CIHR Operating Grant : Indigenous Gender and Wellness – Knowledge Sharing

Well-being, Health and Biomedical Discovery

Deadlines

Academic Unit: Inquire within unit

Memorial Deadline: Friday 26th, September 2025

External Deadline: Wednesday 1st, October 2025

Description

Purpose

This funding opportunity focuses on Knowledge Sharing about the outcomes and knowledge of Indigenous Gender and Wellness research using strengths- and distinctions-based, community-engaged approaches. This focus aims to ensure that research learnings about First Nations, Inuit and Métis Gender and Wellness effectively reach those who need to hear them – including First Nations, Inuit and Métis individuals, communities and community partners, clinicians, decision-makers, the research community, research funders, trainees, and the general public, among others. This funding opportunity encourages the use of culturally relevant and/or arts-based methods to acknowledge and uphold Indigenous approaches to Knowledge Sharing in Gender and Wellness, and support work that is meaningful and culturally safe for First Nations, Inuit and/or Métis communities. In this context, wellness should be broadly defined to encompass an Indigenous, holistic view of health.

Possible topics or project themes might include, but are not limited to:

• Gender and wellness across the lifespan, including in children, youth, adults and Elders
• Gender, wellness, and aging
• Gender, storytelling and intergenerational learning
• Two-Spirit and/or Indigenous LGBTQI+ wellness
• Gender expansive identities, roles and wellness
• HIV and/or other STBBI
• Men, boys, masculinities and wellness
• Women, girls, femininities and wellness
• Matriarchs and wellness
• Perinatal and child health and wellness
• Gender, family relations and/or parenting (e.g. fatherhood, motherhood, parenthood)
• First Nations, Inuit and/or Métis understandings of gender, and how they related to wellness
• Gender, language and wellness
• Gender-based violence prevention and resilience
• Prevention and resilience to the effects of colonization on Indigenous health and wellness, through a gendered lens
• Gender and Land, body and spirit connections
• Climate change and wellness, through a gendered lens
• Gender and physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and/or cultural health and wellness
• Gender and wellness considerations for health services and/or in the context of a specific health condition or outcome

This funding opportunity does not support conducting of Clinical trials.

Research Areas

All projects must have a focus on Knowledge Sharing about Indigenous Gender and Wellness research in Canada. Within the overarching research area of Indigenous Gender and Wellness Knowledge Sharing, specific funds to support one grant each will be reserved for applications that align with each of the following priority research areas:

• Gender and Wellness in First Nations communities
  • This pool will support applications where the primary focus of proposed activities is with First Nations communities.
• Gender and Wellness in Métis communities
  • This pool will support applications where the primary focus of proposed activities is with Métis communities.
• Gender and Wellness in Inuit communities
  • This pool will support applications where the primary focus of proposed activities is with Inuit communities.
• Gender and Wellness among First Nations, Inuit and/or Métis youth
  • This pool will support applications where the primary focus of proposed activities is with youth among First Nations, Inuit, and/or Métis communities, as per IHDCYH’s mandate

Objectives

The specific objective(s) of this funding opportunity are to:

• Support Knowledge Sharing activities from ongoing or recently completed, community-engaged research projects that aim to improve the wellness of Indigenous Peoples in Canada from a gendered perspective, including how Indigenous concepts of gender affect wellness;
• Promote the use of culturally relevant Knowledge Sharing activities and approaches and/or arts-based methods, among other possible Knowledge Sharing approaches, to share learnings about Indigenous Gender and Wellness;
• Encourage strengths- and distinctions-based Knowledge Sharing that will build lasting relationships and improve shared learning and understanding, application, and opportunity to increase wellness for Indigenous individuals and communities using a gendered lens;
• Bridge capacity of the next generation of Indigenous health researchers and community partners in Knowledge Sharing focused on Indigenous Gender and Wellness;
• Support the evaluation of Knowledge Sharing activities and approaches, to support ongoing learning with the goal to improve the wellness of Indigenous Peoples in Canada from a gendered perspective, including how Indigenous concepts of gender affect wellness

Eligibility to Apply

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

1. The Nominated Principal Applicant must be one of the following:
   • an Indigenous non-governmental organization in Canada with a research and/or knowledge translation mandate;
     OR
   • an individual affiliated with an Indigenous non-governmental organization in Canada with a research and/or knowledge translation mandate;
     OR
   • an individual (an 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
   • an individual (an independent researcher or a knowledge user) working in a municipal, provincial or territorial government in Canada where the activity which forms the subject matter of the funding is not being funded by specific programs of those municipal, provincial and territorial governments.
2. The Nominated Principal Applicant (individual) must either self-identify as Indigenous (First Nations, Inuit and/or Métis) and/or provide evidence of having meaningful and culturally safe involvement with Indigenous Peoples (see How to Apply).
3. The team must include each of four (4) participant types listed below, in any role, as appropriate, including collaborator. Note that an individual can fulfill multiple participant types. This will need to be detailed in the Participant table (see How to Apply).
   •  an Indigenous Elder and/or Indigenous Knowledge Holder/Keeper/Guardian,
   •  a Trainee
     1. must either self-identify as Indigenous (First Nations, Inuit and/or Métis) and/ or provide evidence of having meaningful and culturally safe involvement with Indigenous Peoples (see How to Apply).
   • a knowledge user (who can be, but is not limited to, a practitioner, policy maker, educator, decision maker, health care administrator, Indigenous community leader, or an individual in a health charity, patient group, private sector organization or a media outlet)
   • a person with lived or living experience (PWLLE) relevant to proposed activities and in alignment with the overarching research area of Indigenous Gender and Wellness Knowledge Sharing (e.g. Two Spirit person, Indigenous father, Elder)
     1. For applications applying to the Gender and Wellness among First Nations, Inuit and/or Métis youth funding pool, the PWLLE must be a youth
4. The Nominated Principal Applicant must have their substantive role in Canada for the duration of the requested grant term.
5. The Nominated Principal Applicant and all the Principal Applicants/Principal Knowledge Users must have successfully completed module 2 or 3 of the sex- and gender-based analysis training modules available online through the CIHR Institute of Gender and Health, and attach the Certificate of Completion by the full application deadline. Applicants are encouraged to review the “How to integrate sex and gender in research” section on the CIHR website.
   • Organizations as Nominated Principal Applicant: For organizations applying as the Nominated Principal Applicant, a representative of the organization must complete the training module (either module 2 or 3) on the organization’s behalf.
6. 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 are encouraged to contact the Contact Centre, in advance, to enquire about the authorization process and timelines.
7. An individual or an organization cannot submit more than one application as the Nominated Principal Applicant. If the Nominated Principal Applicant submits more than one application, CIHR will automatically withdraw the last application(s) submitted based on the timestamp of submission.

Important Dates

For more information please see: ResearchNet – RechercheNet

Funding Sources

Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR)