Team Grant: National Cancer Data and Bio-Resource Coordinating Hub (2026)

Eligibility

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

1. The Nominated Principal Applicant (NPA) must be an independent researcher 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 mobilization).
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. If the Institution Paid is not on the List of CIHR Eligible Institutions, they must contact the Contact Centre, in advance, to enquire about the authorization process and timelines.
4. The research team must be interdisciplinary and pan-Canadian in scope. At a minimum, the team must include each of the four (4) participant types listed below. Note that an individual can fulfill multiple participant types.
   • An Early Career Researcher (ECR) as NPA, Principal Applicant (PA), or Co-Applicant. ECR eligibility status must be met by the full application deadline.
   • NPA, PAs, or Co-Applicants from at least 4 different provinces and/or territories. Regional teams will not be considered for this funding opportunity.
   • A knowledge user (including but not limited to PWLLE, practitioners, decision makers, policy makers, community leaders).
   • At least one 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 for more details) in order to:
     • Prioritize First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples and communities in leading research and/or knowledge mobilization mandates;
     • Promote cultural safety and appropriate engagements by researchers working with Indigenous Peoples in meaningful ways to ensure that respectful relations are established;
     • Add value to the research through the use of culturally relevant, theoretical, conceptual, and/or practical frameworks, including culturally appropriate methodologies and practices; and
     • Promote equity and development of trainees, researchers and knowledge users who are of Indigenous ancestry.
5. The NPA must provide a Letter of Support from the Alliance confirming the NPA will have access to their in-kind resources to support the work proposed in the application (see How to Apply for more details).
6. The NPA and all PAs must have successfully completed one of the Sex and Gender Training Modules available online through the CIHR Institute of Gender and Health and submit a Certificate of Completion by the full application deadline (see How to Apply for more details).
7. An individual cannot submit more than one (1) application to this funding opportunity as an NPA. If the NPA submits more than one application, CIHR will automatically withdraw the subsequent application(s) submitted based on timestamp of submission.

Summary

This funding opportunity aims to establish a National Cancer Data and Bio-Resource Coordinating Hub that builds on Canada's existing platforms, repositories, and initiatives to strengthen the national research data ecosystem. The Hub will advance a coordinated, interoperable, and trusted approach to data stewardship by enabling the integration, linkage, and responsible sharing of key research assets across Canada. The Hub will:

• Facilitate cross-site data submission, harmonization, discovery, and access for multi-modal data (e.g., imaging, histology, clinical, wearable, multi-omics, and environmental data) through a shared pan-Canadian framework that emphasizes interoperability, common standards, and trusted governance, aligned with international best practices (e.g., FAIR Principles, Global Alliance for Genomics and Health [GA4GH] tools and standards).
• Reduce fragmentation and lower barriers to data sharing and collaboration across Canada, with a strong emphasis on AI integration and multi-site interoperability.

As a pilot use case, the Hub will work with data generated by research teams funded through the CIHR Bringing Biology to Cancer Prevention Team Grants and CIHR Beyond Treatment ¿ Advancing Cancer Survivorship Team Grants funding opportunities. Cancer will serve as an initial domain focus to demonstrate how distributed, multi-modal research data assets across Canada can be discovered, accessed, and linked through a coordinated environment using appropriate models (e.g., federated approaches), creating a scalable blueprint for broader adoption across the health research ecosystem.

Mandatory Applicant Partner

This funding opportunity represents a strategic opportunity to maximize the value of federal investments aimed at strengthening how Canada's research data are managed, shared, and reused across disciplines, while accelerating discovery and enhancing the impact of public investments in AI and digital research infrastructure, and ensuring the ongoing sustainability and evolution of the associated activities enabled by these investments.

The specific objectives of this funding opportunity are to:

• Foster the sharing of data, expertise, and resources across Canada to drive innovation and collaboration, with a focus on leveraging AI to support cross-site data submission, harmonization, discovery, and sharing of multi-modal data.
• Develop a pan-Canadian framework that enables the collection, stewardship, management, and sharing of cancer data across distributed repositories and platforms, with the aim to promote reproducibility, rigour, and reuse of research outputs, while reducing duplication and operational inefficiencies across the ecosystem, in alignment with other national efforts, including the Canadian Research Data Platform.
• Support interdisciplinary team science by enabling secure and ethical sharing of data, expertise, and biosample resources among researchers across disciplines and jurisdictions, which is responsive to domain-specific needs of the cancer community.
• Strengthen national research capacity in integrating inclusive, intersectional, and innovative skillsets, technologies, and methods in data science, analytics, and AI into their research.
• Foster knowledge mobilization around implementation of best practices on responsible data management and sharing approaches that support open science, trusted reuse, and long-term public value from research investments.

These objectives are to be supported by the following key design elements:

• Strong community-led governance: The National Cancer Data and Bio-Resource Coordinating Hub must establish a robust, transparent, and accountable governance structure that supports coordination across stakeholders and jurisdictions, ensuring that all of the above objectives are met. The governance structure must include a Scientific Advisory Board/Consultative Committee, convened regularly, which includes people with lived and living experience (PWLLE).
• Alignment with international and national standards: The Hub's activities should be aligned with FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) principles. Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH) tools and standards should be utilized to enable collaborations nationally, and with international genomic efforts on data sharing, analysis, and knowledge exchange.
• Federated integration of multi-modal data: The Hub must support the incorporation and linkage of diverse multi-modal data types, including but not limited to multi-omic (e.g., genomics, epigenomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, microbiomics), wearable, imaging, clinical, and histology data.
• Pan-Canadian scope and interoperability: The Hub must operate with a national perspective that will enable discovery, access, and analysis of health data across the country, governed in a transparent, accountable, and consistent way.

Applicants must demonstrate that they have an existing, operational data platform, repository, or digital infrastructure that will serve as the foundation on which the proposed cancer¿specific National Data Space will be developed. The funding opportunity is intended to support the extension, integration, and scaling of existing assets, and not the creation of entirely new standalone platforms.

Overhead

N/A

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:

Full application, plus approvals in RMS, will be required by RSO by noon on January 21, 2027. 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 January 26, 2027.

NOTE: This funding opportunity uses the tri-agency CV (TCV). For opportunities requiring the Tri-Agency CV, a Research Contributions attachment, or a Most Significant Contributions statement, applicants can refer to the Narrative CV Support webpage. 

RESOURCES

Reminder: The sooner the researcher engages with Research Services, the more help we can be!

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.

Pre-Award Submissions:

RMS: Creating a Pre-Award Application