Funding Opportunities

Funding under the CHVI is administered by the Canadian International Development Agency, Industry Canada, the Public Health Agency of Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Health Canada and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Current Opportunities

• Invitation to Submit Applications for Funding from the Public Health Agency of Canada to Establish and Operate an Alliance Coordinating Office (ACO) in Support of the CHVI Research and Development Alliance
• Application Form – Establish and Operate an Alliance Coordinating Office (ACO) in Support of the CHVI Research and Development Alliance
• Questions and Answers - Invitation to Submit Applications for Funding from the Public Health Agency of Canada to Establish and Operate an Alliance Coordinating Office in Support of the CHVI Research and Development Alliance
• Advancing Basic Science
  • Large Team Grants
  • Discovery
  • Social Science
• Translating Basic Science Through Capacity-Building and Private Sector Technology Development
  • Canadian HIV Technology Development Program

Advancing Basic Science

Large Team Grants

 
The Canadian HIV Vaccine Initiative invites applications from teams of Canadian and Low and Middle Income Country (low-and-middle-income country) researchers who are interested in contributing to research and research capacity focused on the discovery of HIV vaccines and related research. These grants are expected to strengthen links between Canadian and low-and-middle-income country researchers to increase integration and facilitate the sharing of research data and knowledge.

The funding will support teams that are multi-disciplinary in nature, or that are composed of entirely social scientists or basic scientists, and develop the next generation of HIV vaccine researchers in Canada and in low-and-middle-income countries. This $17M funding opportunity, supported by CIHR and its funding partner, the Canadian International Development Agency, will fund at least four teams in 2011. 

Research teams and/or networks that include Canadian and low-and-middle-income country researchers with interest and expertise in HIV vaccine discovery research and related social science research are invited to apply to this Funding Opportunity. These may be new or established teams. "New" teams should demonstrate that they have already developed at least an informal relationship with the intent to work together in the future. Grants funded under this initiative will encourage and support pilot projects; innovative approaches; comprehensive approaches (e.g., a systems biology approach) and those that include multi-disciplinary teams.

Funding is available for applications that focus on HIV vaccines discovery and/or social research in the following research areas:

Discovery

Human immunology, for example, related but not limited to:

• Novel approaches to induction and long-term maintenance of mucosal innate and adaptive immune responses to HIV;
• Development and testing of novel vaccine adjuvants;
• Systemic innate immunity that impacts vaccine development; and
• B-cell biology and antibody response to HIV, e.g., identifying components of the human immune response that prevent infection and disease progression;
• Immune intervention studies aimed at better understanding correlates of immune protection in HIV, e.g., preventive- against getting infected, and therapeutic- against disease progression;
• Vaccine design, e.g., development and testing of therapeutic and preventive HIV vaccines (novel approaches to developing prophylactic HIV vaccines aimed at induction of broadly neutralizing antibodies);

• New technologies such as genomics and proteomics that may impact the development of an HIV vaccine; and

• Systems biology approaches.

Social Science

Social, ethical and legal issues for HIV vaccines linking Canada and the developing world, including:

• Public education and understanding of HIV vaccines and clinical trials, e.g., development and evaluation of targeted communication strategies to ensure the participation of at-risk groups in the design and implementation of vaccine trials;

• Risk management and risk communication research for subjects who participate in HIV vaccine research;

• Measuring risk-taking and exposure among participants involved in HIV vaccine clinical trials;

• Patent law and intellectual property that impact HIV vaccine accessibility and research;

• Social impact: monitoring and prevention of HIV transmission and spread; and
• Ethical issues related to studying vulnerable populations, e.g., adolescents, injection drug users.

Information for applying to this funding opportunity, can be found on the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) website .

Translating Basic Science Through Capacity-Building and Private Sector Technology Development

Canadian HIV Technology Development Program

On March 3, 2011, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Canada were invited to submit project proposals for the new Canadian HIV Technology Development (CHTD) program.  The CHTD falls under the Translating Basic Science into Clinical Trials program area of the Canadian HIV Vaccine Initiative (CHVI), a collaboration between the Government of Canada and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The new CHTD, a component of the National Research Council’s Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC-IRAP), aims at advancing the development of a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) vaccine and related technologies to prevent, diagnose, and treat HIV.

To be eligible for financial assistance under the CHTD, your business must:

• Be a small and medium-sized enterprise in Canada, incorporated and profit-oriented
• Have 500 or less full-time equivalent employees; and
• Have the objective to grow and generate profits through development and commercialization of innovative, technology-driven new or improved products, services, or processes in Canada.

 
For more information on the CHTD interested SMEs in Canada can call NRC-IRAP at 1-877-994-4727, or visit their website at:  http://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/eng/ibp/irap/about/chtd.html.

For more information on this funding opportunity, please visit: http://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/eng/services/irap/financial-assistance.html.