I don't know the man, but if he has research credentials and he's affiliated with a hospital or university, he would certainly be eligible. We have two types of programs.
We have targeted programs. For instance, we could decide with Veterans Affairs or National Defence to pool some money on a targeted program to answer specific questions. Then, once we determine what the question is, it's an open call for competition. Everyone who has the credentials and the research training is allowed to apply to CIHR.
In addition to that, we have a fully open program so that anyone, any researcher in the land with the right credentials and proper affiliation, can apply to CIHR through our open grants competition with any good idea that he or she may have.
So there are two parallel mechanisms. In each case, you have to go through a competition. It's reviewed by experts, and only the very best proposals, and the ones that are methodologically sound, that have sound hypotheses, that are anchored in reality, will get funded.