About ICRH

In this animation, get to know the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health (CIHR-ICRH). Aligned with CIHR’s A Vision for a Healthier Future, CIHR-ICRH launches strategic funding opportunities, engages in strategic partnerships, and provides key development activities to support the health research community within our mandate. Learn about these efforts along with CIHR-ICRH’s planned priorities emerging from its Recovery Strategic Planning process.

About the CIHR Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health (Transcript)

The CIHR Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health supports research on important health challenges in Canada.

The Institute is located at the University of Alberta in Edmonton and on Treaty 6 territory, which is the traditional meeting ground and home for many Indigenous Peoples, including Cree, Saulteaux, Niisitapi (Blackfoot), Métis, and Nakota Sioux. We have a strong commitment to improving the health and wellbeing of all First Nations, Inuit, Métis and Urban Indigenous Peoples in Canada.

Our mandate is to support research into a wide range of health conditions associated with the heart, lung, brain, sleep, blood and blood vessels, and critical care.

Our Institute is one of 13 virtual Institutes located across Canada, and along with a corporate office located in Ottawa, we make up the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, or CIHR, Canada’s premier health research funding agency.

CIHR recently released their 10-year strategic plan with a vision for a healthier future by creating the best health for all, powered by outstanding research. This vision is supported by five strategic priorities that include:

  • Advancing Research Excellence in All its Diversity;
  • Strengthening Canadian Health Research Capacity;
  • Accelerating the self determination of Indigenous Peoples in Health Research;
  • Pursuing Health Equity through Research; and,
  • Integrating Evidence in Health Decisions.

At the CIHR Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health, we actively support CIHR’s vision by engaging our research community. Through our nearly $10 million annual budget, and in partnership with other CIHR Institutes and relevant stakeholders, we develop funding opportunities that support our research community to address the important health needs within our mandate.

Our Institute further supports the research community through training workshops, recognizing excellence in research achievements, sharing research evidence with partners, strengthening Indigenous Health Research within our mandate, and fostering equity, diversity and inclusion in all activities.

Currently, our Institute is developing a Recovery Strategic Plan with a three-year focus until 2024. Some may wonder: Why “Recovery”? Recovery reflects the challenging position that many of our partners and research colleagues have and continue to experience over the past two years. Our short- and medium-term actions will focus on the shifting context of the Institute and community since the start of the pandemic and its implications into the future.

While the Institute strategic priorities must align with the 10-year vision of CIHR, they will also evolve in response to a series of inputs from stakeholders like you. We are looking to you for further input. Where should we focus our efforts within our five identified strategic priorities to achieve collective success?

Our five planned priorities include:

  • Preparing for the Future
  • Accelerating Knowledge through Collaboration
  • Strengthening Indigenous Health Research
  • Enhancing Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Health Research
  • Catalyzing Impact

We are the CIHR Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health and we look forward to engaging with you in the development of our Institute Recovery Strategic Plan. Your voice is important!

Who we are

The Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health is one of thirteen institutes, each with a specific focus, that together make up the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). CIHR promotes the creation of new knowledge and advances its translation into improved health for Canadians, more effective health products and services, and a strengthened health care system.

What we do

The mandate of the ICRH is very broad and encompasses a wide range of communities that conduct research on heart, lung, brain (stroke), blood, blood vessels, critical and intensive care, and sleep. To ensure that various ICRH researchers from different communities would relate to the new priorities and benefit from upcoming funding opportunities, we focused on selecting common themes (identified through the consultations) that would be of relevance to as many research areas as possible.

Scientific Director

Each of the 13 institutes are led by a Scientific Director, whose role includes: building Institute and research capacity; establishing and nurturing partnerships; fostering networking, knowledge dissemination and communication, working as part of CIHR management team; as well as conducting research. The Scientific Director is in turn aided by an Institute Advisory Board (IAB).

Institute Advisory Board (IAB)

The Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health (ICRH) represents a wide range of researchers and policy advisors. Members of the IAB provide support and guidance to the Scientific Director in aligning Institute activities with the Institute's goals of supporting outstanding research, enhancing research capacity, building national and international partnerships, and advancing circulatory and respiratory health in Canada and around the world.

Date modified: