Team Grant : Precision Medicine

CIHR Team Grants: Embracing Diversity to Achieve Precision and Increase Health Equity

The Kidney Foundation of Canada has partnered with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research institution of Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes to support the Team Grants: Embracing Diversity to Achieve Precision and Increase Health Equity, which aims to promote integrated health research and improve the health of all people in Canada, particularly populations who have historically experienced inequitable health outcomes in Canada. 

Purpose of the CIHR Team Grant

This funding opportunity will support new research focused on improving health and achieving equitable health outcomes across the lifespan of people from diverse groups in Canada. The objectives are as follows: 

• The development of precision medicine.
• The understanding of health determinants in Indigenous communities.
• The understanding of health determinants in at-risk groups and diverse populations who have historically experienced inequitable health outcomes in Canada. 

Importance to The Kidney Foundation of Canada

The development of novel precision medicine approaches is key to transformational change in the treatment of many chronic diseases.  It has become clear over the last decade, that developed strategies may often not be representative of all populations, and that existing heterogeneity within individuals and populations is often under considered in the development of novel approaches.  With chronic kidney disease affecting 1 in 10 Canadians, it is tremendously important to support innovative research approaches to developing transformational, yet equitable strategies to combat disease. Understanding diversity may lead to more precise approaches for prevention and treatment, resulting in quantifiable change and ensuring that all populations are represented during development. 

Funding and Partners  

The Kidney Foundation of Canada will fund research relevant to the objectives of the funding opportunity across the four pillars. This includes but is not limited to applications focusing on:  

• Understanding development, risk, prevention, treatment, management, care or cure for all aspects of kidney function, diseases of the kidney, and kidney transplant;
• Improvement of health systems and services with the goal of improving efficiency, effectiveness and equity of the health care system through changes to practice and policy related to kidney disease; 
• Population and public health research with the goal of improving the kidney health of populations living in Canada through increased understanding of ways in which social, cultural, environmental, occupational, and economic factors determine health status.