Peer Review for Heath Research Funding in Canada:
Best Practices and Beyond

On November 22-23, 2002, a workshop was held in Aylmer, Quebec to discuss issues related to peer review in Canada. HSFC organized this event, which was attended by the major health research funding agencies in Canada, and members of the research community. Workshop objectives included sharing best practices, identifying peer review issues, identifying mechanisms for optimizing the peer review system and, finally, identifying opportunities for synergies between organizations.

A number of priority issues related to peer review were identified:

• Ongoing collaboration between agencies
• The use of technology to increase efficiencies and effectiveness
• Reviewer fatigue
• Consistency in peer review across the four research themes
• Conflict of interest 

The group generated many ideas on how to move forward in these areas. This workshop was viewed as an important step in efforts to collectively address the broader issues related to peer review in Canada. A  report of the workshop is available.