On April 20, 2022, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and JDRF announced new funding for type 1 diabetes (T1D) research in the areas of precision medicine and psychosocial health. This new tranche of funding stems from the 2021 Federal Budget announcement on strategic investments in diabetes research.
The JDRF-CIHR Partnership to Defeat Diabetes is a landmark collaboration announced in 2017 between the Government of Canada, through CIHR, who invested $15M and JDRF Canada who matched that investment with an additional $15M to support transformative T1D research.
CIHR-JDRF Team Grants: Precision Medicine in Type 1 Diabetes
Precision medicine is an important approach to treating disease that is based on an individual’s personal health factors. Often described as ‘the right treatment for the right patient at the right time’, precision medicine focuses on integrating data about genetic, molecular, and environmental factors to improve disease diagnosis, care, treatment or prevention.
A greater understanding of how individual characteristics ‒ including genetics, biomarkers and immune and beta cell dysfunction ‒ contribute to T1D risk and progression may lead to more precise therapeutic targets, better characterization of disease risk and how it may progress in an individual, improved opportunities for safe and effective intervention and, ultimately prevention of T1D.
Complementing previous CIHR and JDRF investments in new T1D research as part of 100 Years of Insulin: Accelerating Canadian Discoveries to Defeat Diabetes, the CIHR-JDRF Team Grants: Precision Medicine in Type 1 Diabetes will support multi-disciplinary research to accelerate precision medicine approaches for prediction, prevention, and treatment of T1D.
CIHR-JDRF Operating Grants in Diabetes, Psychosocial Health, Prevention and Self-Management
Research has shown an increasingly clear relationship between diabetes and a variety of psychosocial factors. Psychosocial factors are the constellation of environmental, social, behavioural, and emotional factors that can influence both disease management and emotional and psychological well-being. But standard care for diabetes doesn’t always address psychosocial health concerns despite evidence that poor psychosocial health can result in poorer outcomes for disease management.
This new funding opportunity will help to support JDRF’s Mental Health Strategy, which aims to close gaps in mental health support to improve both the quality of life and health outcomes for Canadians with T1D.
Specific to T1D, this funding opportunity will support research that is focused on interventions and models of care that address psychosocial issues and mental health disorders in people with T1D to improve mental health and associated quality of life and/or clinical outcomes.
Since its inception in 2017, the CIHR-JDRF Partnership to Defeat Diabetes has funded 11 innovative clinical trials and translational research projects to accelerate the development of new treatment approaches for people with T1D, in addition to cures for the disease. Most recently, JDRF announced a new investment of $7 million to support four Canadian research teams as part of the Partnership. Learn more about the funded research projects from the Partnership.
The CIHR-JDRF Partnership to Defeat Diabetes is one of the six pillars of JDRF’s $100 Million Campaign to Accelerate. These two opportunities will unlock $18M of the next $30M of funding through the JDRF-CIHR Partnership to Defeat Diabetes. JDRF is committed to raising the funds required to support the research that will be funded through these two opportunities.
To learn more or support, please visit: https://jdrf.ca/get-involved/accelerate/
JDRF is very thankful to our donors who have made these funding opportunities in new areas of focus possible. Further updates on the projects and the researchers who secure the grants will be provided as they become available.
