Pre-announcement - Team Grants: Intervention Trial in Inflammation for Chronic Conditions – Evidence to Impact

The CIHR Institute of Infection and Immunity (III), Institute of Aging (IA), Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health (ICRH), Institute of Gender and Health (IGH), Institute of Musculoskeletal Health and Arthritis (IMHA), Institute of Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes (INMD) and the CIHR HIV/AIDS and Sexually-transmitted Blood-borne Infections (STBBI) Research Initiative, in collaboration with Johnson & Johnson Innovation - JLABS, Mitacs and the National Research Council of Canada are pleased to announce the upcoming funding opportunity for Team Grants: Intervention Trial in Inflammation for Chronic Conditions – Evidence to Impact.

Description

This funding opportunity represents the second component of the Health Challenges in Chronic Inflammation Phase 2 (HCCI2) initiative and will support intervention trials in humans with clinical impact on inflammation in chronic conditions and lead to greater availabilities of solutions and catalyze change in clinical practice and policy. This research will support clinical, behavioral, socio-structural and/or environmental interventions related to inflammation in chronic conditions in humans to ultimately support the optimization of healthcare delivery.

Specifically, it is anticipated that the research teams will investigate the repurposing or development of interventions for prevention, diagnosis, prediction of treatment response, and management of inflammation in chronic conditions, and/or the optimization of such interventions across the lifecycle and for different life stages and considering intersecting factors, such as sex, gender, age and other identity dimensions as well as co-morbidities.

This funding opportunity will support projects that are relevant to a minimum of two (2) of the CIHR Institutes collaborating on this funding opportunity, and that focus on at least one of the three following research areas:

1. Intervention trials in humans to repurpose or optimize existing solutions for inflammatory conditions with clinical impacts to human health.
2. Intervention trials in humans to demonstrate the safety, efficacy, and/or effectiveness of new solutions with demonstrated pre-clinical and/or clinical impacts with potential to benefit more than one chronic condition through shared biological, behavioral or socio-structural pathways of inflammation in relation to human health, including for population subgroups and for those in life stages that have been underrepresented in research.
3. Implementation and scale-up of any type of evidence-based interventions in humans that leads to clinical impacts on human health addressing inflammation in multiple chronic conditions from one setting to one or multiple other settings (e.g., between different communities

Additionally, this funding opportunity will also support projects relevant to HIV infection and/or other STBBIs that comprise elements of chronic inflammation.

Knowledge Mobilization Hub

To help facilitate the translation of solutions for inflammation in chronic conditions, additional funds will be provided at the full application stage to one successful team that would like to lead a dedicated Knowledge Mobilization Hub. The successful Hub grantees will be responsible for supporting the knowledge mobilization activities of all the funded research teams.

Objectives

The specific objectives of the funding opportunity are to:

• Utilize knowledge on shared inflammation pathways in intervention trials in humans with the objective of improving prevention or management of inflammation in people living with or at risk of developing chronic conditions.
• Equitably improve health outcomes for population subgroups that have been underrepresented in research (e.g., women, LGBTQIA/2S populations, racialized Canadians, Indigenous Peoples, pregnant people) and those across life stages (e.g., children, older adults) through proven effective evidence-based interventions to address the health effects of inflammation.
• Accelerate the mobilization of knowledge and translation of research outcomes into proven and effective solutions and interventions to benefit multiple chronic conditions through early engagement, sustained and meaningful collaboration with people with lived/living experience, knowledge users, inflammation researchers and researchers from other disciplines.
• Foster a high-quality, interdisciplinary training and mentoring environment to increase capacity and prepare a diverse next generation of leaders to address inflammation in chronic conditions.

Funds available

The total amount available from CIHR for this funding opportunity is $8,740,000, to fund:

• Eight (8) Letters of Intent (LOI) – maximum amount per LOI is $20,000 for one year of funding.
• Four (4) research team grants - maximum amount per research grant is $500,000 per year for up to 4 years, for a total of $2,000,000 per grant.
• One (1) Knowledge Mobilization Hub - maximum amount of $145,000 per year for up to 4 years, for a total of $580,000.

Additional support is available from three applicant-level partners. Mitacs funding is available through the Mitacs Accelerate and Elevate programs to support trainees of successful teams of this funding opportunity. The National Research Council of Canada can support one (1) project to accelerate the development of inflammation-targeting biologics, inhibitors and approaches targeting inflammasomes and immunomodulation with focus on cancer and neurological diseases. The NRC’s Human Health Therapeutics (HHT) research center is interested to provide its expertise in biomanufacturing optimization to add value in preclinical development. Additionally, Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JLABS will have mentor resources available for interested applicants, covering all stages from early drug discovery through clinical drug development and approval.

Anticipated Timelines*

Launch: September 2022
Letter of Intent Deadline: November 2022
Notice of Decision (LOI): April 2023
Strengthening Workshop: Summer 2023
Full Application Deadline: December 2023
Notice of Decision (Full Application): May 2024
Funding Start Date: June 2024

* These timelines are estimates and subject to change.

Contact information

For all inquiries please contact:

CIHR Contact Centre 
Telephone: 613-954-1968 
Toll Free: 1-888-603-4178 
Email: support-soutien@cihr-irsc.gc.ca 

Disclaimer: The information contained in this pre-announcement is subject to change and does not commit CIHR or partners to the requirements outlined in this version. The final funding opportunity will be published by CIHR in the Funding Opportunity Database in ResearchNet. 

Date modified:

2022-07-21