Graduate students (Masters or PhD) who wish to obtain the CLSA data for the sole purpose of their thesis, and postdoctoral or clinical fellows (limit 1 waiver per fellowship) who wish to obtain the CLSA data for the sole purpose of their postdoctoral or clinical fellowship project, who are enrolled at Canadian institutions for their graduate degree, postdoc, or clinical fellowship, can apply for a fee waiver. This fee waiver only applies to alphanumeric data. Any additional data requested, such as images and raw data, have associated fees. The trainee fee waiver cannot be applied to CIHR catalyst grant applications. Canadian trainees working outside Canada but funded through a Canadian source are also eligible for a fee waiver. The request for a fee waiver must be checked in Part 1 of the CLSA Data and Biospecimen Access Request Application in Magnolia.
Once you submit your CLSA Data and Biospecimen Request Application, you can track the progress of your application through Magnolia, the online application system. Once you have begun the application process, it is your responsibility to check your email (including your folders for junk, spam, etc.) for notifications from Magnolia. You may be contacted by the Data Access Team, if additional information is required. You will be notified about the approval status of your application approximately three months after the submission deadline. If your application is approved, a CLSA Access Agreement must be negotiated and signed between McMaster University and your institution. This part of the process can take a variable length of time (up to an additional three (3) months) and is not under the control of the CLSA. You will also need to provide evidence of ethics approval for your project, if you had not done so within your initial application. Please be aware that these steps may affect the length of time that it takes for the data to be released to you. Once all parties have signed the CLSA Access Agreement and proof of ethics approval has been received by the CLSA, your data will be released within 10 working days. Please note that the release of additional data (images and raw data) will require more time (one to three months, depending on the request). When planning for your project, you must include in your timeframe at least six (6) months from the application submission deadline to the time you receive your dataset.
Yes. Please note that ethics approval is not required at the time of the application to use CLSA data, but no data or biospecimens will be released until proof of ethics approval has been received by the CLSA. Should your institution not require a full ethical review for the use of de-identified data, please provide a letter from your Institutional Review Board to this effect. Ethics approval must be obtained only from the primary applicant’s institution, not from all of the institutions of the members of the project team.
The CLSA DataPreview Portal has been designed to help researchers browse available variables in the CLSA dataset and find basic frequencies. Should you need additional information not available through the DataPreview Portal to determine the feasibility of your proposal, please contact us at access@clsa-elcv.ca. We can provide simple cross-tabulations (of two or three variables) from cross-sectional data. While we do our utmost to respond to data queries to help potential users ensure that their proposal is feasible, please note that we are not resourced to provide statistics on change across time-points or more in-depth statistical support.
If you have additional questions about CLSA linked data, please contact linkage_lien@clsa-elcv.ca. For data access questions, researchers should contact DASH or the relevant provincial data centre for detailed information on the application process.
Data access requests for linked CLSA data are reviewed by the CLSA, DASH, and the respective provincial data centre(s). The timeline for review depends on many factors, including the feasibility of the project and the number of jurisdictions involved in the request. Approved users should anticipate between three to twelve months between submitting their application and receiving access to the linked dataset. Applicants should consult the relevant provincial data centre(s) for more detailed information on anticipated timelines.
Researchers should familiarize themselves with the User Responsibility Checklist and Data Dictionaries (CLSA data only).
Graduate students (Masters or PhD) enrolled at Canadian universities who wish to obtain the CLSA data for the sole purpose of their thesis, and postdoctoral or clinical fellows (limit 1 waiver per fellow) who wish to obtain the CLSA data for the sole purpose of their postdoctoral project, may request a fee waiver.
Fee waivers apply to the CLSA portion of the data access fee only.
The CIHR Catalyst Grants for the use of CLSA Data are not eligible for Fee Waivers for the CLSA portion of the data access fee.
The CLSA data access fee is $3,000 CDN. Additional fees are required by the provincial data centres to access the linked administrative health data. Please refer to DASH or contact the appropriate provincial data centre for the full fee schedule.
CLSA data holdings at provincial data centres will be limited to alphanumeric data, including questionnaire data, biomarker data, and select physical assessment data.
Administrative health data holdings may differ across provinces. Please refer to DASH, or the appropriate provincial data centre to learn more:
- British Columbia: Population Data BC
- Ontario: ICES
- New Brunswick: New Brunswick Institute for Research, Data and Training (NB-IRDT)
- Health Data Nova Scotia (HDNS)
To access the data, researchers will be required to apply through Health Data Research Network (HDRN) Canada’s Data Access Support Hub (DASH). DASH provides information on the availability of data assets, common algorithms, and data access processes across Canada, and offers centralized and coordinated data access support for researchers who require administrative data from more than one province. As of 2024, linked CLSA data are available for access in British Columbia, Ontario, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, as per data access policies of participating provincial data centres and the CLSA.
Researchers who do not wish to access provincial administrative health data should apply for CLSA data through the regular CLSA Data Access process.
CLSA is working centrally on strategies to link individual level CLSA data with data from health administrative databases across Canada.
In 2021, the Health Data Research Network Canada (HDRN Canada) and the CLSA announced a partnership to enable linkage of the CLSA cohort data with data held at provincial data centres.
As of January 2024, linked CLSA data holdings are available in select provinces. Please visit the Administrative Health Data section for more information.