The Canadian Institutes of Health Research has announced a $715,000 funding opportunity to support the analysis of Baseline and Follow-up 1 data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA).

Approximately 10 grants, each up to a maximum of $70,000, will be available to successful applicants.

The funding opportunity supports the use of CLSA data in any health-related area, with the goal of catalyzing and supporting research efforts of Canadian researchers to use the available CLSA data in order to better understand how (individually and in combination) the biological, medical, psychological, social, lifestyle and/or economic aspects of people’s lives have an impact in both maintaining health and in the development of disease and disability as people age.

Of the funding provided:

• $210,000 is available from the Institute of Aging to fund applications submitted by Early Career Investigators any health-related area
• $70,000 is available to fund an application relevant to the Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health
• $140,000 is available to fund an application relevant to the Institute of Infection and Immunity
• $15,000 is available as a top-up funding from the Quebec Network for Research on Aging to the highest ranked fundable application from the Province of Quebec relevant to the Network
• The remaining $280,000 ($210,000 from Institute of Population and Public Health and $70,000 from Institute of Gender and Health) is available to fund applications in any health-related areas in rank order as far as the remaining budget will allow.

In addition to previously released Baseline data, researchers are now able to access Follow-up 1 data from the CLSA.

As of 2019, available data include: alphanumeric data from Baseline and Follow-up 1, Baseline biomarkers related to clinical chemistry, genome-wide genotyping, and images from retinal scans, DEXA and carotid ultrasound.

Additional data expected to be available for this Catalyst Grant competition include: Baseline data related to epigenetics, medications, as well as Follow-up 1 data related to cognition and neuropsychology, physical assessments, hearing, visual acuity, tonometry, spirometry, electrocardiogram, carotid intima-media thickness, open-text data on healthy aging and labour force, and the hematology report.

More detail concerning data and biospecimen availability can be found here . Researchers with questions about data availability can contact the CLSA via access@clsa-elcv.ca. To view important dates, eligibility and guidelines, visit ResearchNet.  The deadline to register is August 16, 2019, followed by the full application deadline on September 6, 2019.

A webinar will be held July 29, 2019 by the CIHR Institute of Aging to support participants with the requirements of this funding opportunity and to answer questions. To find out more information and to register, click here.