Notice of Upcoming Funding Opportunity for Catalyst Grant: Reimagine Acute Care

Introduction

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) is pleased to announce the upcoming launch of the Reimagine Acute Care - Catalyst Grant Funding Opportunity, led by the CIHR Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health (ICRH).

Overview

The Reimagine Acute Care - Catalyst Grant will support research aimed at improving acute care outcomes for Canadians. It will advance research and evidence-informed decision-making for conditions within ICRH's mandate: heart, brain (stroke), lung, blood and blood vessels, sleep, and critical care. These conditions account for a significant proportion of hospitalizations, deaths, and health system costs in Canada, and their outcomes are often worsened by delayed access, fragmented care, and the complexity of co and multimorbidity.

The objectives of this funding opportunity are:

• Foster collaborations across different pillars of health research, fields, disciplines, and across the phases of the care continuum (pre-acute, acute, post-acute) to strengthen ICRH's research community, and prepare teams for interdisciplinary network funding opportunities;
• Enable researchers to generate preliminary data and/or AI-, computational or digital tools to catalyze future research and innovation; and
• Support early career researchers in initiating or participating in interdisciplinary research to build research capacity.

Research Areas

1. Phases of Care
   Projects must integrate a minimum of two (2) of the three (3) phases of the care continuum.
   • Pre-acute care phase: Preventing hospitalization for at-risk patients
   • Acute care phase: Improving outcomes from medical and interventional procedures
   • Post-acute care phase: Supporting sustainable and effective health recovery
2. Eligible Research Fields
   • Heart: Conditions of the heart
   • Blood vessels: Conditions of the vascular system
   • Brain (stroke): Limited to vascular aspects of brain health
   • Lung: Conditions of the lung and impact of inhaled exposure on the respiratory system
   • Sleep: Conditions of sleep and study of circadian rhythms
   • Critical care: Intensive, operative and emergency care, and complications thereof
   • Blood: Conditions related to blood biology and function

Funding pools

For this funding opportunity, three (3) funding pools will be available. Applicants must only select one (1).

1. Cross-‑Disease Funding Pool
   Research projects must focus on a minimum two (2) of the eligible research fields.
2. AI and Computational Science Funding Pool
   Research projects must focus on developing, applying and/or implementing AI, computational or digital tools to facilitate data use and analysis on one (1) eligible research field.
3. Combined Funding Pool: AI and Computational Science AND Cross-Disease
   Research projects must focus on developing, applying and/or implementing AI, computational or digital tools to facilitate data use and analysis on a minimum of two (2) eligible research fields.

Webinar(s)

CIHR will be hosting webinar(s) to inform participants about the requirements of this funding opportunity and to answer questions. To find out more information and to register, visit the Webinars page.

Partner Linkage Tool

CIHR is providing a Partner Linkage Tool to facilitate collaborations between researchers, knowledge users (e.g., practitioners, health-care providers/administrators, community-based organizations, persons with lived/living experience, policy/decision makers, Indigenous right-holders, etc.) or others that are interested in sharing information and/or forging collaborations in relation to acute care research.

Funds Available

The total amount available for this funding opportunity is $6,000,000, enough to fund approximately 22 grants of different maximum amounts.

The maximum amount per grant is $200,000 per year (Pools A and B) or $400,000 per year (Pool C), for up to 1 year.

Anticipated Timelines*

These timelines are estimates and subject to change.

Launch: March 2026
Webinar: Spring 2026
Registration Deadline: June 2026
Application Deadline: July 2026
Funding Start Date: December 2026

The official CIHR funding opportunity will be posted on ResearchNet in the coming weeks.

For a full list of CIHR funding opportunities, please visit ResearchNet.

Contact Information

For general inquiries please contact: 

CIHR Contact Centre
Telephone: 613-954-1968
Email: support-soutien@cihr-irsc.gc.ca

Date modified:

2026-03-02