The CIHR Spring 2026 competition has approved 439 research grants, 19 priority announcement grants and 9 bridge grants, for a total investment of approximately $412 million.
The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) has announced the results of its Spring 2026 project grant competition. Congratulations to all the VCHRI researchers who were awarded project grants and priority announcement grants.
Project Grants
PROPEL-AS: Prostate personalized surveillance using pathology-aligned multi-modal imaging
Principal Investigators: Drs. Purang Abolmaesumi, Miles Mannas
Longitudinal non-invasive optical biopsy of low risk skin neoplasms in dermatology clinics to monitor efficacy and response to treatment
Principal Investigators: Dr. Tashmeeta Ahad, Dr. Sunil Kalia, Dr. Harvey Lui, Dr. Haishan Zeng
When the Land Speaks: BC First Nations Sovereignty, Language, and Public Health Governance in Climate Emergencies
Principal Investigator: Dr. Brittany Bingham
The Canadian Air pollution, Economics and Respiratory Outcomes (Can-AERO) Study: PM2.5 Exposure, COPD Exacerbations, and the Cost Effectiveness of Air Cleaners
Principal Investigators: Dr. Kevin Duan, Dr. Stephanie Cleland, Dr. Kate Johnson
Engagement-focused contingency management for the treatment of opioid use disorder: a randomized controlled trial
Principal Investigators: Dr. Nadia Fairbairn, Dr. Paxton Bach, Dr. Lindsey Richardson
Prefrontal-subcortical network mechanisms underlying risky decision making
Principal Investigator: Dr. Stan Floresco
Serotype-specific protection from pneumococcal conjugate vaccine: immunity in Ugandan children and lessons for Canada
Principal Investigator: Dr. Manish Sadarangani
The impacts of harm reduction services on healthcare access, engagement and outcomes among people who use drugs in Vancouver, BC amidst the toxic drug crisis
Principal Investigator: Dr. Kanna Hayashi, Dr. Nadia Fairbairn, Dr. Mark Lysyshyn
Ultra-low field magnetic resonance imaging as an accessible tool for monitoring disease activity and progression in multiple sclerosis
Principal Investigator: Dr. Shannon Kolind
Precision Diagnosis and Management of Cardiogenetics: The Hearts in Rhythm Organization (HiRO)
Principal Investigator: Dr. Andrew Krahn
Mechanistic studies of human Tregs engineered for use in transplantation
Principal Investigator: Dr. Megan Levings
A single-cell spatial analysis of the impact of air pollution exposure on molecular pathways in lung cancer
Principal Investigator: Dr. Emilia Lim
Embedding Indigenous research evaluation and governance within British Columbia's Road to Recovery substance use care program
Principal Investigator: Dr. Seonaid Nolan
Mental Health, Resilience, Memory and Memory Sharing in the Aftermath of Pregnancy Loss
Principal Investigator: Dr. Daniela Palombo
Dynamic Clinical Risk States and Neurostructural Consequences of Community Non- Fatal Opioid Overdose
Principal Investigator: Dr. William Panenka
A new Class of Radiofrequency Pulses for Magnetic Resonance Imaging: Enhancing Signal-to-Noise Ratio, Reducing Artifacts, and Improving Diagnostic Accuracy Without Hardware Modifications
Principal Investigator: Dr. Alexander Rauscher
Optimizing supervised inhalation services to address the unregulated drug toxicity crisis in British Columbia
Principal Investigator: Dr. Kate Salters
Measuring the Costs and Social Returns of Matriarchal Kinship Care: The Nita Survey
Principal Investigators: Drs. Sana Shahram, Brittany Bingham
Effects of maternal sucrose consumption on offspring hormones, neural circuits, and behaviour in rats
Principal Investigator: Dr. Kiran Soma
Impact of loss of commensal bacteria on enteric infection
Principal Investigator: Dr. Carolina Tropini
Derisking the Development of VPC-25959 Derivatives as Novel MCT4 Inhibitors for Clinical Trials in Patients with Advanced Glycolytic Cancers
Principal Investigator: Dr. Yuzhuo Wang
Alamar discovery of plasma biomarkers that distinguish dementia subtypes, inform on disease staging and predict rate of cognitive decline in Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias
Principal Investigator: Dr. Cheryl Wellington
Sex-specific biomechanical thresholds and cumulative risk models for sports-related brain injury
Principal Investigator: Dr. Lyndia Wu
Practices and Perspectives in Post Stroke Swallowing Problems (4P)
Principal Investigator: Dr. Lily Zhou
Read the full list of project grant recipients
Priority Announcement Grants
SMART-BC: A Scalable Machine-Assisted Referral Triage system for Breast Cancer care
Priority Announcement: Leveraging AI to Transform Cancer Research - AI to Accelerate Breast Cancer Research
Principal Investigator: Dr. Kathryn Isaac
Improving PAtient Recruitment into Trials by elICIting Preferences And TradE-offs in Heart Failure (I-PARTICIPATE-HF)
Priority Announcement: Patient-Oriented Research
Principal Investigator: Dr. Nathaniel Hawkins
Longitudinal non-invasive optical biopsy of low risk skin neoplasms in dermatology clinics to monitor efficacy and response to treatment
Priority Announcement: Early Career Investigator in Cancer
Principal Investigator: Dr. Tashmeeta Ahad
Read the full list of priority announcement grant recipients
