Pre-announcement: Food Security and Climate Change in the Canadian North Initiative

CIHR is pleased to announce the launch of Development and Engagement Grants and Team Grants in Food Security and Climate Change in the Canadian North. This initiative is under the scientific leadership of the CIHR Institute of Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes.

This investment is part of Budget 2017’s commitment to support the government’s Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change and will enhance CIHR’s Environments and Health Signature Initiative.

In 2014, the Council of Canadian Academies released a report entitled, Aboriginal Food Security in Northern Canada: An Assessment of the State of Knowledge. This report documents the particularly serious and growing challenge of food security in Canada’s northern and remote Indigenous communities. Evidence from a variety of sources concludes that food insecurity among Northern Indigenous Peoples is a problem that requires urgent attention to address and mitigate the serious impacts it has on health and well-being.

The objectives of the Food Security and Climate Change in the Canadian North initiative are to:

• Create new knowledge about the magnitude and health effects of climate change on food security in the Canadian North and Northern Indigenous populations by incorporating Indigenous knowledge and land-based experience regarding traditional country food sources.
• Identify effective approaches, programs and policy to address food insecurity in the North through implementation science.
• Build capacity for multidisciplinary research in the area of food security and climate change in the Canadian North that has strong and meaningful engagement with Indigenous communities and organizations.

In the context of this initiative, the Canadian North includes Inuit Nunangat, the Territories and Northern remote areas of provinces that have documented high levels of food insecurity and are eligible for Nutrition North Canada (NNC). Eligibility is based solely on isolation factors. This criteria can be found on the NNC web site, along with a list of the eligible communities.

The Development and Engagement Grants will bring together Indigenous organizations, communities and others, including researchers, knowledge users and/or partners, to work together to develop projects and proposals that address food security and climate change in relation to Northern Indigenous Peoples and communities using a community-based research (CBR) approach. CIHR would like to highlight in this pre-announcement that Canadian non-governmental Indigenous community organizations, regional health authorities based in the North, and Canadian non-governmental organizations will be eligible applicants and these organizations can administer their own funds through a grant agreement with CIHR. The maximum amount per grant is $75,000 per year for up to 2 years, for a total of $150,000 per grant.

The Team Grants will bring together multidisciplinary teams of researchers, knowledge users and/or partners, to work together to address food security and climate change in the North. The maximum amount per grant is $375,000 per year for up to 4 years, for a total of $1,500,000 per grant.

To Learn More

The complete RFAs for the Development and Engagement Grants and the Team Grants will be posted on ResearchNet by the end of June 2018.

Date modified:

2018-06-04