Sunnybrook researchers awarded $6M in CIHR Spring 2023 Project Grants competition

July 25, 2023

Sunnybrook researchers have been awarded more than $6M in funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Spring 2023 Project Grants competition. 8 projects and 21 percent of SRI applications were funded in the round. The Project Grant program supports 'ideas with the greatest potential to advance health-related fundamental or applied knowledge, health research, health care, health systems, and/or health outcomes.’ In total, the Spring competition approved 381 research grants and 12 bridge grants nationally, for a total investment of approximately $325M.

Congratulations to all the successful Sunnybrook-led projects:

Project: Imaging Lactate Production and Consumption in the Human Brain
Principal investigator:
Dr. Charles Cunningham
Principal co-investigator: Dr. Bradley MacIntosh
Funding: $875,925 over 4 years


Project: Evaluating the impact of a SIMPlified LaYered consent process versus a conventional informed consent form on recruitment of potential participants to a large platform clinical trial: a pragmatic nested randomized controlled trial (SIMPLY-SNAP Trial) - Full Proposal
Principal investigator: Dr. Nick Daneman
Principal co-investigator: Dr. Rob Fowler
Funding: $149,176 over 2 years


Project: Randomized comparison of the clinical outcome of single versus Multiple Arterial grafts in Women (ROMA: Women trial)
Principal investigator: Dr. Stephen Fremes
Funding: $537,793 over 7 years


Project: Charting subject-specific tau propagation along the gradients of brain connectivity in Alzheimer's disease
Principal investigator: Dr. Maged Goubran
Sunnybrook co-investigators: Dr. Jennifer Rabin, Dr. Julie Ottoy
Funding: $722,926 over 5 years


Project: Primary prostate cancer cells as novel models for patient therapy prediction
Principal investigator: Dr. Stanley Liu
Sunnybrook co-investigators: Dr. Urban Emmenegger, Dr. Michelle Downes
Funding: $883,576 over 5 years


Project: Delineating the role of cancer cell plasticity during the progression of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours
Principal investigator: Dr. Iacovos Michael
Sunnybrook co-investigators:  Dr. Hon Sing Leong, Dr. Robert Screaton, Dr. Lina Chen, Dr. Simron Singh, Dr. Weei-Yuarn Huang, Dr. Julie Hallet, Dr. Calvin LawDr. Jesse Chao
Funding: $1,093,950 over 5 years


Project: Establishing the chronic safety profile of focused ultrasound-mediated blood-spinal cord barrier opening in a large animal model
Principal investigators: Dr. Meaghan O'Reilly (nominated PI), Dr. Fa-Hsuan Lin
Sunnybrook co-investigators: Dr. Arjun Sahgal, Dr. Nir Lipsman
Funding: $860,626 over 5 years


Project: Regulation of Stress Response by IL-17
Principal investigator: Dr. Chao Wang
Sunnybrook co-investigators: Dr. Michele Anderson
Funding: $1,002,150 over 5 years