Canadian Institutes of Health Research's 2024–25 Departmental plan at a glance

A departmental plan describes a department’s priorities, plans, and associated costs for the upcoming three fiscal years.

• Raison d’être, mandate, and role
• Operating context

Key priorities

• Improve the delivery of youth mental health and substance use services in communities across Canada by supporting the development and implementation of the Integrated Youth Services Network of Networks Initiative (IYS-Net);
• Strengthen the clinical trials ecosystem by investing in key initiatives aligned with the Government of Canada priorities;
• Support health research initiatives developed by and with Indigenous Peoples; and
• Invest in research and knowledge mobilization initiatives to better prevent, prepare for, and respond to pandemics and other health emergencies.

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) invests in health research and training to support the creation of new knowledge and its translation into improved health for Canadians. CIHR continues to deliver on its Strategic Plan 2021–2031: A Vision for a Healthier Future, which provides the context to accomplish the Agency’s vision to achieve the best health for all, powered by outstanding research. The Strategic Plan is enacted through a series of annual strategic action plans, which outline the activities that will be undertaken to realize the bold vision and strategic direction of CIHR’s Governing Council.

Through direct (recipient of CIHR training awards) and indirect (from a researcher's CIHR grant) funding to trainees^{Footnote 1} and early career researchers (ECRs), CIHR investments continue to strengthen Canada's health research capacity by supporting the development of scientific, professional, and organizational leaders within and beyond the health research enterprise.

CIHR remains committed to advancing equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) commitments both in terms of improving accessibility within the workplace and addressing ableism in the health research funding ecosystem. These measures aim to ensure that CIHR-funded research is relevant, culturally safe, and impactful for the full diversity of people living within Canada.

Together with Indigenous Peoples (First Nations, Inuit and Métis), CIHR and its Canada Research Coordinating Committee partners will implement an interdisciplinary research and research training model that contributes to reconciliation. As demonstrated by Priority C of the Strategic Plan, CIHR acknowledges the significant and ongoing contributions of Indigenous Peoples to research and continues to support Indigenous communities to lead health research founded in Indigenous ways of knowing focused on resilience and wellness.

The Centre for Research on Pandemic Preparedness and Health Emergencies (CRPPHE) protects the health of all people in Canada by supporting, coordinating, and mobilizing an emergency-ready health research system that contributes to timely, equitable and effective decision making related to pandemics and other health emergencies.

Canada’s Strategy for Patient-Oriented Research (SPOR) continues to focus on moving research evidence into practice by transferring what health researchers know into what health care providers do. Through SPOR, CIHR will continue to engage with patients and people with lived and living experience (PWLE), Indigenous community partners, researchers, health care providers, and provincial and territorial policy and decision makers to build capacity for patient engagement and patient oriented research.

The Project Grant program is designed to capture ideas with the greatest potential to advance health-related knowledge, health research, health care, health systems, and/or health outcomes. It supports research projects proposed and conducted by individual researchers or groups of researchers in all areas of health. In 2024–25, CIHR will continue to support health research excellence through investigator-initiated Project Grant investments that help make Canada's health research internationally competitive and internationally recognized.

CIHR, in partnership with the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), will continue to support trainees and ECRs in all fields thereby enhancing Canada's capacity for health research.

Refocusing government spending

In Budget 2023, the government committed to reducing spending by $14.1B over the next five years, starting in 2023–24, and by $4.1B annually after that.

As part of meeting this commitment, CIHR is planning the following spending reductions (dollars):

• 2024–25: $1,440,000
• 2025–26: $1,440,000
• 2026–27 and after: $1,440,000

CIHR will achieve these reductions by doing the following:

• Reducing spending on internal services (e.g., on corporate activities such as travel and professional services)

Highlights

A Departmental Results Framework consists of an organization’s core responsibilities, the results it plans to achieve, and the performance indicators that measure progress toward these results.

Date modified:

2024-02-29