Catalyst Grant: Digital Health (2025)

Eligibility

For an application to be eligible, all the requirements stated below must be met:

1. The Nominated Principal Applicant (NPA) must be:
   • An early  or mid-career independent researcher, or a knowledge user, affiliated with a Canadian postsecondary institution and/or its affiliated institutions (including hospitals, research institutes and other non-profit organizations with a mandate for health research and/or knowledge translation);
     OR
   • A Principal Knowledge User (PKU) who identifies as a patient partner at any career stage.
     OR
   • An individual of any career stage who is affiliated with an Indigenous non-governmental organization in Canada with a research and/or knowledge translation mandate;
     OR
   • An Indigenous non-governmental organization in Canada with a research and/or knowledge translation mandate.
2. The NPA must have their substantive role in Canada for the duration of the requested grant term.
3. The Institution Paid receives and administers the funds on behalf of the NPA and therefore must be authorized by CIHR before the funds can be released.
4. Any research applications involving Indigenous Peoples  must include at least one Principal Applicant or Co-Applicant who self-identifies as Indigenous (First Nations, Inuit or Métis) and/or provides evidence of having meaningful and culturally safe involvement with Indigenous Peoples (see How to Apply section for more details).
5. With the exception of research related to Indigenous Health, research must be co-led by an Early- or Mid-Career independent researcher and a Principal Knowledge User (PKU) who identifies as Patient Partner (at any career stage);
   • If the NPA is an Early or Mid-Career Researcher, each applicant team must also include at least one (1) PKU of any career stage who identifies as a Patient Partner as Principal Applicant or Co-Applicant
   • If the NPA is a PKU or an organization, each applicant team must also include at least one (1) Early or Mid-Career Researcher as Principal Applicant or Co-Applicant
   • If the NPA is an Indigenous researcher and/or has experience in working with Indigenous peoples, they may be of any career stage and there is no requirement for a patient partner to be co-applicant.
6. The NPA must have completed at least one of the sex and gender-based analysis training modules available online through CIHR-IMHA and submit a Certificate of Completion for each (see How to Apply section).
7. The NPA must have completed all four modules for Patient Engagement available online through the CIHR-IMHA and have submitted their Certificates of Completions (see How to Apply section).

8. A NPA can submit a maximum of one (1) application under this funding opportunity. If the NPA submits more than one (1) application, CIHR will automatically withdraw the last application(s) submitted based on time-stamp of submission.

   Note: NPAs applying as an ECR or MCR can identify participants (Principal Applicants and/or Co-Applicants) at other levels of seniority (ECRs, MCRs, Senior Researchers).

Summary

This funding opportunity will catalyze discovery in digital health, advance pivotal research, and inform applications or interventions relevant to CIHR-IMHA's broad mandate areas. This funding opportunity also seeks to benefit the continued integration of technology into healthcare in Canada. These grants are reserved for early and mid-career researchers, and Indigenous Health researchers at any career stage. Patient and/or community engagement as an essential evaluation criterion for these grants, and inclusion of a Knowledge User or Patient Partner as a Principal Applicant or Co-applicant aligns with the Knowledge to Action Framework.

This funding opportunity supports the CIHR 2021-31 Strategic Plan Priority E: Integrate Evidence in Health Decisions, as a research investment that could support the mobilization of health system innovations including in technology, virtual care and artificial intelligence, and aligns with all three of the strategies under this priority. To support CIHR's Strategic Plan, CIHR-IMHA's will invest in digital health research that has the potential for immediate-to-medium term health impact (2-10 years). CIHR-IMHA is also committed to maintaining a focus on equity issues in this research area, specifically the assumption that clinical digital health (telehealth services) improves access.

