Operating Grant : Data Analysis Using Existing Databases and Cohorts
CIHR and other funding agencies have invested heavily in the establishment of cohorts, databases, cohort catalogues, and data platforms. As a result, many high-quality data sets exist containing information on populations, health systems, patient information, and biospecimens. These data sets contain a wealth of information and have the potential to answer research questions that go beyond those for which the data were originally collected or for which the data has been used to date. There is also the potential to link diverse datasets, thus enabling explorations of novel associations and interactions between human, environmental, and clinical factors. Analyses using these existing resources are also a cost-effective way to provide high quality and timely evidence to improve patient outcomes and for population and public health decision making.
The intent of this funding opportunity is to highlight and encourage use for research of previously funded cohorts, administrative and survey data to inform improved patient, population and system outcomes. Examples of such data sources include but are not limited to:
- Large, well-established cohorts include (but are not limited to) the Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow Project (CPTP), the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study, the Maternal-Infant Research on Environmental Chemicals (MIREC) study, and the Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development (CHILD) study.
- Cohort catalogues that bring together datasets from multiple sources include the Research Advancement through Cohort Cataloguing and Harmonization (ReACH) initiative and the Canadian Institute of Health Information (CIHI) Dynamic Cohort of Complex, High System Users.
- Data platforms that allow access to and/or linkage of multiple datasets include the Canadian Urban Environmental Health Research Consortium (CANUE) and the Canadian Research Data Centre Network (CRDCN), which allows access to Statistics Canada data and Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation data related to housing.
This funding opportunity will support research that uses existing cohort data, administrative datasets, surveys, registries, cohort catalogues, and data platforms that link or allow access to datasets from multiple sources within three funding pools: cancer prevention and control; healthy cities intervention research; and reproductive, maternal, child, and youth health.