The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) is Canada’s federal funding agency for health research. CIHR provides leadership and close to $1 billion in funding to support more than 13,700 health researchers and trainees across Canada.
As announced on July 28, 2015 by Minister of Health Rona Ambrose, over $600 million is being awarded through CIHR to support 650 health research projects and programs of research from across Canada. This includes the first 150 recipients of the new CIHR Foundation Grants which will provide long-term support for Canada’s research leaders to undertake innovative and high impact programs of research.
Twenty-three of the Foundation Grants were awarded to new/early career researchers who have demonstrated high potential early in their research careers. The average total grant size of a Foundation Grant is of $2.7M over 5 to 7 years.
A total of 500 grants were also awarded from the CIHR Open Operating Grants competition which invests in research projects proposed by researchers across the full spectrum of health. Recipients of these grants were selected through a rigorous peer-review process. Over 1000 peer reviewers dedicated their time and expertise to review the research proposals.
These are examples of projects that will be carried out by grant recipients across the country:
- Dr. Janice Eng at the University of British Columbia will develop, evaluate and implement new treatments to improve the recovery and health of Canadians who are living with the effects of a stroke.
- Dr. Lonnie Zwaigenbaum at the University of Alberta will improve early detection, diagnosis and treatment for children with autism spectrum disorder.
- Dr. Tracie Afifi at the University of Manitoba will look for new ways to prevent child abuse and strengthen Canadian families.
- Dr. Yvonne Bombard at the University of Toronto will improve the evaluation of new genomic technologies and their adoption in clinical practice.
- Dr. Eric Boilard at Université Laval in Quebec City will explore the role of blood platelets in disease and identify targets for the development of new treatments for diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis.
* Since some of the applications were approved conditional on meeting certain conditions, these specific applications will not appear in the CIHR funding database until and unless conditions are met.
