What Factors are Important to the Success of Resubmitted Grant Applications in Health Research? A Retrospective Study of Over 20,000 Applications to the Canadian Institutes of Health Research

Background In this retrospective study, we investigated the outcomes (funded/not funded) and factors related to the funding of resubmitted applications to the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Open Operating Grants Competition and Project Grant Competition between 2000 and 2022. Method and Findings The primary outcome was the proportion of resubmissions and new applications that were funded. Using a random forest model, we explored the importance of variables related to the success of resubmissions. A higher proportion of resubmissions (∼23%) were funded compared to new submissions (∼12%). The most important variables related to resubmission success were the rank (%) and score (/5) given to the preceding (initial) application and the number of the number of CIHR-funded grants where the PI was a named team member. Conclusion Resubmitting applications to the CIHR Project Grant Competition was beneficial, particularly for projects that were previously highly ranked and received high scores. These results may offer guidance for researchers who are deciding whether to resubmit rejected applications.