Simon Fraser University
Engaging the World

This Healthy Cities Research Initiative (HCRI) funding opportunity will support research that leverages existing data to improve the health, wellness and health equity of urban populations. CIHR and other funding agencies have invested heavily in the establishment of cohorts, databases, and data platforms. As a result, many high-quality data sets exist that 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. Examples of such resources include but are not limited to data available through Statistics Canada's Research Data Centres, the Canadian Institute for Health Information, the Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow Project (CanPath) and the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA), as well as administrative datasets, surveys, large data linkage projects and cohort catalogues that bring together datasets from multiple sources such as the Canadian Urban Environmental Health Research Consortium (CANUE).

Research Areas

This funding opportunity will support projects relevant to the following two (2) research areas:

1. Healthy Cities Intervention Research General Pool
   The general pool will fund projects that use existing cohort data, administrative datasets, surveys, registries, and data platforms and that are relevant to the HCRI's goal and objectives. As important collaborators on the overall HCRI, Statistics Canada and the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) are partnering in-kind to promote the use of existing data to advance healthy cities intervention research and implementation science. See Statistics Canada's Data available at the Research Data Centres page and CIHI's Data Request page for details on the data resources available. Please note that applications are not required to use Statistics Canada or CIHI data, nor will preference be given to those proposals that do use their data.
2. Healthy Cities Intervention Research Urban Indigenous Health Pool
   The Urban Indigenous Health Pool will fund projects that in addition to aligning with the requirements of the general pool, also focus on urban Indigenous Health Research. This pool seeks applicants who self-identify as Indigenous (First Nations, Inuit or Métis) and/or can provide evidence of meaningful and culturally safe engagement with Indigenous Peoples in a health research environment. Projects must be in alignment with CIHR's definition of Indigenous Health Research.

Please see funding opportunity's website for more detailed information.

Funds Available

The total amount available for this funding opportunity is $700,000, enough to fund approximately seven (7) one (1) year grants of up to $100,000 each. This amount may increase if additional funding partners participate.

Eligibility to Apply

1. The Nominated Principal Applicant (NPA) must be one of the following:
   • an independent researcher or a knowledge user, affiliated with a Canadian postsecondary institution and/or its affiliated institutions (including hospitals, research institutes and other non-profit organizations with a mandate for health research and/or knowledge translation);
   • an individual affiliated with an Indigenous non-governmental organization in Canada with a research and/or knowledge translation mandate (see Administration of Funds below); or
   • an Indigenous non-governmental organization in Canada with a research and/or knowledge translation mandate (see Administration of Funds below).
2. The NPA (individual) must have their substantive role in Canada for the duration of the requested grant term.
3. For applications involving research with Indigenous Peoples but not solely focused on Indigenous Health Research (i.e., not applying to the Urban Indigenous Health pool), the research team must include:
   • A Principal Applicant or a Principal Knowledge User (independent researcher or knowledge user) who self-identifies as Indigenous (First Nations, Inuit or Métis) and/or provides evidence of having meaningful and culturally safe involvement with Indigenous Peoples (see How to Apply for more details).
   • The team must include an Indigenous Elder and/or an Indigenous Knowledge Keeper^*.
4. For applications to be considered eligible for the Urban Indigenous Health pool:
   • The NPA must self-identify as Indigenous (First Nations, Inuit or Métis) and/or provide evidence of having meaningful and culturally safe involvement with Indigenous Peoples (see How to Apply section for more details).
   • The team must include an Indigenous Elder and/or an Indigenous Knowledge Keeper^*.
5. The NPA must submit a letter or supporting document from the data custodian indicating the applicants have obtained permission to access the data or a document indicating they are in the process of obtaining permission. If the latter, the NPA must provide evidence of how they will meet the criteria of the policies or processes put in place for data access by the data custodians.
6. The NPA must have successfully completed one of the sex- and gender-based analysis training modules available online through the CIHR Institute of Gender and Health and submit a Certificate of Completion (see How to Apply section). Please select and complete the training module most applicable to your research project. For additional information on sex, gender and health research, applicants are encouraged to review the "How to integrate sex and gender in research" section on the CIHR website.
7. The Nominated Principal Applicant may only submit one (1) application to this funding opportunity in the role of NPA but may participate in other roles in any number of applications.

Deadlines:

Application Deadline: November 08, 2023

WEBSITE

SFU Signature Sheet, CIHR Routing Slip and Full Application are due to Research Services three business days before the 'Full Application' deadline. Please note that the CIHR Routing Slip must be signed by Research Services and uploaded to the portal as part of the application package. 

Also note that SFU acknowledges the principles of Ownership, Control, Access and Possession (OCAP®) see: https://fnigc.ca/ocap-training/) with regard to how First Nations data is collected, protected or shared.