FAQ for the Indigenous Gender and Wellness - Knowledge Sharing Operating Grant

This funding opportunity focuses on Knowledge Sharing about the learnings from Indigenous Gender and Wellness research using strengths- and distinctions-based, community-engaged approaches.

Possible topics or project themes might include, but are not limited to:

• Gender and wellness across the lifespan, including in children, youth, adults and Elders.
• Two-Spirit and/or Indigenous LGBTQI+ wellness.
• Gender, family relations and/or parenting (e.g. fatherhood, motherhood, parenthood).
• Gender and Land, body and spirit connections.
• Gender and physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and/or cultural health and wellness.

For a more detailed list, please see the "Purpose" section of the full funding opportunity.

Knowledge Sharing can include learnings shared through culturally-relevant practices and activities, arts-based methods, and more traditional formats such as publications, toolkits and workshops, among other methods.

If you have questions about whether your Knowledge Sharing activities or products are eligible, reach out to the CIHR Contact Centre: support-soutien@cihr-irsc.gc.ca

The person or organization leading the proposed project is the Nominated Principal Applicant (NPA).

To be eligible, an NPA must be:

• an Indigenous non-governmental organization in Canada with a research and/or knowledge translation mandate;
  OR
• an individual affiliated with an Indigenous non-governmental organization in Canada with a research and/or knowledge translation mandate;
  OR
• an individual (an independent researcher or a knowledge user) affiliated with a Canadian postsecondary institution and/or its affiliated institutions (including hospitals, research institutes and other non-profit organizations with a mandate for health research and/or knowledge translation);
  OR
• an individual (an independent researcher or a knowledge user) working in a municipal, provincial or territorial government in Canada where the activity which forms the subject matter of the funding is not being funded by specific programs of those municipal, provincial and territorial governments.

If the NPA is an individual, they must either self-identify as Indigenous (First Nations, Inuit and/or Métis) and/or provide evidence of having meaningful and culturally safe involvement with Indigenous Peoples.

Learn more in the How to Apply section of the funding opportunity.

In addition to the NPA requirements, there is a longer list of eligibility requirements that teams must meet. These are listed in detail in the Eligibility section of the funding opportunity.

Non-Indigenous organizations are not eligible to apply as the Nominated Principal Applicant for this funding opportunity.

However, an individual affiliated with a non-Indigenous, non-governmental organization in Canada could be part of the research team in another role, as appropriate (e.g. Co-Applicant, Collaborator, Knowledge User, Trainee).

Please reach out to the CIHR Contact Centre if you have any questions: support-soutien@cihr-irsc.gc.ca

The team must include each of four (4) participant types listed below, in any role, as appropriate, including Collaborator:

• an Indigenous Elder and/or Indigenous Knowledge Holder/Keeper/Guardian
• a Trainee
  • must either self-identify as Indigenous (First Nations, Inuit and/or Métis) and/ or provide evidence of having meaningful and culturally safe involvement with Indigenous Peoples (see How to Apply).
• a knowledge user (who can be, but is not limited to, a practitioner, policy maker, educator, decision maker, health care administrator, Indigenous community leader, or an individual in a health charity, patient group, private sector organization or a media outlet)
• a person with lived or living experience (PWLLE) relevant to proposed activities and in alignment with the overarching research area of Indigenous Gender and Wellness Knowledge Sharing (e.g. Two Spirit person, Indigenous father, Elder)
  • For applications to the Gender and Wellness among First Nations, Inuit and/or Métis youth funding pool, the PWLLE must be a youth

The same individual can fulfill multiple participant type roles. For example, a trainee could also be a person with lived or living experience.

Please note: In addition to these roles, applications must meet all of the requirements listed in the Eligibility section of the funding opportunity.

This funding opportunity builds on the foundation of earlier phases of the Indigenous Gender and Wellness (IGW) Initiative, all of which have been open to researchers who either self-identify as Indigenous (First Nations, Inuit, Métis) or provide evidence of having meaningful and culturally safe involvement with Indigenous Peoples.

With this funding opportunity, we want to ensure that existing research teams that were a part of previous phases of the IGW initiative remain eligible for this next phase of funding, provided that they continue to meet the eligibility criteria.

CIHR is committed to removing barriers to Indigenous-led research (Priority 3C in CIHR's Strategic Plan 2021-2031), and recognizes the importance of protecting the integrity of Indigenous-led research and addressing concerns related to Indigenous identity misrepresentation.

In fall 2024, CIHR, along with the National Science and Engineering Council (NSERC) and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SHHRC) released the Tri-Agency Policy on Indigenous Citizenship and Membership Affirmation to ensure that opportunities intended for Indigenous applicants are awarded to Indigenous people.

Work is currently ongoing to pilot test and implement this policy, which will apply to future funding opportunities that are designed to fund Indigenous applicants.

CIHR uses this definition for meaningful and culturally safe involvement with Indigenous Peoples, as shared on the CIHR Institute of Indigenous Peoples' Health's (IIPH) website.

No, applicants are not required to have participated in previous phases of the Indigenous Gender and Wellness initiative to apply for this funding opportunity.

All eligible applicants are encouraged to apply.

This funding opportunity focuses on sharing learnings from existing research projects related to Indigenous Gender and Wellness.

The one-year timeline of this funding opportunity is too short to develop and execute new research in addition to conducting knowledge sharing activities and evaluating these knowledge sharing activities.

The registration deadline is September 3, 2025.

Applicants must register to be able to submit an application. Once the registration has been submitted, the application portal will open and allow applicants to start completing their full application.

Please note: To ensure that you don't have any issues with registration, we recommend beginning the registration process well in advance of the registration deadline. Registering does not mean that you are required to apply, so it is best to do so if you think you might want to put an application forward.

