRA results?

[Mike Slackenerny]

Hi,

I don't think there has been a thread created for this year's CIHR results. I applied in October 2011 for CIHR DRA. Does anyone know when the results will be announced this year? I'm not sure, but I think it was announced near the end of March last year...

It would be greatly appreciated if anyone has any insights...

Anxiously waiting in Toronto

[3minutes]

I have also applied for CIHR DRA this year. As far as I saw on their website, the "tentative" announcement is April 16, 2012.

A friend of mine applied for the CIHR Master's Award last year and had received her rejection in January. I was wondering if the doctoral award also sent out early rejections or was it all announced on one day?

Very nervous! Hopefully you get the award! I'm also from UofT and it's quite nerve-wracking waiting for the decision!

[Degelman]

Hey Kaip,

All results are given out at the same time. If your friend got negative results in Jan, it must have been an internal decision at her university. Most of the decisions at the Master's level are done at the uni, to fill their quota. Then CIHR sends the offical results, which means most students forwarded on to CIHR get the award. (at least 80% accepted looking at my previous offer letter)

I previously held the CIHR Master's award, and I have applied for this year's DRA. Results from CIHR are given out on Research Net (and an email is sent automated from the site) on the specific decision date. CIHR is usually right on time! Vanier results come out on the 15th, so I am guessing they need to give these out before the DRA.

Good luck to all!

[3minutes]

Thanks for the information Degelman! I'm extemely nervous, hopefully we both get it

[Mike Slackenerny]

I noticed that the Vanier results are out today. I think they were also expected to be announced around April 15. I wonder if this affects the CIHR DRA results as well. I've been looking forward to this for a couple of months, but several of my friends who had been forwarded for the Vanier award got rejected...it's a little discouraging. I hope they haven't reduced the number of successful applicants from last year.

Anyways, Thanks for the replies guys. Good luck

[3minutes]

Vanier results are already out? Hm, that's odd. Why so early?

[Mike Slackenerny]

Not sure...but they were released yesterday even though the expected date was April 15th. Since the DRA results were supposed to be expected a day later, I sent an email asking if the results for the DRA will be released earlier as well... This was the response that I got.

On 4/3/2012 8:25 AM, Doctoral Research Award (DRA) wrote:

Thank you for your enquiry.

The results of October 2011 CIHR Doctoral Research Award will be released as of April 16, 2012 through ResearchNet.

Sincerely,

Marie-Josée Lefebvre

Program Delivery Coordinator /

Coordonnatrice à l'exécution des programmes

Student Awards Division

/Division des bourses aux étudiants

Research Capacity Development /

Développement de la capacité en recherche

Tel. / Tél.: 613-946-0093

Fax / Téléc.: 613-954-1800

CIHR / IRSC

Room 97, 160 Elgin Street / 160, rue Elgin, bureau 97

Address locator: 4809A / Indice de l'adresse : 4809A

[3minutes]

Well, thanks for sending out an e-mail. I guess we'll just have to sit tight!

[Mike Slackenerny]

No worries.

[KathrynMorrison]

I'm waiting to hear too, good luck everyone!!

[Mike Slackenerny]

One week to go....

[3minutes]

Ah, I know!

I keep assuming I won't be receiving the grant so my hopes aren't raised.

But a part of me is still hoping that I will. I'm hoping that receiving a Master's level SSHRC would help me in some way, buy I'm not counting on it.

[3minutes]

To anyone who knows (or Mike specifically haha), how many students are awarded the CIHR DRA each year? I'm trying to figure out how many apply as well.

[MissionRNAi]

Hi everyone,

Check out this PDF. http://wikisites.mcgill.ca/djgroup/images/5/51/DRA_teleconference_(English)_-_Jan2012_.pdf

Fall 2011 Competition

CIHR received approximately 1600 applications for this awards program.

CIHR will fund up to 10 DFSA and roughly 180 CGS-D awards

[3minutes]

Thank you for the link.

1600 applications?

That seems so excessive for the CIHR DRA.

Well, I'm screwed. No way am I beating out 1420 applicants for the award!

[Mike Slackenerny]

Thanks for the link.... 1600 has to be the highest number of applications thus far.

All I know is securing a CIHR really depends on how both your judges score you. Based on last year's results, if you got a score near 4.3-4.4 (out of 4.9), you would make the cut.

My friend had a judge who gave him 4.40, but his other judge gave him 4.03. His average of 4.22 wasn't enough to make the cut. I think he was in the DRA 'A' competition. There were 935(?) people who had applied and only the top 134(?) people recieved awards. He was ranked 215th.

Overall I think what kills you is if you get lower than 4.0 in any of the 8 weighted scores...unless you have really high scores otherwise.

I'm nervous about my chances as well.

[KathrynMorrison]

Less than a week to go! It's so stressful to wait. I feel like I have no idea how I would rank on these scores because I don't know how my application compares to the others. Does anyone have any idea what is considered "good" in terms of publications, grades, etc...?

[MissionRNAi]

I really think the # of publications is irrelevant. It really depends on the work that you're outputting. For example, in developmental biology, going from a screen to fully characterizing a gene may take years to complete and will result in only 1 or two publications (by the END of your PhD). Most of the people in my program do not have publications but have funding.

I think what matters more is truly the project and your lab/supervisor. We're all from different programs/fields though, so we may be judged differently.

[Mike Slackenerny]

I concur.

References count too. The difference between 3 good reference letters (4.0-4.4) and 3 excellent ones (4.5-4.9) can make a huge difference. Especially since they're worth 40%

[KathrynMorrison]

That's funny cause my supervisor was just saying how he's had students rejected with feedback that publication activity was too low. It probably really differs by discipline. I should stop thinking about it and just wait since there is nothing I can do about it now! And yet I can't stop obessing. I wonder what makes a reference letter worth 4.9 versus 4.4?

[Mike Slackenerny]

haha I totally understand. Its pretty easy to get anxious this time around. I guess I'll find out if my references rated me closer to a 4.4 or a 4.9 (or much much lower) when the scores come out. Most times they upload the decisions the night before, so Sunday evening may be reckoning day, provided researchnet does not crash

[Mike Slackenerny]

I've always wondered about this: Does it hurt your chances if you failed to get the award last year? Because in the application, you always have to state whether this is the first time you are applying to the DRA award. In that case, I wonder if the reviewers have access to your scores from the year before. Because this could always sway their judgement.

Edited April 11, 2012 by Mike Slackenerny

[MissionRNAi]

Hrm, I don't think it should hurt you....perhaps your application is significantly better? Maybe they will reward you if you've made significant progress !

Agh I am so stressed out about the award too. There really isn't any point in stressing out since it's completely out of my hands, but I just can't help it.

[Mike Slackenerny]

l guess so. This is my first time applying. Maybe a better question would have been whether most winners are first time applicants.

In any case...I think I'm going out of my mind as well. I keep going on researchnet every 2-3 hours even though I know I'll get an email notification on Sunday/Monday. I also frequent this forum being paranoid in case other people have already heard about their results. The most annoying thing is knowing the reviews were all finished in January, and they need 3 months to just rank and process all the awadees.

The odds look slim, but I really really really hope I won't be disappointed. This would really make up for a shitty 2-3 months of poor experiments and stressful classes.

Edited April 11, 2012 by Mike Slackenerny

[MissionRNAi]

Yeah, it sucks that you need to take so many courses in LMP. Me too, I am very paranoid about the release of the results. I actually couldn't believe that there were 1600 applicants...