Congratulations to the BC Children’s and BC Women’s investigators who were awarded funding through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Project Grants Spring 2021 competition. Our research community received more than $6 million in new research grants.
As always, many of the successful grants in this competition benefited from the expertise of Dr. Dawn McArthur, director, research & technology development and the BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute’s (BCCHR) Research & Technology Development Office (RTDO) team. On behalf of BCCHR, we would like to thank the RTDO's Dr. Tamara English, senior research development facilitator; Mr. Eric Lussier, research development facilitator (BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute/Women’s Health Research Institute); Ms. Rita Jekabsons, senior research development coordinator; and the RTDO grants assistants for their dedication and support.
BC Children’s investigators had a funding success rate of more than 32 per cent, compared to the national average of just over 20 per cent. With the success of the spring 2021 competition, the RTDO team is already assisting with resubmissions for the fall 2021 competition.
Congratulations to:
BC Children’s
Project Grants
Dr. Rajavel Elango – Healthy Starts – “Indispensable Amino Acid Requirements in Pregnancy and Lactation.” BC Children’s co-investigator: Dr. Kenneth Lim. $726,750 / 5 years.
Dr. Catherine Lebel, Dr. Emma Duerden (University of Calgary) and Dr. Tim Oberlander – Brain, Behaviour & Development – “Associations between prenatal maternal psychological distress, brain growth, and behaviour in young children.” BC Children’s co-investigator: Dr. Ruth Grunau. $1,296,676 / 5 years.
Dr. Tim Oberlander – Brain, Behaviour & Development – “‘Real-time’ measures of anxiety and physical activity in 15-18-year-olds with prenatal antidepressant exposure.” $730,576 / 4 years.
Dr. Stuart Turvey and Dr. Catherine Biggs – Healthy Starts – “Understanding Human Primary Atopic Disorders.” BC Children’s co-investigator: Dr. Anna Lehman – Childhood Diseases. $765,000 / 5 years.
Dr. Bruce Vallance – Childhood Diseases – “Colonic Goblet Cells and Mucus: Defining Their Roles in Host Defense and Mucosal Protection.” $918,000 / 5 years.
Dr. Matthew Wiens – Healthy Starts – “Smart Discharges for Mom+Baby: Saving mother-newborn dyads by developing a predictive risk model to identify vulnerable dyads and guide delivery of evidence-based, locally-informed interventions for targeted post-discharge care.” BC Children’s co-investigators: Dr. Mark Ansermino, Dr. Tex Kissoon, Dr. Pascal Lavoie, Dr. Astrid Christoffersen-Deb, Dr. Marianne Vidler – Healthy Starts – Jeffrey Bone and Dr. Beth Payne. $566,100 / 3 years.
Dr. Kristy Wittmeier (University of Manitoba) and Dr. Stephanie Glegg – Evidence to Innovation – “A Mixed Methods Social Network Analysis Approach to Understand Knowledge Translation in Child Development and Rehabilitation.” $240,976 / 2 years.
Project Grants – PA: Equity in Cancer Prevention and Control
Dr. Jessica Liauw, Dr. Jennifer Hutcheon – Healthy Starts – and others, “Reducing health disparities among women experiencing imprisonment: an evaluation of the impact of transferring responsibility for prison healthcare to the Ministry of Health.” BC Children’s co-investigator: Dr. Gina Ogilvie. $100,000 / 1 year.
Project Grants – PA: Human Development, Child and Youth Health
Dr. Alexander Beristain and Dr. Wendy Robinson – Healthy Starts – “Placental sex as a biological determinant in trophoblast function and trophoblast-directed immune activity.” $100,000 / 1 year.
Project Grants – PA: Pandemic and Health Emergencies Research
Dr. Jan Dutz – Childhood Diseases – “Cutaneous adjuvant conditioning to enhance vaccine responses.” BC Children’s co-investigator: Dr. Manish Sadarangani – Healthy Starts – and Dr. Doug Carlow. $450,000 / 3 years.
Operating Grant – PA: Genetics (Bridge Funding)
Dr. Elizabeth Conibear – Childhood Diseases – “Targeting the VPS13 family of lipid transport proteins to membrane contact sites.” $100,000 / 1 year.
BC Women’s
Project Grants
Dr. Angela Kaida and Dr. Mark Brockman,“Defining the Impact of Socio-Structural Determinants of Health on Immune Activation and Inflammation in Adolescents and Youth Adults in a Vulnerable Environment.” BC Children’s co-investigator: Dr. Pablo Nepomnaschy and Dr. Nadine Provencal – Healthy Starts. BC Women’s co-investigator: Dr. Arianne Albert. $734,400 / 4 years.
Dr. Sarah Munro and others, “Improving access to family planning services for Indigenous peoples through storytelling.” BC Children’s co-investigator: Dr. Wendy V. Norman – Healthy Starts. $715,275 / 4 years.
Project Grant – PA: HIV/AIDS and STBBI
Dr. Deborah Money, “A Study of Reduced Dosing of the Nonavalent HPV Vaccine in Women Living with HIV.” BC Children’s co-investigators: Dr. Gina Ogilvie and Dr. Manish Sadarangani – Healthy Starts. BC Women’s co-investigators: Dr. Arianne Albert, Dr. Chelsea Elwood and Dr. Elisabeth K. McClymont. $100,00 / 1 year.
