Notice of Upcoming Funding Opportunity - Team Grants: Embracing Diversity to Achieve Precision and Increase Health Equity

Introduction

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and partners are pleased to announce the upcoming launch of The Team Grants: Embracing Diversity to Achieve Precision and Increase Health Equity.

Overview

The aim is to inspire a paradigm shift in health research where biological, behavioural, social and environmental diversity and structural determinants of health are considered and integrated, with particular emphasis on increasing health equity and inclusion of a diversity of populations who have historically experienced inequitable health outcomes in Canada.

Objectives

Fund new research that will improve health and achieve more equitable outcomes in nutrition, metabolic health and chronic high burden diseases, as well as sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections (STBBI), across the life course of diverse groups of people in Canada by:

1. Developing precision medicine approaches to characterize the variability in mechanisms of disease, prevention, detection, and to develop more effective interventions in terms of disease susceptibility, progression, resilience and reversibility, and treatment;
2. Increasing our understanding of interactions between structural, social, environmental, and biological determinants of health in Indigenous communities that underlie heterogeneity in health and disease; and/or
3. Increasing our understanding of interactions between structural, social, environmental, and biological determinants of health with particular emphasis on a diversity of populations who have historically experienced inequitable outcomes in Canada and at-risk groups that underlie heterogeneity in health and disease.

Research Areas

• General Omics Pool (up to three grants)
• Nutrition and Metabolic Health Pool (up to three grants)
• Precision Prevention in Nutrition and Metabolic Health Pool (up to one grant)
• Infection and Immunity Pool (up to three grants)
• Aging Pool (up to one grant)
• Cancer Pool (up to one grant)
• Indigenous Pool (up to two grants)
• HIV/AIDS and STBBI Population Health and Prevention Pool (up to two grants)
• HIV/AIDS and STBBI Co-infections and Co-morbidities Pool (up to two grants)
• HIV/AIDS and STBBI Indigenous Pool (up to one grant)

Funds Available

The total amount available for this funding opportunity is anticipated to be $39,510,000, enough to fund approximately 38 Engagement Grants, 19 Team Grants, and one Knowledge Mobilization Hub.

At the Letter of Intent (LOI) stage, Engagement Grants of $20,000 will be offered to support researchers engaging with diverse groups of patients, citizens and people with lived or living experience (PWLLE).

At the full application stage, $38,000,000 is available to fund up to nineteen (19) team grants. The maximum amount per grant is $400,000 per year for up to five (5) years, for a total of $2,000,000 per grant. This funding will be divided into pools based on Research Areas.

At the full application stage, $750,000 is available to fund one (1) KM Hub supplement. The maximum amount is $150,000 per year for up to five (5) years.

Competition Partners

The following competition partners will support research teams (in any of the funding pools) relevant to their priorities.

Diabetes Canada will provide up to $1,000,000 in total over 5 years to co-fund up to two (2) applications that will improve the lives of people living with, or at risk of, diabetes. Diabetes Canada will fund research to support solutions aimed at preventing, managing, and/or treating all types of diabetes and its complications.

The Kidney Foundation of Canada will provide up to $500,000 in total over 5 years to co-fund one (1) application directly relevant to any aspect (e.g., development, risk, prevention, treatment, management, care, or cure) of kidney function, diseases and/or transplant.

Genome British Columbia (Genome BC) will provide additional support up to $2,000,000 in total over 5 years to support up to ten (10) teams; the maximum amount per team is $200,000 over five years. The Principal Applicants must be based in BC undertaking omics research.

Genome Quebec will provide additional funding up to $500,000 in total over 5 years to the one top-ranked team grant in Québec which will produce omics data and/or develop tools to integrate such omics data with other types of data. The Nominated Principal Applicant must be based in Québec.

Applicant Partners

The following applicant partners have expressed an interest in supporting research projects on a particular theme or on issues that are a priority for them.

Health Canada’s Office of Nutrition Policy and Promotion (ONPP) and Food Directorate could provide in-kind support to project(s) that aim to build evidence towards inclusive and equitable nutrition policies and programs. In-kind support may include, but not be limited to, advice on statistical analyses, dietary assessment and nutrition biomarkers, federal nutrition policies, designing of national nutrition studies, as well as collaboration on related laboratory activities, and facilitation of knowledge mobilization opportunities.

Statistics Canada will provide cost-recovered support for projects on any subject that would benefit from Statistics Canada’s data holdings and statistical expertise, from its data integration and custom tabulation capabilities, and/or from access to the agency’s Data Analytics Services platform.

Anticipated Timelines

Launch: September 2023
LOI Application Deadline: January 2024
LOI Notice of Decision (NOD): May 2024
Full Application Deadline: October 2024
Full Application NOD: April 2025

The official CIHR funding opportunity will be posted on ResearchNet in the coming weeks.

For a full list of CIHR funding opportunities, please visit ResearchNet.

Date modified:

2023-12-19