This funding opportunity is expected to:

• Support world leading collaborative research teams aimed at tackling diabetes.
• Enhance existing partnerships and develop new partnerships between the UK and Canada in the area of diabetes research.
• Strengthen the strategic relationship between the UK and Canada.

The Understanding Disease Prevention and Risk Factor Modification Catalyst Grants are expected to:

• increase our understanding of factors that enable individuals to adopt or overlook known disease risk modification strategies;
• expand the evidence and further understanding that can lead to future intervention studies in prevention; and
• develop a knowledge base upon which to nuance evidence-based policy to improve the prevention of manageable diseases.

The Strategy for Patient-Oriented Research (SPOR) is a national coalition of federal, provincial and territorial partners (patients and informal caregivers, health authorities, academic health centres, charities, philanthropic organizations, private sector, etc.) dedicated to the integration of research into care.

Patient-oriented research, which is foundational to evidence-informed health care, refers to a continuum of research that engages patients as partners, focusses on patient-identified priorities and improves patient outcomes. This research, conducted by multidisciplinary teams in partnership with relevant stakeholders, aims to apply the knowledge generated to improve healthcare systems and practices.

The vision for SPOR is that Canada will demonstrably improve health outcomes and enhance the health care experience for patients through the integration of evidence at all levels of the health care system.

Innovative Clinical Trials Initiative

The SPOR innovative Clinical Trials (iCT) Initiative contributes to increasing Canadian competitiveness in iCT research and provides a stimulus for trialists to adopt new methodologies, enhance patient and clinician engagement in research, and build capacity and increase the intensity of iCT research. iCTs use non-traditional designs that are alternative to traditional Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs), with application in areas ranging from product development to health system improvement. iCT methods reduce the cost of conducting trials, reduce the amount of time needed to answer research questions, and increase the relevance of research findings to patients, healthcare providers and/or policy makers. Adopting these alternative designs can maximize the use of existing knowledge and data.

Research Areas

SPOR iCTs need to have a primary focus in the research areas of:

Comparative effectiveness research:

Comparative effectiveness research compares two or more healthcare options already shown to be efficacious. The healthcare options could include diagnostics, drugs, medical devices, surgeries, complementary medicine, self-care or ways to deliver health care. The findings should be able to inform healthcare decisions by providing evidence on the effectiveness, benefits, and harms of different healthcare options and other types of interventions; and/or

Implementation science research: Implementation science research examines interventions that are already shown to work under certain conditions and within certain contexts, which could be defined by demographic, biological, clinical, social, economic, geographic, or other factors. The interventions could include diagnostics, drugs, medical devices, surgeries, complementary medicine, self-care or ways to deliver health care. Implementation science aims to determine if these interventions can be adapted to other contexts, how should they be adapted and what are the longer term effects.  In other words, implementation research seeks to understand what interventions work for whom and under what circumstances. It studies the factors that influence the full and effective use of interventions in practice, which could include affordability, adaptability, sustainability and equitable scalability.

Application Requirements

To meet the requirements of the funding opportunity, the following elements must be included as part of an application:

• The proposed research activities must be patient-oriented in that:
  • patients are engaged as partners;
  • there is a focus on patients’ priorities;
  • the aim is to improve patient outcomes;
  • the work is conducted by a multi-disciplinary team that includes patients;
  • there is involvement of other SPOR stakeholders such as policy makers, health care professionals and health charities; and
  • research findings can be applied to health care or policy.
• The proposed research must be an iCT as described above.
• Applicants must focus on comparative effectiveness research and/or implementation science research as described above.
• Applicants are required to explore collaborations with the SPOR SUPPORT Units, the SPOR Canadian Data Platform, and the SPOR Evidence Alliance to strengthen their application and support the research project.

This funding opportunity is expected to:

• Support the creation and/or further development of formal networks by encouraging national and international collaboration, resource sharing, capacity building and dissemination in priority research areas;
• Identify and establish novel connections across Canada. This will bring together a collaborative multidisciplinary group of technical and scientific experts;
• Develop and strengthen research capacity by connecting and engaging current researchers and training the next generation of researchers;
• Develop and provide health research leadership across Canada, linking to related international initiatives (as appropriate);
• Facilitate translation of new knowledge generated by research evidence; and
• Ensure patient engagement to increase the outcomes and health impacts for Canadians.

The Joseph and Wolf Lebovic Cancer Genomics and Immunity Fellowship Program aims to support projects that will uncover the diverse interactions between tumour and immune cells, for the development of new therapeutic strategies. The program aims to harness the power of genomic analytic tools with that of diverse animal and cellular experimental systems, through collaborative work between the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR) and the Institute for Medical Research Israel-Canada (IMRIC) scientists. IMRIC an institute of the Hebrew University.

Scope

• The program will provide support for trainees – students/postdoctoral fellows – working on joint projects between IMRIC and Ontario-based scientists addressing the interactions between cancer and immune cells;
• Two projects will be selected to receive support over a two-year period;
• Each collaborative project will support two trainees, one from each institution; and
• Each project will be funded at $80,000 CAD per year divided equally between the two institutions ($40,000 CAD per institution per year).

Partnership Engage Grants are expected to respond to the objectives of the Insight program and the Connection program. Please note that Partnership Engage Grants cannot respond exclusively to the objectives of the Connection program.

These grants provide short-term and timely support for partnered research activities that will inform decision-making at a single partner organization from the public, private or not-for-profit sector. The small-scale, stakeholder-driven partnerships supported through Partnership Engage Grants are meant to respond to immediate needs and time constraints facing organizations in non-academic sectors. In addressing an organization-specific need, challenge and/or opportunity, these partnerships let non-academic organizations and postsecondary researchers access each other’s unique knowledge, expertise and capabilities on topics of mutual interest.

SSHRC welcomes applications involving Indigenous research, as well as those involving research-creation.

The three Canadian federal research funding agencies and UK Research and Innovation(UKRI) are pleased to announce their intention to launch the Canada-UK Artificial Intelligence Initiative. 

The Canadian agencies include the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR); the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC); and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). The four UK research councils involved in this UKRI initiative are the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC); the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC); the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC); and the Medical Research Council (MRC). ESRC is coordinating this initiative. 

The rapid development and ever-growing global investment in artificial intelligence (AI) illustrate the undeniable impact that these technologies are having, and will have, on our economies, health and societies. Given the expertise of researchers in Canada and the United Kingdom, the Canadian agencies and UKRI are jointly supporting the development of a collaboration in AI among stakeholders in Canada and the UK aimed at building competitive and resilient economies and maximizing the social and health benefits. The aim is to build competitive and resilient economies and maximize the social and health benefits.

This is a unique collaboration which will require each project to include a principal investigator (PI) based in Canada and a PI based in the UK who will share equally leadership and project management responsibilities. The Canadian and UK applicants will develop a common research plan and jointly prepare the full proposal. Proposals will be required to demonstrate a significant degree of, or novel approach to, interdisciplinarity, with research that cuts across at least two of the following research domains: social sciences and humanities; health and biomedical sciences; and natural sciences and engineering (including computational and/or mathematical sciences).  

In addition to promoting interdisciplinary AI, this call will support the development of responsible AI while establishing new partnerships and enhancing infrastructure and training between researchers in Canada and the UK. The outputs and outcomes of the research should allow for uptake by relevant stakeholders where possible.