CIHR Catalyst Grant : Analysis of Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA) Data (2026)
Well-being, Health and Biomedical Discovery
Deadlines
Academic Unit: Inquire with unit
Memorial Deadline: Monday 21st, September 2026
External Deadline: Thursday 24th, September 2026
Description
The CLSA is a large, national, long-term data platform that is following 51,338 Canadian men and women who were between the ages of 45 and 85 at the time of recruitment, at three-year intervals for 20 years or until death. The CLSA collects information on the changing biological, medical, psychological, social and economic aspects of people’s lives and completed recruitment of 51,388 participants in 2015. The aim of the CLSA is to find ways to improve the health of Canadians by better understanding the aging process and the factors that shape the way we age.
CLSA is currently in its third phase of funding (2021-27); baseline data collection and three follow-up waves have been completed, and the fourth follow-up period is underway (2024-27). Please refer to the CLSA Data Availability Table for a full summary of available CLSA data.
Researchers may propose projects using CLSA data alone, or CLSA data plus other data sets/cohorts to enhance the scope of research questions that can be addressed. We encourage applicants to consider new provincial administrative data linked through Health Data Research Network (HDRN) Canada (costs for accessing HDRN data are available here). Please note that identifiable information on CLSA participants cannot be released. Applications that require identification of participants to link individual information to other data sets will not be eligible for funding.
Building upon a consultation process with Indigenous researchers that began in 2019, the CLSA has revised its data access process for the use of Indigenous-identified data and has made changes to how these projects are assessed. Since April 2023, existing CLSA data can be released with Indigenous identifiers for projects that demonstrate meaningful and respectful engagement with relevant Indigenous Peoples throughout the project.
The integration and consideration of sex and gender-based analysis (SGBA) is expected in all applications.
Competition: 202609ACD
Application Deadline: 2026-09-24