November 2001
The Canadian Institutes of Health Research Institute of Aging (CIHR-IA) issue a Request for Applications (RFA) to develop a protocol for what would become the CLSA.
October 2002
Commencement of work.
January 2004
The final CLSA protocol is submitted for international review.
October 2008
CLSA team is successful in an infrastructure application to the Canada Foundation for Innovation to establish the infrastructure necessary for a national study.
May 2009
The Government of Canada announces $30-million in funding to support the CLSA.
January 2010
Recruitment begins of the first 20,000 participants who will take part in the telephone interview component of the study.
March 2010
Four Computer-Assisted Telephone Interview (CATI) sites became fully operational at the University of Victoria, the University of Manitoba, the University of Sherbrooke and Dalhousie University.
June 2011
Final approval of the CLSA protocol is granted.
September 2011
CLSA begins Baseline data collection.
December 2011
The CLSA Data Collection Site (DCS) opens in Hamilton for a pilot study of the data collection instruments and procedures.
February 2012
The Montreal Data Collection Site conducts a pilot study to assess and validate the instruments and procedures with French-speaking participants.
April 2012
Development and implementation begins at the Data Curation Centre (formerly known as the CLSA Statistical Analysis Centre) in Montreal.
May 2012
First cryofreezer is charged at the CLSA Biorepository and Bioanalysis Centre to store blood and urine samples collected at the Data Collection Sites (DCS). In the same month, the Data Collection Sites in Hamilton and Sherbrooke welcome their first participants.
August 2012
By the end of the summer, 10 Data Collection Sites in Hamilton, Sherbrooke, Montreal, Ottawa, Halifax, St. John’s, Calgary, Winnipeg, Victoria, and Surrey are launched.
September 2012
CLSA hosts Grand Opening and Showcase in Hamilton marking the national launch of the study.
May 2014
CLSA launches Follow-up 1 for Tracking participants following the successful conclusion of Baseline data collection for CLSA participants who take part by telephone interview.
March 2015
CLSA receives a $41.6M grant from the Government of Canada to continue collecting data for the next five years.
April 2015
The initial goal of recruiting 50,000 participants is reached.
July 2015
Follow-up 1 (FUP1) for the Comprehensive cohort begins.
April 2016
CLSA’s first major data release: Questionnaire data from more than 51,000 participants and Comprehensive physical assessment data and hematological biomarkers from more than 30,000 participants who visited Data Collection Sites.
May 2017
The Government of Canada provides a total of $1.7 million to support 25 projects to be carried out by researchers across the country to use and analyze CLSA Baseline data.
January 2018
CLSA achieves a major data access milestone with the approval of the 100th project using CLSA data.
April 2018
CLSA launches the third wave of full data collection from participants across Canada, known as Follow-up 2 (FUP2).
May 2018
CLSA releases first report, Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging Report on Health and Aging in Canada: Findings from Baseline Data Collection 2010-2015.
April 2019
The Government of Canada announces funding of $1.2 million for 17 projects to be led by researchers across the country that will analyze Baseline data from the CLSA.
July 2019
The Canadian Frailty Network, the CLSA and the McMaster Institute for Research on Aging (MIRA) and Metabolon, Inc. announce a collaborative partnership to develop a $4-million research program to uncover reasons for frailty in aging populations.
March 16, 2020
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, CLSA suspends face-to-face data collection with participants.
April 2020
Following a gift from Hamilton philanthropists Charles and Margaret Juravinski, CLSA launches the CLSA COVID-19 Questionnaire Study to investigate the effects of the pandemic on older adults.
May 2020
Twenty-six research teams from 14 universities and research institutions across Canada have receive a combined total of $1.77 million in funding to support analyses of longitudinal data from the CLSA provided by the CIHR along with support from the Quebec Network for Research on Aging.
November 2020
Following a $4-million investment from Canada’s COVID-19 Immunity Task Force, CLSA launches the CLSA COVID-19 Seroprevalence (Antibody) Study to investigate the burden of SARS-CoV-2 infection among aging Canadians by analyzing blood samples from nearly 19,000 CLSA participants.
November 2020
Findings from the CLSA COVID-19 Questionnaire Study are released to the public through the COVID-19 Questionnaire Study Data Dashboard.
January 2021
CLSA awarded $1-million by the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) to address the knowledge gap around undetected dementia and improving understanding of known and emerging risk factors related to the disease.
June 2021
Funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Weston Family Foundation, the CLSA launches the CLSA COVID-19 Brain Health Study to examine how COVID-19 affects cognition and the brain in adults aged 55 to 80 years who participate in the CLSA.
July 2021
CLSA launches the fourth wave of full data collection from participants across Canada, known as Follow-up 3 (FUP3).
August 2021
Grants totaling $61.5 million announced by the Government of Canada to renew the CLSA research platform and ensure the collection of data from CLSA participants until 2027.
November 2021
The Weston Family Foundation awards a $12-million research grant to launch the Healthy Brains, Healthy Aging Initiative, which will shed light on the many factors that influence brain health as we age. It marks the first time a national study of aging in Canada has introduced both brain imaging and microbiome analyses to investigate cognitive aging in the population over time.
March 2023
Twenty-six research teams from across Canada receive a combined total of $1.8 million in federal funding to support analyses of CLSA data through the 2022 CIHR Catalyst Grant: Analysis of Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA) Data competition.
January 2024
A collaboration with Health Data Research Network Canada enables researchers to access linked CLSA cohort data with administrative health data in British Columbia, Ontario, and New Brunswick, as per data access policies of participating provincial data centres and the CLSA. The linkage of longitudinal CLSA data with multiregional administrative health data offers an unparalleled opportunity to explore the intersection between aging and health-care utilization.
