Congratulations to the BC Children's Hospital Research Institute (BCCHR), Women’s Health Research Institute (WHRI) and Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute (VCHRI) investigators and their teams who were awarded funding through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Spring 2023 Project Grant competition. Our research community received around $8 million in new research grants as principal investigators or co-investigators.
Most of the investigators who were successful with these grants benefited from the expertise of Dr. Dawn McArthur, director, Research & Technology Development and the 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; Ms. Rita Jekabsons, senior research development coordinator; and the RTDO grants assistants for their dedication and support.
BCCHR investigators had a funding success rate of 29.6 per cent, compared to the national average of 18.6 per cent. With the success of the spring 2023 competition behind them, the RTDO team is already assisting with resubmissions for the fall 2023 competition.
View the CIHR summary of Spring 2023 Project Grant results.
Project Grants
Dr. Lori Brotto (WHRI/VCHRI) – Brain, Behaviour & Development
Project: “Virtual Reality Exposure for Vaginismus: A Replicated Single-Case Design”
Funding amount: $267,750/3 years
Dr. Gillian Hanley (WHRI) and Dr. Michael Anglesio (WHRI) – Brain, Behaviour & Development and Healthy Starts
Project: “Endometriosis-associated ovarian cancer: Understanding which patients are at high risk”
Funding amount: $680,851/4 years
Dr. Amanda Howard (UBC/WHRI), Dr. Caroline Pukall (Queen’s University) and Dr. Paul Yong – Healthy Starts
Project: “Online Participatory Digital Storytelling for People with Endometriosis: Investigating Therapeutic Potential, Authentic Portrayal, and Knowledge Translation”
Funding amount: $455,176/4 years
Dr. Jennifer Hutcheon (WHRI), Dr. Jessica Liauw (WHRI) and Dr. Kirsten Niles (UBC) – Healthy Starts
Project: “The longer-term cost consequences of Cesarean delivery”
Funding amount: $455,176/4 years
Dr. Ramon Klein Geltink – Childhood Diseases
Project: “Glucose restriction-mediated changes to mitochondria as a driver of anti-tumour CD8+ T cell function”
Funding amount: $983,026/5 years
Dr. Megan Levings – Childhood Diseases
Project: “Use of CAR Tregs to induce transplantation tolerance”
Funding amount: $1,013,626/5 years
Dr. Colin Ross – Evidence to Innovation
Project: “Development and evaluation of novel nanoparticle formulations for therapeutic genome editing”
Funding amount: $975,376/5 years
Dr. Theodore Steiner – Childhood Diseases
Project: “Exploring the potential of type-1 regulatory T cells in resolution and recovery from intestinal inflammation”
Funding amount: $925,650/5 years
Dr. Laura Arbour – Childhood Diseases
Project: “Indigenizing Health Research Ethics in British Columbia with Indigenous Communities, Collectives and Organizations: Co-Create Wise Practices & Distinctions-Based Ethical Protocols in Indigenous Health Research”
Funding amount: $424,576/3 years
Dr. Karen Tran (WHRI) – Healthy Starts
Project: “Telehealth for Emergency-Community Continuity of Care Connectivity via Home Blood Pressure Telemonitoring (TEC4HOME-BP)”
Funding amount: $956,250/5 years
Dr. Bruce Vallance – Childhood Diseases
Project: “Colonic mucus-derived sugars fuel the growth and virulence of pathogenic enteric bacteria”
Funding amount: $956,250/5 years
CIHR Project Grants – Priority Announcement Bridge Grants
Dr. Wendy Norman (WHRI), Dr. Bonnie Henry (UBC), Dr. Sarah Munro (UBC) and Dr. Laura Schummers – Healthy Starts
Project: “"How far is too far?" Creating an evidence base to support safe provision of medication abortion for people living far from emergency services”
Funding amount: $100,000/1 year
We would also like to congratulate all other BCCHR researchers who collaborated or were co-investigators on projects awarded funding.
View the full list of CIHR Institute Priority Announcement grant recipients.
