The CIHR Sex and Gender Science Chairs Initiative is expected to:

• Grow the science of sex and gender research through the development and application of novel methods for elucidating the sex- and gender-related mechanisms that underpin the risk, incidence and response of various health and disease conditions in order to shape new therapies, interventions, programs and policies;
• Increase visibility and position Canada as a leader in discipline-specific sex and gender science; and
• Support capacity building in sex and gender science among the next generation of health researchers.

The purpose of this funding opportunity is to advance clinical research in women’s health and to build capacity in the next generation of women’s health clinician-researchers. The aim is for trainees, students or residents to be paired with and mentored by a women’s health clinician-specialist on a one-year research project with the goal of improving clinical care.

The research question(s) must:

• focus on the health of women. For the purposes of this grant, women is used here to include biological females AND any other individuals who identify as women; and
• focus on one or more of the following research areas:
  • Menarche and/or menopause;
  • Gynecology;
  • Pelvic health/urogynecology;
  • Off-label testosterone treatment for women experiencing hypoactive sexual desire; and/or
  • Cross-hormone replacement therapies for individuals undergoing gender-affirming treatments. 

The specific objectives of this funding opportunity are:

• To provide salary support for up to six years to clinician scientists.
• To provide a reliable supply of highly skilled and qualified clinician scientists.

The Indigenous Gender and Wellness Development Grant funding opportunity is expected to:

• Support planning activities that establish priorities for Indigenous-led research projects related to gender and wellness;
• Facilitate relationship building, knowledge sharing and learning that develop and strengthen Indigenous-led, community-based projects; and
• Support the continued development of ideas and plans to implement action-oriented, community-based projects that will improve wellness among Indigenous communities from a gendered perspective.

The 2019 Early Career Investigator Awards in Circulatory and Respiratory Health are expected to:

• Increase Canada’s research capacity in the areas of circulatory and respiratory research;
• Support the early research career of promising circulatory and respiratory scientists; and
• Support circulatory and respiratory health research by and with Indigenous Peoples

The CIHR Dementia Research Strategy supports research on the latest preventive, diagnostic and treatment approaches to Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative diseases causing dementia. It consists of an international and a national component, which together, allows the Government of Canada to support world-class research on dementia, contributing to the global pursuit of finding a cure or disease-modifying treatment for dementia by 2025.

The Canadian Consortium on Neurodegeneration in Aging (CCNA) is the Canadian component of the CIHR Dementia Research Strategy representing the Center of Excellence for Canada. CCNA is the premier research hub for all aspects of research involving neurodegenerative diseases that affect cognition in aging – including Alzheimer's disease.

The Network of Centres of Excellence in Neurodegeneration (CoEN) is an international initiative, which will connect Centers of Excellence (CoEs) with a critical mass of resources and expertise to drive a step-change in neurodegeneration research. As such, the Lead Canadian Principal Applicant for this funding opportunity must be a CCNA member. It is expected that teams will combine the research strengths across CoEs in at least two partner countries to provide a true value-added collaborative effort that will advance our approach to neurodegeneration research. Projects will address issues which would not readily be funded through the standard grant mechanisms of the CoEN partners, and it is expected that in addition to collaboration across CoEs, projects should also serve to provide a platform for future collaboration with industry.

This funding opportunity seeks to address the need for innovative research to underpin new approaches to therapeutic intervention. The call sets out to encourage “outside the box” thinking, to stimulate new and unconventional approaches and creative solutions to the challenges of neurodegeneration research by undertaking high-risk / high-payoff research.

For more information, please consult the Centres of Excellence in Neurodegeneration (CoEN) website.

The Partnerships for Cannabis Policy Evaluation funding opportunity is expected to:

• Evaluate cannabis-related policies at the level of provincial/territorial jurisdictions and Indigenous communities;
• Support cannabis-related research relevant to decision makers by producing results that can be applied to multiple regions and/or settings;
• Generate evidence on the positive and negative health, and public safety impacts of cannabis-related policies across Canada;
• Support cross-jurisdictional comparisons of cannabis-related policies;
• Identify best practices in near–real time through cannabis-related data and knowledge sharing;
• Support disaggregation of data by sub-population(s) (e.g. youth), and by biological and social determinants of health, including sex as a biological variable and gender as a sociocultural determinant of health; and
• Develop multi-team, cross-jurisdictional collaborations that will support cannabis-related data interoperability, harmonization and sharing, and knowledge translation.

The specific objectives of the Team Grant: Pathways Implementation Research Team Component 3 are to:

• Increase the equitable reach, access and sustainability of culturally appropriate population health interventions using an implementation science approach
• Develop and share recommendations, guidelines and policies for sustainability and enhanced equitable reach and access of interventions that incorporates reciprocal learning between participating Indigenous communities and research teams
• Build capacity for implementation research in Indigenous communities by training and mentoring junior researchers through partnerships with communities, including students and trainees with Indigenous living experience, and community members.

The objectives of this funding opportunity are to:

• Support the development, validation, harmonization and optimization of standardized methods, protocols, data collection and reporting standards as well as statistical techniques to study sex as a variable in basic cellular, tissue, and animal research at critical developmental periods including old age across broad research domains;
• Advance our understanding of basic mechanisms that drive sex differences across the lifespan;
• Support capacity building in age- and sex-related scientific techniques and grow the science among the next generation of health researchers; and
• Promote knowledge dissemination of standardized methods, protocols and techniques.