Twenty-six research teams from across Canada have received a combined total of $1.8 million in federal funding to support analyses of data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA).

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) launched the Catalyst Grant: Analysis of Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA) Data in 2022. The funding opportunity is intended to catalyze and support Canadian researchers in using the available data within the CLSA research platform.

Funding is provided through the CIHR Institute of Aging, Institute of Population and Public Health, Institute of Gender and Health, and the Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health in partnership with the Quebec Network for Research on Aging.

Funded projects from the 2022 competition include:

• Deep phenotyping of UGT human knockouts
  Chantal Guillemette, Université Laval
  
  
• Examining the role of menopause and hormone replacement therapy on modifiable health behaviors, body composition, physical function, and metabolic health among aging females in Canada
  Sarah Purcell, University of British Columbia
  
  
• Bitter taste receptors and COVID-19
  Carol Hitchon, University of Manitoba
  
  
• The relationship between mental disorders and sleep-disordered breathing: Concurrence and consequences
  Tetyana Kendzerska, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
  
  
• Equity in the use of formal home care services in Canada
  Aaron Jones, McMaster University
  
  
• Relationships between risk of obstructive sleep apnea and outcomes in Parkinson's disease in the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging
  Marta Kaminska, McGill University

• Bioinformatic investigation of previously neglected regions of the genome and their association with age-related hearing loss
  Britt Drogemoller, University of Manitoba

• Understanding Healthy Aging of the Lungs
  Sanja Stanojevic, Dalhousie University

A full list of all funded projects is available on the CIHR website.

More than $6 million has been awarded to Canadian researchers since CIHR launched the first CLSA data analysis Catalyst Grant funding opportunity in 2016. The most recent awards mark the fourth competition. 

The CLSA follows more than 50,000 men and women who were between the ages of 45 and 85 at the time of recruitment, for 20 years. Ongoing research projects and collaborations using CLSA data span the biological, clinical, social and population health disciplines, and are aimed at understanding how various factors impact the maintenance of physical and mental health, and the development of disease and disability as people age.

To date, more than 500 projects have been approved to use CLSA data. To learn more about data access, click here.

The CLSA is a strategic initiative of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Funding for the platform has been provided by the Government of Canada through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Canada Foundation for Innovation. Additional support has been provided by several provinces, affiliated universities, and research institutions across Canada.