Grants and Contributions

To be eligible to the competition, applications must be co-led by Canadian and African researchers and address all objectives:

• Provide rapid evidence to inform clinical and health system management and public health response, and/or decision-making and planning within and across jurisdictions in Canada and internationally;
• Undertake robust, multi-country cross learning, and comparative research (including in collaboration with other international researchers where appropriate) on:
o the safety and real-world effectiveness of medical or other countermeasures deployed* (including vaccines and therapeutics) to treat and/or prevent monkeypox infections in people in Canada and globally; and
o the underlying serological histories and transmission dynamics of the current monkeypox outbreaks in Canada and globally (including time of exposure and transmission during asymptomatic phase, mechanisms of human-to-human transmission, and key risk factors for infection and transmission);
• Align with and contribute to the WHO Global Clinical Platform for monkeypox and other international monkeypox surveillance and research coordination activities by:
o adopting WHO case investigation and reporting forms;
o developing robust study protocols that can be integrated and harmonized with international clinical datasets; and
o contributing to global real-time sharing and analyses of research findings across different study contexts
*Please note that medical countermeasures against monkeypox (including vaccines, drugs and other therapeutic agents) will not be provided by the Government of Canada for research supported through this funding opportunity.

To be eligible to the competition, the application must address ALL objectives; the specific objectives of this funding opportunity are to:

• Include a large and robust serosurveillance study of children and youth that can inform research to understand the current state of natural and vaccine-based immunity in this population, and measures to best protect this vulnerable population in Canada;
• Harmonize data collection, and improve open and real-world data sharing with relevant knowledge-users in an accessible, useful and relevant format to support a timely and effective COVID-19 public health response within and across all jurisdictions in Canada as it relates to children and youth;
• Collaborate across Sites to establish resource and data sharing policies, increase efficiencies in research and related processes (including but not limited to ethics review; privacy considerations; contracts; informed-consent; common protocols; developing applications for trial funding; and consistent and valid patient-oriented outcomes), reduce duplication, and maximize research and surveillance activities related to COVID-19 infection and/or vaccination consequences of children and youth;
• Generate research evidence related to COVID-19 infection in diverse children and youth populations, including (but not limited to):
o Equity considerations;
o Health and wellness status (e.g., historically excluded or underserved populations, individuals with complex health needs and/or a disability);
o Sex and gender; and/or
o Racialized and Indigenous (First Nations, Inuit, Métis and Urban Indigenous Peoples) populations; and
• Provide research evidence to inform clinical and health system management and public health response, and/or decision-making and planning within and across jurisdictions in Canada and internationally.

These can include: communities marginalized by race; First Nations, Inuit, Métis and Urban Indigenous Peoples; communities historically excluded from research; those experiencing health inequities; persons with disabilities and individuals across diverse health status (e.g. vaccination status, high risk populations, individuals with comorbid conditions); those experiencing gendered impacts of the pandemic; and those in life stages that have been underrepresented in research.

The specific objectives of this funding opportunity are to continue to:
• Provide central coordination and lead collaboration activities with clinical trials groups/networks in a transparent and inclusive manner to increase the availability of high-quality and real-time clinical trial evidence to prevent, diagnose, and/or treat COVID-19 (e.g., through clinical trials of vaccines, therapeutics, or diagnostic tests);
• Collaborate across member networks to expand resource and data sharing policies, including creating data sharing agreements and increasing efficiencies in research and related processes (including, but not limited to ethics review; contracts; common protocols; developing applications for trial funding; consistent and valid patient-oriented outcomes), reduce duplication, and maximize research impact for COVID-19;
• Enhance local, national and/or international clinical trial collaborative efforts by aligning clinical trials networks with other COVID-19 research investments to prevent and/or mitigate the rapid spread of COVID-19 and related negative consequences; and
• Engage stakeholders in research prioritization and oversight, provide evidence to inform clinical/ health system management and public health responses, and/or decision-making and planning within and across jurisdictions in Canada and internationally.

