Thank you @CIHR_IRSC for the effort to address the concerns of the research community. It’s not easy to lead in times like these. However, the decision still does not add up and should be reconsidered. 1/7 https://twitter.com/CIHR_IRSC/status/1246209814306476032

In yesterday’s announcement, literally 3 of the 5 reasons provided were related to reviewers being unavailable. Today this rationale is abandoned, and it seems that reviewers were never consulted in the first place. 2/7

The key rationale provided today is that it will be too hard to move online. Yet thousands of organizations around the world, including universities, have rapidly moved operations and meetings online. 3/7

Why can our peer institutions in other countries manage this but we cannot? @NIH did so in a matter of days. @The_MRC figured it out. Why does @CIHR_IRSC let itself be outpaced? @NavdeepSBains @PattyHajdu 4/7

Blaming “IT limitations (bandwidth)” and “the office is closed” as key obstacles to an online process is, frankly, embarrassing. Much of the western world is now videoconferencing and collaborating from home, often with far fewer resources than the CIHR. 5/7

This decision is amateur hour. It is a stain on the reputation of CIHR that will damage Canadian research and careers for years to come. 6/7

It is not too late to reconsider this decision. The competition can be delayed, but cancelling is an abdication of responsibility at the time when the world needs health research the most. 7/7