NEIHR components

The Network Environments for Indigenous Health Research (NEIHR) Program is built on four phases over 16 years.

NEIHR Development Grants

The 2018 Development Grants provided support for proposal preparation activities, community personnel support, and travel support to attend gatherings of Indigenous communities, researchers, knowledge users, stakeholders, and/or partners. The expected development activities included a preliminary review of the literature, and other information sources, along with a local and/or regional assessment to determine readiness, priority areas of interest and capacity within the community to develop a full NEIHR application to CIHR. Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Holders were encouraged to play a lead role on the research team (e.g., Nominated Principal Knowledge User, co-investigator, etc.).

Please contact CIHR NEIHR to receive a copy of the NEIHR Strengthening Workshop Report that took place December 11-12, 2018.

Yukon NEIHR Centre Development Grant

This 2023 Development Grant will provide support for development activities, including community personnel support and travel support to attend gatherings of Indigenous communities, researchers, knowledge users, stakeholders, and/or partners, in preparation of a Yukon NEIHR Centre Operating Grant application. The expected development activities include a preliminary review of the literature, and other information sources, along with a local and/or regional assessment to determine readiness, priority areas of interest and capacity within the community to develop a Yukon NEIHR to join the existing NEIHR Program.

For more information about the NEIHR Program, please refer to the initial NEIHR Operating Grant (2019) and the recent NEIHR – Renewal (2023) funding opportunities.

For more information about the existing NEIHR Centres access the NEIHR Initiative CIHR webpage.

NEIHR Operating Grant

The purpose of the 2019 operating grants of the NEIHR Program, is to establish a national network of centres focused on capacity development, research and knowledge translation (KT) centred on First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples. The network of centres provides supportive research environments for Indigenous health research driven by, and grounded in, Indigenous communities in Canada. It also ensures continued growth, broad regional development and national collaborations.

Collectively, the NEIHR centres form an interconnected and collaborative Indigenous-led NEIHR Consortium, including Indigenous communities, researchers, knowledge users, and other interested parties.

NEIHR Operating Grant Renewal

The NEIHR Program has set the foundation towards establishing a national network of centres focused on capacity development, research and Knowledge Sharing (KS) centred on First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples. The purpose of this 2023 funding opportunity is to support the renewal of the nine (9) originally funded NEIHR Centres and the one (1) NEIHR National Coordinating Centre that received funds from the 2019 NEIHR operating grant competition. This renewal will enable the current NEIHR Centres to continue building on key achievements made in each of their regions and particular populations.

This funding opportunity will continue to encourage supportive research environments for Indigenous health research driven by and grounded in Indigenous communities in Canada through the NEIHR Centres. Indigenous communities are broadly defined as individuals, groups, organizations, and populations who self-identify as Indigenous (First Nations, Inuit and/or Métis) living and working anywhere in Canada.

NEIHR Operating Grant – Yukon Centre

In 2019, CIHR funded nine (9) NEIHR Centres based in the following regions: Atlantic, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, Nunavut and the Northwest Territories. CIHR is now looking to extend the regional coverage of the NEIHR Program with the Yukon NEIHR Centre Operating Grant.

The Yukon NEIHR Centre Operating Grant funding opportunity will encourage supportive research environments in Yukon for Indigenous health research driven by and grounded in Indigenous communities through its determined catchment area. The Yukon NEIHR Centre will be part of the network of centres established with the NEIHR Program and its common governance structure (i.e., NEIHR Council; supported by the NEIHR National Coordinating Centre).

The Yukon NEIHR Centre will grow overall awareness, and capacity to advance health research that is relevant to Indigenous Peoples' cultures, values, and beliefs; and is, inclusive of active community members contributing to health research.

Webinars

CIHR held a webinar on September 13, 2023, to provide interested applicants with the opportunity to address questions regarding the request for applications to the Yukon NEIHR Centre development grant.

• Questions and answers

  Eligibility to Apply

  For more information, please refer to the funding opportunity within the Eligibility to Apply section.

  1. Q: Is this funding opportunity open to everyone or only to Yukon Indigenous (First Nations, Inuit or Métis) communities?

     A: The Nominated Principal Applicant (NPA) must be one of the following: An Indigenous community, group or organization with a research or knowledge translation mandate;
     OR An independent researcher or a knowledge user who either: self-identifies as Indigenous (First Nations, Inuit or Métis), or provides evidence of having meaningful and culturally safe involvement with Indigenous Peoples.