Much of the information completed at the time of registration will automatically be transferred to your application and can be updated as needed.

For a full list of what is needed at the time of registration, please see the Step 1 - Registration under the How to Apply section of the funding opportunity.

The application deadline is October 1, 2025.

For a full list of what is needed at the time of application, please see the Step 2 - Application under the How to Apply section of the funding opportunity.

We recognize that a longer application period is preferable, especially for grants focused on Indigenous, community-based research. In this case, a relatively short application period was needed to ensure funds could come out of the 2025-2026 fiscal year.

All participants, excluding Collaborators, are required to submit a Tri-Agency CV (TCV).

However, Indigenous Elders and/or Indigenous Knowledge Holders who are listed as Collaborators, but who are expected to make a significant contribution must also include a Tri-Agency CV.

Please note, CIHR is currently making a transition from the Common CV (CCV) to the TCV. While there may still be some references to the Common CV in CIHR's system, the new TCV must be used in its place. All participants must follow the TCV instructions as specified in the Funding Opportunity and complete and attach the TCV.

All CVs must be submitted for the application deadline on October 1, 2025. The full application including CVs takes quite some time to upload, and there can be some lag around large deadlines. We recommend uploading CVs well before the deadline date.

All listed participants, with the exception of Collaborators, are required to have or obtain a CIHR PIN and submit a Tri-Agency CV.

If Indigenous Elders and/or Indigenous Knowledge-Keepers do not wish to obtain a PIN, they may be named as Collaborators so a PIN is not required.

However, despite being named as a Collaborator, Indigenous Elders and/or Knowledge Holders who are expected to make a significant contribution to the application, must include a "Tri-Agency CV". Please note that names of Collaborators do not appear in CIHR funding decision databases and documents.

Organizations applying as Nominated Principal Applicants for the first time must contact CIHR's Contact Centre (support-soutien@cihr-irsc.gc.ca) for guidance in creating a ResearchNet account and registering for a CIHR PIN.

For more detailed information, please see the How to Apply section of the funding opportunity.

For this funding opportunity, applicants will learn about funding decisions around February 19, 2026, but the funding start date is December 1, 2025. This model provides flexibility to cover potential project-related expenses dating back to as early as December 1, 2025.

All applications must propose work that is planned to take place over a one-year period from December 1, 2025 to November 30, 2026.

However, applicants have until March 31, 2028 to use the funding. All CIHR grants come with an automatic one fiscal year no-cost extension to the authority to use funds (ATUF) period beyond the expiry date of the grant (i.e., up to March 31 of the next full fiscal year).

All funds will be paid out in fiscal year 25/26, by March 31, 2026.

Yes. Funds can be used for cultural protocol, honoraria for Elders, ceremony and other expenses, including costs related to community mobilization and engagement, including culturally relevant promotional items such as tobacco, cloth, feasting, and gift giving for honoring ceremonies, and cash reimbursements (in a method acceptable to the individual or community being reimbursed) to compensate community participation.

See Allowable Costs section of the funding opportunity for a more detailed list.

A list of institutions that are currently eligible able to hold CIHR funding are listed at: CIHR's webpage on CIHR Eligible Institutions Authorized to Administer Grant and Award Funds.

• If your NPA (individual) is not affiliated with a CIHR Eligible Institution Authorized to Administer Grant and Award Funds, or if your NPA (organization) isn’t already a CIHR Eligible Institution Authorized to Administer Grant and Award Funds, there are a few options:
  • An institution can apply to become a CIHR Eligible Institution Authorized to Administer Grant and Award Funds. Instructions are available online.
  • Institutions that cannot meet the requirements to become a CIHR Eligible Institution Authorized to Administer Grant and Award Funds may still be permitted to administer the funds under special terms and conditions, as determined by CIHR, following an eligibility review. Instructions for this process are available here.
  • In some circumstances, it may also be possible for an organization or individual to receive a direct payment.

This process does not have to be completed before you submit your application, but it does have to be completed to receive funds. This process can be intensive and does take some time, so it is best to get started as soon as possible.

Questions related to institutional eligibility, including those about the documents to submit for assessment to become an Eligible Institution, must be sent to the CIHR Contact Centre: support-soutien@cihr-irsc.gc.ca.

A one-page evaluation plan is required as part of the application. This plan should describe how the applicants will evaluate the process, impact and learnings of Knowledge Sharing activities to improve the wellness of Indigenous Peoples in Canada from a gendered perspective, including how Indigenous concepts of gender affect wellness.

The purpose of the evaluation is to ensure that the learnings from the knowledge sharing activities can be shared and built upon by others in the future.

CIHR cannot help you prepare your application. However, if you have specific questions about the funding opportunity or the instructions to apply, please reach out to the CIHR Contact Centre: support-soutien@cihr-irsc.gc.ca

Additional support may be available from:

• The Network Environments for Indigenous Health Research (NEIHRs) are a national network of Centres focused on strengthening Indigenous research capacity, training and mentoring, and supporting Indigenous community-based health research that reflects the priorities and values of Indigenous Peoples. There are nine NEIHRs across Canada (BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, the Atlantic provinces, NWT and Nunavut), with a tenth in development in the Yukon. The NEIHR in your territory may have supports and resources available as you prepare your application.
  • Learn more about the regional NEIHRS Centres.
  • Learn more about the NEIHR National Coordinating Centre.
• Many universities offer grant facilitation support for their faculty. If you, or someone on your team, has a university affiliation, reach out to their faculty to see what support resources are available.
• Private consultants can be hired to support grant preparation activities.

For the information webinar slides, please reach out to the CIHR Contact Centre: support-soutien@cihr-irsc.gc.ca

For the information webinar slides, please reach out to the CIHR Contact Centre: support-soutien@cihr-irsc.gc.ca