These can include: communities marginalized by race; First Nations, Inuit, Métis and Urban Indigenous Peoples; communities historically excluded from research; those experiencing health inequities; persons with disabilities and individuals across diverse health status (e.g. vaccination status, high risk populations, individuals with comorbid conditions); those experiencing gendered impacts of the pandemic; and those in life stages that have been underrepresented in research.

The objectives of the extension are aligned with the Canadian Immunization Research Network (CIRN) 2016 and the CIRN: COVID-19 Vaccine Readiness are:
• To maintain the baseline activities of CIRN. This includes support for its infrastructure of networks to facilitate collaborative research among vaccine and immunization researchers, clinicians, public health professionals and policy makers.
• To support CIRN’s COVID-19 activities related to critical research in the research areas of the COVID-19 Vaccine Readiness grant (vaccine clinical trials [incl. vaccine safety and effectiveness studies]; population prioritization and modelling; vaccine hesitancy and uptake; and coordination and information sharing. The research activities within these research areas will address the evolving COVID-19 vaccine research needs of Canada, and will provide vaccine-related research outcomes to inform effective, equitable and timely COVID-19 public health decision-making .

To be eligible to the competition, applications must address ALL objectives AND key design components:

• Establish central coordination and collaboration activities with Collaborating Sites located across Canada to increase the availability of high-quality and real-time evidence to support research on the effectiveness and relative safety of the COVID-19 vaccines in children and youth;
• Generate research evidence related to COVID infection and vaccination in diverse children and youth population(s), including (but not limited to):
o Equity considerations;
o Health and well-being status (e.g., historically excluded or underserved populations, individuals with complex health needs and/or a disability);
o Sex and gender; and/or
o Racialized and Indigenous (First Nations, Inuit, Métis and Urban Indigenous) populations.
• Identify children and youth populations at the highest and high risk for negative outcomes related to COVID-19 vaccination, and other determinant of health factors (e.g., social, economic, behaviour, etc.) that are associated with this increased greater risk.
• Harmonize data collection, and improve open and real-world data sharing with relevant knowledge-users in an accessible, useful and relevant format to support a timely and effective COVID-19 public health response within and across all jurisdictions in Canada as it relates to children and youth;
• Collaborate across Sites to establish resource and data sharing policies, increase efficiencies in research and related processes (including but not limited to ethics review; privacy considerations; contracts; informed-consent; common protocols; developing applications for trial funding; consistent and valid patient-oriented outcomes), reduce duplication, and maximize research and surveillance activities related to COVID-19 vaccination of children and youth; and
• Provide research evidence to inform clinical and health system management and public health response, and/or decision-making and planning within and all across jurisdictions in Canada and internationally.

The specific objectives of this funding opportunity are:

• Promote the career development of mid-career investigators from Canadian academic institutions in vaccine research for infectious diseases;
• Create new knowledge in vaccine research for emerging threats through a mutually beneficial exchange of expertise between Canadian mid-career investigators and CEPI, and support the mobilization of the knowledge created to relevant knowledge users and other stakeholders; and
• Position mid-career Canadian investigators as international leaders in vaccine research for infectious diseases.

The specific objectives of this funding opportunity are:

• Promote the career development of mid-career investigators from Canadian academic institutions in vaccine research for infectious diseases;
• Create new knowledge in vaccine research for emerging threats through a mutually beneficial exchange of expertise between Canadian mid-career investigators and CEPI, and support the mobilization of the knowledge created to relevant knowledge users and other stakeholders; and
• Position mid-career Canadian investigators as international leaders in vaccine research for infectious diseases.

The specific objectives of this funding opportunity are:

• Promote the career development of mid-career investigators from Canadian academic institutions in vaccine research for infectious diseases;
• Create new knowledge in vaccine research for emerging threats through a mutually beneficial exchange of expertise between Canadian mid-career investigators and CEPI, and support the mobilization of the knowledge created to relevant knowledge users and other stakeholders; and
• Position mid-career Canadian investigators as international leaders in vaccine research for infectious diseases.