Catalyst Grant

Catalyst Grant: Reimagining Acute Care

Funds exploratory studies reimagining acute care to improve treatment pathways.

The CIHR Catalyst Grant: Reimagining Acute Care is a targeted seed grant competition led by CIHR's Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health (ICRH) focused on generating exploratory evidence to advance the reimagining of acute care delivery in Canada. Catalyst Grants are CIHR's smaller, theme-specific mechanism designed to spark early-stage or high-risk investigation that may not yet be competitive in the flagship Project Grant stream. This particular competition is available on ResearchNet under program code 4491 and is aligned with ICRH's strategic priority of transforming how acute care is conceptualised, delivered, and evaluated across Canadian health systems.

The registration deadline for this competition is 3 June 2026 and the application deadline is 23 July 2026. Applications must be submitted through a Canadian host research institution via ResearchNet; researchers cannot apply directly. As with all CIHR mechanisms, eligible applicants must hold an academic affiliation. The specific per-award budget ceiling for this Catalyst call is not published on the ResearchNet index page and should be confirmed by reviewing the full opportunity detail at prog=4491 before preparing an application — Catalyst awards are typically smaller than Project Grants and are scoped to shorter project durations.

Competitive proposals for this Catalyst Grant will articulate a clear research gap in acute care — whether in emergency medicine, intensive care, hospital-based intervention, or care transitions — and demonstrate how the proposed exploratory work will generate actionable evidence for health system redesign. The ICRH mandate covers circulatory and respiratory health, meaning proposals with relevance to cardiac, vascular, pulmonary, or critical illness contexts are particularly well positioned. Applicants should also review any Priority Announcement or supplemental guidance published by ICRH alongside the ResearchNet competition listing to understand whether specific sub-topics or methodological approaches are prioritised in the 2026 review cycle.