     This Yukon NEIHR Centre is expected to be located within their defined catchment area (e.g., the Yukon and western NWT, or the Yukon and northern BC, or ext.,) and to define their population group (e.g., First Nations, Inuit, Métis, or other combination). Please note the examples provided are not the only catchment area options and are intended to be representational.

     An NPA can submit more than one application as an NPA with the same or different teams and an NPA can be an existing Principal Applicant (PA) or a Co-Applicant on another NEIHR Centre and/ or related application. PAs and Co-Applicants can participate on more than one application. Note that if the NPA and or team members are the same on separate applications, peer review will determine the need to support resources for two applications alike, thus it is important to include rationale to mitigate the misperception of duplication of efforts.

  2. Q: Requirements of Institutional Eligibility

     A: It is important to note that eligibility to administer funding is distinct from eligibility to apply for funding.

     In most circumstances, CIHR grants and awards are paid to CIHR-eligible institutions, through a CIHR account, from which the nominated principal applicant draws funds. The requirements for CIHR-eligible institutions are detailed in the Institutional Eligibility Requirements for the Administration of Grants and Awards.

     For an Institution to be considered eligible to administer CIHR funding, they need to:

     1. be a financially viable Canadian institution/organization;
     2. have a research or knowledge translation mandate that can be substantiated;
     3. have effective policies, administrative systems, procedures, and controls in place to ensure the funds are used appropriately and that the activities supported are conducted in accordance with the highest ethical and financial standards;
     4. sign the Agreement on the Administration of Agency Grants and Awards by Research Institutions.

     Institutions and organizations that cannot fully comply with these requirements are not deemed eligible to administer the funds through a CIHR account and omnibus agreement but may still be permitted to administer the funds under special terms and conditions during the NEIHR Development Grant phase, as determined by CIHR, following an eligibility review. This may require the institution or organization to sign a one-time administration of funds agreement with CIHR, or through a specific accountability instrument.

     Note that an applicant is eligible to apply for funding as per the eligibility to apply requirements of the funding opportunity even if the institutional eligibility assessment process is not yet complete.

  3. Q: How to Apply for Institutional Eligibility

     A: The three federal granting agencies - the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) - have harmonized their institutional eligibility requirements. This will ensure a common approach to the eligibility review of new institutions and will expedite the process for institutions that are already eligible at one of the granting agencies.

  Canadian institutions that wish to administer grants and awards must meet the requirements listed in the hyperlink and submit the supporting documentation: Institutional Eligibility Requirements

  Please send all documents in an attached package to support-soutien@cihr-irsc.gc.ca "ATTN: Financial Monitoring" in the subject line. Please note assessment takes several months to be processed. You may apply to a funding opportunity meanwhile, but if successful in the competition for the NEIHR Operating Grant, funds will only be delivered once institutional eligibility is granted.

  Applicant Roles and Application Process

  1. Q: Do applicants need to submit Common CVs?

     A: For an individual, submitting CVs is not required for the Yukon NEIHR Centre Development Grant and if you choose to upload a CV it will not be included within the evaluation package submitted to Peer Reviewers.

     For applications where an organization is identified as the NPA, a description of the organization mandate must be attached as a Personal CV and must include a description of how the organization meets the eligibility requirement of being an Indigenous community, group or organization with a research or knowledge translation mandate.

  Purpose of the NEIHR Yukon and Connection to the Overall NEIHR Program

  1. Q: What is the Purpose?

     A: The Overall Network Environments for Indigenous Health Research (NEIHR) Program, is an $100.8M investment over 16 years (currently entering year 4), has been developed to address those needs in capacity development, research and knowledge translation. The NEIHR Program is led by the Institute of Indigenous Peoples' Health (IIPH) and co-led by the Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health (ICRH). This Program is supported financially by all 13 Institutes.

     The Development Grants will provide support for proposal preparation activities, community personnel support, and travel support to attend gatherings of Indigenous communities, researchers, knowledge users, stakeholders, and/or partners. The expected development activities include a preliminary review of the literature and other information sources, along with a local and/ or regional assessment to determine readiness, priority areas of interest and capacity within the community to develop a full NEIHR application to CIHR.

