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Team Grant: Strengthening Resilient and Equitable Public Health Systems

October 10, 2025

Time to read: 5 minutes

CIHR Funding

External Funding

This Team Grant aims to advance the field of public health systems and services research (PHSSR) by focusing on system-level solutions to improve public health systems (PHS) performance, including the conditions for success. The overarching goal is to generate actionable evidence to build resilient and equitable PHS and support robust decision-making to enhance health equity and population health.

Visit the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) website for more information on the Team Grant: Strengthening Resilience and Equitable Public Health Systems.

Value and Duration

The financial contributions of CIHR and partners are subject to availability of funds. Should their funding levels not be available or decrease due to unforeseen circumstances, they reserve the right to reduce, defer or suspend financial contributions for grants received as a result of this funding opportunity.

The total amount available for this funding opportunity is $8,250,000, enough to fund approximately eleven grants. This amount may increase if additional funding partners participate. The maximum amount per grant is $250,000 per year for up to three years, for a total of $750,000 per grant.

Overview

This Team Grant will support solutions-focused research on the building blocks of PHS within:

Eligibility

For an application to be eligible, all the requirements below must be met:

  1. The Nominated Principal Applicant (NPA) must be:
    1. 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 mobilization);
      OR
    2. an individual affiliated with an Indigenous non-governmental organization in Canada with a research and/or knowledge mobilization mandate;
      OR
    3. an Indigenous non-governmental organization in Canada with a research and/or knowledge mobilization mandate.
  2. The NPA must have their substantive role in Canada for the duration of the requested grant term.
  3. The institution paid must be authorized to administer CIHR funds by the funding start date.
  4. The core tripartite leadership team must be comprised of three individuals as follows, each in a Principal role (i.e., NPA*, Principal Applicant (PA), or Principal Knowledge User (PKU)). An individual cannot assume more than one role.
    • An independent researcher who is a scientific lead with expertise in the research area.
    • A senior decision-maker (based in a public health organization**) with the ability and mandate to make/influence decisions regarding PHS building blocks. For example, the decision-maker may be a policymaker, a provincial/territorial/local Medical Officer of Health, the director of a community-based organization, an Indigenous health authority representative or an Indigenous non-governmental organization in Canada with a research and/or knowledge mobilization mandate.
    • A knowledge user who is a practitioner (based in a public health organization**), a community representative or an Indigenous non-governmental organization in Canada with a research and/or knowledge mobilization mandate and with experience/expertise in the research area.
  5. Embedded researchers working in a municipal, provincial or territorial government in Canada can be included in teams as Principal Applicants, co-applicants or collaborators.
  6. The NPA and all PAs must successfully complete one of the Sex and Gender Training Modules available online through the CIHR Institute of Gender and Health by the full application deadline. Submission of a Certificate of Completion is required.
    • See how to apply for more details.
    • Organizations as NPAs: a representative of the organization must complete the training module on the organization’s behalf.
  7. An individual cannot submit more than one application to this funding opportunity as an NPA. If the NPA submits more than one application, CIHR will automatically withdraw the subsequent application(s) submitted based on timestamp of submission.
  8. The following eligibility criteria apply to applications that are to be co-funded by a provincial health funding organization (external partner):
    • FRQ-Santé: At minimum, the lead researcher and decision-maker (within the tripartite leadership team) are located in a Quebec-based institution. The NPA must be a lead researcher and must be a status one or two researcher as per the Common General Rules.
    • Health Research BC: At a minimum, the lead researcher and decision-maker (within the tripartite leadership team) are located in a BC-based institution. All Health Research BC funds must remain in the province of British Columbia to support the research.
  9. For any research applications involving First Nations, Inuit and Métis populations or research areas, the team must include:
    • at least one principal applicant (NPA, PA or PKU) who self-identifies as Indigenous (First Nations, Inuit or Métis) or who can provide evidence of having meaningful and culturally safe involvement with Indigenous Peoples, or both (see How to Apply).
      AND
    • at least one of the following individuals on the research team (in any role): Indigenous Elder, Indigenous Knowledge Holder, Indigenous person with lived/living experience or an Indigenous scholar.

* If the NPA is an independent researcher, then the knowledge user must be identified in the PKU role. If the NPA is a knowledge user, then the independent researcher must be identified in the Principal Applicant role.

** The organization must be a governmental public health institution or a community-based organization with a public health-related mandate.

Deadlines

Submitting Your Application

  1. Submit an internal Approval Form through our central awards management database cuResearch.
  2. Submit an external application to CIHR by following their submission guidelines.

Contact Us

Potential applicants are encouraged to discuss this funding opportunity with their Faculty Research Facilitator.

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