Notice of Upcoming Funding Opportunity: Pandemic Research Platforms Interim Funding

Introduction

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) is pleased to announce the upcoming launch of the Pandemic Research Platforms Interim Funding Opportunity.

This funding opportunity is led by the Centre for Research on Pandemic Preparedness and Health Emergencies (CRPPHE), in partnership with the CIHR Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), the Canadian Breast Cancer Research Initiative (CBCI) and Canada's Strategy for Patient-Oriented Research (SPOR).

Overview

The COVID-19 pandemic response included unprecedented infrastructure investments to support the creation, scaling and adapting of several research platforms. An important component of building an emergency-ready health research ecosystem in Canada is to ensure that key research infrastructure critical for informing decision-making during pandemics and other health emergencies is maintained between emergencies so that it can be rapidly activated when needed. To that end, and in alignment with the CRPPHE Interim investment plan, this funding opportunity aims to support existing research platforms that address all four objectives in any one of the priority research areas (listed below) that persist in Canada related to responding to pandemics and other acute public health threats of an infectious or communicable nature.

The specific objectives are to support research platforms to:

1. Implement a plan to serve a broader, long-term pandemic preparedness and response role in the research ecosystem related to one of the research areas.
2. Build and strengthen capacity in Canada to undertake interdisciplinary, equity-focused, multi-jurisdictional research related to pandemics and other infectious or communicable diseases with significant public health impacts.
3. Rapidly generate and mobilize evidence to inform health emergency preparedness and response efforts by policy makers, clinicians, public health actors, the public and/or higher-risk communities in Canada.
4. Collaborate with other experts and teams across Canada and internationally in their research area(s) to sustain research partnerships and ensure coordination of pandemic preparedness and response activities.

For this funding opportunity, a research platform must already exist and is defined as a group or network of researchers undertaking and promoting interdisciplinary, collaborative research; and building a centralized core of expertise and resources (e.g., cohort, biobanks, databanks, tools, methodologies); and undertaking knowledge generation and mobilization in a thematic area extending beyond a single, time-limited project.

Please note that the application process consists of a Letter of Intent (LOI) stage and Full Application stage. Only LOIs that are deemed relevant to this funding opportunity will be invited to submit a Full Application.

Research Areas

This funding opportunity will consist of 4 funding pools that will support existing research platforms relevant to the following priority research areas:

• General Funding Pool (3 grants)
  • Infectious and communicable disease modelling
  • Behavioural sciences to support pandemic preparedness
  • Community-based or community-informed emergency prevention and preparedness
  • Health systems research focused on preparedness and response, including public health systems
  • Infodemiology and addressing dis- and mis-information
  • Population-level sero-surveillance / sero-epidemiology
• Rapid Evidence Synthesis Pool (1 grant)
  • Pan-Canadian platforms that can support rapid evidence synthesis to address priorities of patients, communities, Indigenous communities, and policy and decision makers
• Data Accessibility Pool (1 grant)
  • Pan-Canadian platforms that can support accessible multi-jurisdictional data and data resource sharing to address priorities of patients, communities, Indigenous communities, and policy and decision makers
• Population-based Cohort Pool (1 grant)
  • Large pan-Canadian population-based cohort (i.e. >100,000) that captures biospecimens and that can support research of the impacts of infectious and communicable disease threats on the general population and on those living with cancer or chronic disease

Webinar(s)

CIHR will be hosting a webinar to inform participants about the requirements of this funding opportunity and to answer questions. To find out more information and to register, visit the Webinars page.

Funds Available

The total amount available for this funding opportunity is anticipated to be $17,000,000, enough to fund approximately 6 grants. The maximum amount per grant is up to $1,500,000 per year for up to 2 years, for a total of up to $3,000,000 per grant, with the exception that the maximum amount per grant from the Rapid Evidence Synthesis Pool is anticipated to be $1,000,000 per year for up to 2 years, for a total of $2,000,000 per grant. The total amount may increase if additional funding partners participate.

Please note that research platforms with funding that extends into/throughout the duration of funding available through this opportunity must demonstrate the need for additional support.

Anticipated Timelines

• Launch: October 2024
• Webinar: November 8, 2024
• LOI Application Deadline: December 5, 2024
• LOI Notice of Decision (NOD): December 19, 2024
• Full Application Deadline: February 4, 2025
• Full Application NOD: June 2025
• Funding Start Date: 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:

2024-10-21