Healthy Youth Initiative

Launched in 2022, IHDCYH's Healthy Youth Initiative is a series of funding opportunities designed to catalyze research that informs policy and enhances the health and well-being of youth in Canada. The Initiative was developed in response to compelling evidence from UNICEF Report Cards 16, 17 and 18, and Lancet Commissions (in 2016 and 2025), which highlight critical challenges facing youth and identify areas where research is needed to address and mitigate these concerns.

Grounded in the broad engagement that culminated in Canada's Youth Policy (2020) and its six youth-identified priorities: Leadership, Health, Learning, Employment, Reconciliation, and Climate Action, the Initiative is helping to ensure that research evidence directly supports youth-identified needs. A core principle of this Initiative is meaningful co-leadership with youth, who are engaged in all aspects of the research, from concept development through peer review and as co-leads on research teams. This Initiative is building capacity for both researchers and youth to co-create evidence that drives real change.

Healthy Youth Team Grants (2025)

Pre-Announcement
IHDCYH is pleased to announce the upcoming launch of Healthy Youth Team Grants (2025).

This IHDCYH-led funding opportunity is a collaboration with the CIHR Institutes of Circulatory and Respiratory Health (ICRH), Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction (INMHA), Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes (INMD), Indigenous Peoples' Health (IIPH), and Breakthrough T1D Canada.

Objectives
The specific objectives of this funding opportunity are to:

  • Create new knowledge through youth-led and/or youth-engaged research to improve the health and well-being of youth in Canada.
  • Enhance interdisciplinary, cross-sectoral, and multi-systems approaches to youth health research and knowledge mobilization to strengthen research, shape policy, and support the relevance and uptake of research evidence.
  • Increase capacity for youth-led and/or youth-engaged research, including researcher career pathways and among youth from a diversity of backgrounds to improve efficiency, amplify impact, and nurture a thriving, inclusive, and equitable health research environment.
  • Strengthen research excellence and ensure maximum research impact through consideration of diverse biological and/or socio-cultural identity factors in research design, including diverse research methods such as those based in Indigenous ways of knowing.

Funds available
The total amount available for this funding opportunity is anticipated to be $10,500,000, enough to fund approximately seven (7) Team Grants. The maximum amount per award is anticipated to be $1,500,000 for up to 5 years.

Anticipated timeline

  • Launch: Fall 2025
  • Webinar: Winter 2026
  • Registration Deadline: Spring 2026
  • Application Deadline: Summer 2026
  • Notice of Decision: Winter 2027
  • Funding Start Date: Fall 2026

Healthy Youth Team Grants (2024)

The first round of Healthy Youth Team Grants was launched in Fall 2024, in partnership with the CIHR Institutes of Gender and Health (IGH), and Population and Public Health (IPPH). These grants supported youth-led and youth-engaged research to improve youth health in Canada. They fostered interdisciplinary collaboration, built inclusive research capacity, and promoted diverse perspectives, including Indigenous knowledge, across four pools.

General pool

Indigenous (First Nations, Inuit or Métis) Youth Health

Two-Spirit (2S), Trans, Non-binary and/or other Gender Diverse Youth Health (co-funded with the CIHR Institute of Gender and Health)

Reducing Social Inequalities in Health among Canada's Youth (co-funded with the CIHR Institute of Population and Public Health)

Healthy Youth Summit

A Healthy Youth Summit took place in July 2023. It brought together round one Healthy Youth Catalyst grant recipients and their Youth Voice Representatives with youth, funding partners, policy and decision-makers, and other interested parties. Co-designed and co-led by members of IHDCYH's Youth Advisory Council (YAC), Summit objectives were to:

  • Objective 1: Identify knowledge gaps and priorities in youth health research in relation to Canada's Youth Policy and IHDCYH's Healthy Youth Initiative
  • Objective 2: Foster networking and collaboration between health researchers, youth, community and partners
  • Objective 3: Build capacity for youth engagement in health research by ensuring active inclusion of youth voices

Check out our Summit Snapshot for photo and video highlights, key themes from the Summit, and more!

Healthy Youth Catalyst Grants (2023)

The second round of Healthy Youth Catalyst Grants was launched in Summer 2023, in partnership with the CIHR Institute of Population and Public Health (IPPH), and Indigenous Services Canada – First Nations and Inuit Health Branch (ISC-FNIHB). Eighteen grants were funded in the broad areas of youth health as well as environment and climate action, Indigenous youth, and promoting health equity in Canada's youth.

Promoting Health Equity in Canada's Youth

Indigenous Youth

Environment and Climate Action

General Pool

Healthy Youth Catalyst Grants (2022)

The first round of Healthy Youth Catalyst Grants was launched in Fall 2022, in partnership with the CIHR Institutes of Gender and Health (IGH), Indigenous Peoples' Health (IIPH), and Musculoskeletal Health (IMHA), and Indigenous Services Canada – First Nations and Inuit Health Branch (ISC-FNIHB). Twelve grants were funded in the broad areas of youth health as well as Indigenous health, physical health, 2SLGBTQI+ health, and adolescent sexual and reproductive health.

2SLGBTQI+ Pool

Sex and Reproductive Health Pool

Indigenous (First Nations, Métis, Inuit, and/or Urban Indigenous) Youth Health Pool

Physical Health of Youth Pool

General Pool

Planning and Dissemination Grants (2022 and 2023)

To support capacity building, IHDCYH funded two rounds of Planning and Dissemination Grants related to Healthy Youth. Planning and Dissemination Grants are intended to provide support for planning and/or dissemination activities (either virtual or in-person) consistent with the mandate of CIHR and relevant to CIHR Institutes and Initiatives.

Summer 2022 competition - Youth Health Research pool

Winter 2023 competition – Healthy Youth Pool

Sakiko Yamaguchi, McGill University: Co-creation of a youth engagement guide for mental health policymaking

Research Profiles

Read more about the research funded as part of the Healthy Youth Initiative:

Contact information

For information about the CIHR Institute of Human Development, Child and Youth Health Healthy Youth Initiative, please contact: IHDCYH-IDSEA@cihr-irsc.gc.ca

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