The Healthy Cities Research Initiative (HCRI), funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), has launched the HCRI: Data Analysis Using Existing Databases and Cohorts to support research that leverages existing cohorts, data platforms and/or administrative datasets, including the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA), to improve the health, wellness and health equity of urban populations.

The funding opportunity will provide a one-year operating grant for projects relevant to the following two research areas:

1. Healthy Cities Intervention Research General Pool (5 grants up to $100,000 each) - Projects that use existing cohort data, administrative datasets, surveys, registries, and data platforms and that are relevant to the HCRI's goal and objectives. 
2. Healthy Cities Intervention Research Urban Indigenous Health Pool (2 grants up to $100,000 each) – 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.

Researchers interested in applying should visit ResearchNet for more information on eligibility, how to apply and the relevant research areas and data resources available. If needed, researchers can download the CLSA Data Access Support Letter  to include with their application to CIHR.

Baseline and Follow-up 1 CLSA data has been linked to Canadian Urban Environmental Health Research Consortium (CANUE) data on air quality, greenness, weather and climate, and neighborhood factors. This linkage allows researchers to ask questions about the impact of environmental factors on how Canadians age. To review the current list of available data, visit: www.clsa-elcv.ca/data-availability.

Researchers interested in requesting the Indigenous-identified data collected by the CLSA are required to describe how they intend to use Indigenous identifiers in their analyses and how they will involve Indigenous organizations, people and governing bodies in a meaningful and culturally safe way in their project.

Prospective applicants should review a recent webinar and resources on considerations for access/use of Indigenous-identified data to learn more about the CLSA's expectations and guidelines for requests to access and use this data.

The application deadline for the HCRI: Data Analysis Using Existing Databases and Cohorts funding opportunity is November 8, 2023. Funding is expected to begin in March 2024.

For more information on how to access CLSA Data, please review the CLSA Data Access Application Process.