The specific objectives of this funding opportunity are to:

• Support original, high quality research in digital health that has the potential to catalyse future research (e.g. may support securing funding through Project Grant and at other Agencies/Councils), including generation of pilot data, and research into evaluation, scale up, or implementation of a digital health product, platform or application.
• Incentivize research that focuses on digital health solutions for the CIHR-IMHA mandate areas.
• Foster a community of CIHR-IMHA digital health researchers that partner with Canadian leaders in equitable digital science.
• Provide research leadership, stimulate innovative research and practice, and strengthen research capacity by dedicating funds to early and mid-career researchers as part of CIHR-IMHA's commitment to Nurture Leaders.
• Strengthen health research by embedding patient and/or community engagement in the funding opportunity.

Overhead

n/a

Pre-application deadlines

RSO internal deadline

Pre-application program deadline

Application deadlines

RSO final internal review deadline

Program application deadline

NOTE: Consult your Faculty Associate Dean (Research) (ADR) regarding Faculty-specific deadlines and submission processes.

Principal Investigators: Complete a Research Management System (RMS) record, including a copy of your complete application, and submit this for approvals in RMS.

Postdocs, students, and trainees: For fellowships and externally-sponsored research training awards or opportunities, you must complete the Research Funding Application Approval (RFAA) Trainee PDF form, and submit it, along with a complete copy of the application, to Research Services at rsotrainee@ucalgary.ca. Trainees should not use RMS at this time.

Approvals: The University of Calgary requires that all funding applications be approved prior to submission. Approval requires signatures via either RMS or the RFAA Trainee form, in the following order:

• Principal Investigator
• Department Head
• Faculty ADR/Dean
• Research Services (on behalf of the Vice-President Research)

Read the Meaning of Grant Signatures policy to understand what your approval means. Please see the agency guidelines for details about which signatures are required on your application, as it may differ from internal requirements.

Late submissions: Late submissions will only be accepted in cases of medical or family emergencies, or other exceptional circumstances. If you submit your RMS record to Research Services after the internal deadline has passed, you must secure additional approvals. Please read: Late Applications Process.

Submission Process:

Registration due directly to CIHR via ResearchNet by 6:00PM Calgary time on December 16, 2025. No RMS needed for this step.

Full application, plus approvals in RMS, will be required by RSO by noon on March 11, 2026. Please be sure to select "Submitted for approvals" (Under Save & Progress) in RMS in enough time to allow for approvals from your Department Head and/or ADR prior to the internal RSO deadline. Consult your department and faculty for more information on their approval processes and timelines.

Do not submit through ResearchNet until RSO's signature has been granted!! 

Once institutional signature has been obtained, a copy of the CIHR signature page will be available via the RMS record, under Documents. Upload the CIHR signature page and routing slip in the Print/Upload Signature Pages task in ResearchNet by 6:00PM Calgary time on March 17, 2026.

RESOURCES

Contact the following Research Service units for support with: 

 Projects Involving Indigenous Research: 

Support with incorporating wise practices in Indigenous research, community engagement, and Indigenous data management is available through the Indigenous Research Support Team (IRST). 

Applicants can reach out by email to IRST at IRST@ucalgary.ca in advance of the RSO internal deadline. For more information about IRST, please visit the IRST webpage. 

Knowledge Mobilization, Research Impact Assessment, DORA:  
Support for knowledge mobilization/engagement/translation, community partnerships, research impact, responsible research assessment (DORA), and open science, is available through the Knowledge to Impact team.  

Applicants can reach out by email to the KI team at knowledge.impact@ucalgary.ca.  
For more information and access to resource archives, please visit the KI team webpage. 

Research Data Management: 

For information on research data management plans, processes, or best practices for your research program, please contact research.data@ucalgary.ca.  

EDI in Research: 

RSO can provide resources and support to research teams on the integration of equitable and inclusive practices in research design and research practice.  

Contact edi.rso@ucalgary.ca for more information. 

Research Security: 

The Research Security Division is available to ensure researchers adhere to research security guidelines and policies, including the National Security Guidelines for Research Partnerships (NSGRP) and the policy on Sensitive Technology Research and Affiliations of Concern (STRAC). 

Visit the Research Security website to learn more or contact researchsecurity@ucalgary.ca.  

Reminder: The sooner the researcher engages with RSO units, the more help we can be! 

RMS: Creating a Pre-Award Application