     This funding opportunity seeks applicants who self-identify as Indigenous (First Nations, Inuit or Métis) or provide evidence of having meaningful and culturally safe involvement with Indigenous Peoples in order to:

     1. Prioritize First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples and communities in leading their research agendas;
     2. Promote cultural safety of and appropriate engagements by researchers working with Indigenous Peoples in meaningful ways to ensure that respectful relations are established;
     3. Add value to the research through the use of Indigenous culturally relevant theoretical and conceptual frameworks, and Indigenous culturally appropriate research protocols, including Indigenous methodologies; and
     4. Promote equity and development of trainees, researchers and knowledge users who are of Indigenous ancestry.

  2. Q: Why is there a possibility of funding up to 2 grants at $75,000 each for 1 year?

     A: The NEIHR Yukon Development Grant funding opportunity (FO) is anticipated to support up to 2 Development Grants. CIHR anticipates there may be several development grant applications based on previous experience. Providing up to 2 development grants allows opportunity for more than one group to bring forward a full application (either separately or together) to apply for the one Yukon NEIHR Centre Operating Grant to follow. Of note, there were twenty-four (24) NEIHR Development Grants in the initial NEIHR Development Grant Funding Opportunity launched in 2018 and only ten (10) NEIHR Operating Grants to follow in 2019.

  3. Q: Is there accountability to the NEIHR National Coordinating Centre and the other 9 NEIHR Centres?

     A: The focus of a Development Grant is to develop the research capacity within the Yukon to prepare the group(s) to apply for one, 3-year Operating Grant in 2027/2028. There is no requirement for the successful applicant to engage with the established NEIHR Centres during the Yukon NEIHR Development Grant stage.

CIHR held a webinar on January 17, 2019, to provide applicants with the opportunity to address any outstanding questions regarding the Request for Applications for the 2019 NEIHR operating grants.

• Questions and answers

  Question: Why was the deadline for submission changed from June 4, 2019 to September 4, 2019?

  Answer: CIHR organized a strengthening workshop in December 2018 attended by over 100 participants, most of whom were associated with the CIHR NEIHR Development grants. Based on the input received at that time, the deadline for submitting a NEIHR application has been extended. Researchers and community members indicated that the networking, consensus-building, partnerships development and application writing could benefit from additional time.

  Question: If each NEIHR application can define their own catchment area and target population, could this leave gaps? What will happen with Indigenous communities (broadly defined) that are not within the geographical and target population catchment of the successful NEIHRs?

  Answer: Each NEIHR centre must ensure that resources are distributed equitably based on the needs and the demographics of the Indigenous populations (e.g., First Nations, Inuit and Métis) in the catchment area of the NEIHR centre. Each NEIHR application is required to demonstrate how the team will include and address the priorities of the main population in their catchment area and be representative of the entire community. In the longer term, the NEIHR Coordinating Centre will collaborate with CIHR to develop a performance measurement and evaluation framework for the NEIHR Program that will be used to evaluate the NEIHR Program as a whole, as well as each NEIHR centre, to help identify potential needs and to help guide the future direction of the overall NEIHR program.

  Question: Can a research grant submission that is applying to one of the funding pools (e.g., Ontario) define their catchment area to be all of Canada?

  Answer: Yes. Applicants define their own catchment area and it can be national in scope.

  Question: Does the NEIHR Coordinating Centre have to be a NEIHR centre with a national catchment area?

  Answer: No. One of the successful NEIHR centres will take on the additional role of the NEIHR Coordinating Centre. Although all of the CIHR-funded NEIHR centres will be based in Canada, the NEIHR Coordinating Centre is anticipated to be involved in some activities that are international in scope in order to achieve their mandate. This does not preclude any of the individual NEIHR grants from solely taking part in discrete activities international in scope for their respective grant and independent from the activities of the NEIHR Coordinating Centre. Interested NEIHR grant applicants are required to indicate interest in this role as part of their funding application.

  Question: For NEIHR applicants within the same region as Indigenous Mentorship Network (IMN) centres, can they have the same nominated PIs as the IMN centres, and what is the overlap?

  Answer: For NEIHR grant holders who hold an IMN grant, the combined value of the two (2) grants cannot exceed the maximum annual value of a single NEIHR grant (i.e., $700,000 per year), unless the applicants can clearly justify how NEIHR funds will expand on the work already undertaken with the IMN program funds.

Please send an email to support-soutien@cihr-irsc.gc.ca to get a copy of the presentations or the Questions and answers.

Date modified:

2025-09-29