Notice of upcoming funding opportunity: The Canadian Cannabis and Brain Health Consortium

Introduction

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) is pleased to announce the upcoming launch of the Canadian Cannabis and Brain Health Consortium.

This funding opportunity is led by the Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction (INMHA).

Overview

To better understand the impact of cannabis use on population health, Canada requires a cannabis and brain health cohort to measure cannabis use and the impact on brain health across the lifespan and provide the infrastructure to facilitate data harmonization and access across provinces and territories. The current funding opportunity brings about the opportunity to leverage existing research infrastructure and expertise in Canada to create an integrated data collection and clinical trials infrastructure that will be accessible to all Canadian researchers to investigate key questions about cannabis harms and benefits to the population across the lifespan.

This funding opportunity will support the creation of the Canadian Cannabis and Brain Health Consortium (CCBHC). Up to ten teams will be supported to create or expand existing population-based cohort studies to address pressing issues on cannabis use and brain health from a lifespan perspective and assess the impacts of legalization on health and public health to address key data gaps to inform policy development at the federal, provincial, territorial and local levels. These teams will collaborate and pool their data on participants recruited from sites across Canada to form a large multi-site cohort.

In addition to their population-based cohort study, research teams will also be expected to contribute at least one additional cannabis-focused research project that capitalizes on the research infrastructure, assessment framework and/or database provided by the CCBHC. Research programs should address one of the priority areas: interventions to reduce cannabis-related harms, controlled trials of cannabis for medical purposes; populations with rare, and/or complex clinical, contexts; scaling of novel cannabis-related measurement methods; parallel pre-clinical cannabis/cannabinoid studies; Indigenous Peoples' health and cannabis.

All applicants interested in submitting, participating in and/or joining an application to this call must submit a Registration. Note that this task is mandatory to be eligible to submit a Full Application as a Nominated Principal Applicant.

Following the Registration deadline registrants will be expected to attend a Strengthening Workshop on November 14th, 2025, prior to submitting a full application. The aims of the workshop are to help identify opportunities for collaboration, partnerships, and areas of intersectionality and collective impact, and to help guide harmonization of data collection and methods across applications. Note that participation from a Nominated Principal Applicant or Principal Applicant in the Strengthening Workshop is mandatory to submit a Full Application.

Webinar(s)

CIHR will be hosting webinar(s) to inform participants about the requirements of this funding opportunity and to answer questions. To find out more information and to register, visit the Webinars page.

Funds Available

The total amount available for this funding opportunity is anticipated to be $24,000,000, enough to fund approximately 10 grants.

The maximum amount per grant is anticipated to be 800,000 per annum for up to three (3) years , for a total of $2,400,000.

Anticipated Timelines

• Launch: Early October 2025
• Application Deadline:
  • Registration: End of October 2025
  • Strengthening Workshop: November 14th, 2025
  • Application: mid-January 2026
• Funding Start Date: April 1, 2026

The official CIHR funding opportunity will be posted on ResearchNet in the coming weeks.

For a full list of CIHR funding opportunities, please visit ResearchNet.

Contact Information

For general inquiries please contact:

CIHR Contact Centre
Telephone: 613-954-1968
Toll Free: 1-888-603-4178
Email: support-soutien@cihr-irsc.gc.ca

Date modified:

2025-08-29