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CIHR invests $2.3M in CLSA research projects across the country

If you are the recipient of a CIHR Catalyst Grant for the analysis of CLSA data, you do not need to submit to one of the application deadlines. Please contact access@clsa-elcv.ca for special instructions.

Thirty-three research teams from across Canada have received a combined total of nearly $2.3 million in federal funding to support analyses of longitudinal 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 2023. The funding opportunity is intended to support Canadian researchers in using the extensive available data within the CLSA research platform.

Funding is provided through the CIHR Institute of AgingInstitute of Population and Public HealthInstitute of Musculoskeletal Health and ArthritisInstitute of Circulatory and Respiratory HealthInstitute of Health Services and Policy ResearchInstitute of Gender and Health, and the Institute of Infection and Immunity,  in partnership with the Quebec Network for Research on Aging (RQRV).

A selection of supported projects from the 2023 competition will harness omics data – encompassing genetics, epigenetics or metabolomics – to investigate questions about the underlying mechanisms of biological aging and help understand the factors that contribute to specific health outcomes.

Examples of funded projects include:

Two funded projects will examine impacts of COVID-19 by investigating the resilience of Veterans and by examining how the pandemic affected work productivity among middle-age and older adults.

Other projects will shed light on the pathways to healthy aging – investigating how factors such as where we live and how we live can have an impact.

For a full list of funded projects, click here.

CIHR has awarded more than $8 million in funding to Canadian researchers since the first CLSA data analysis funding opportunity was launched in 2016. The most recent awards mark the fifth 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 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, nearly 600 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 (CIHR). Funding for the CLSA platform has been provided by the Government of Canada through the CIHR and the Canada Foundation for Innovation. Additional support has been provided by several provinces, affiliated universities, and research institutions across Canada.

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