Paper long abstract:

Under the title of "Acceptance, Challenge & Dollars", in 2009 the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR) invited anthropologists studying health to apply to their funding agency. This invitation came as the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), the traditional source of anthropological funding, cut back grants for health-related research. Many anthropologists are concerned; while some researchers have had success with CIHR, there remains apprehension that government targeted funding priorities, prevailing positivist paradigms, and little evidence of a social science interdisciplinary lens within the peer review process of CIHR have resulted in a cool reception for anthropologists' applications. This paper reports on the roundtable forum, held in June 2010 at the annual meetings of the Canadian Anthropology Society/Société canadienne anthropologie, which engaged directly with senior representatives of the CIHR and the SSHRC to address these concerns regarding the new funding of health related anthropological research in Canada.