Research Centre's Activities

The Centre for Research on Pandemic Preparedness and Health Emergencies (CRPPHE) invests in training and capacity building for pandemic and health emergency research across Canada, coordinates and collaborates with international, federal, provincial, territorial, Indigenous, and municipal departments and agencies, and gets research evidence into the hands of policy- and decision-makers to prepare for and respond to health emergencies.

Here is a snapshot of some of CRPPHE's activities.

Latest investments in projects, people, and platforms

Stable and dedicated investments in research projects, training and capacity building, and knowledge mobilization activities, are essential for Canada to continue its shift from a reactive to a proactive position on health emergencies.

To date, the CRPPHE has funded research on a number of topics including COVID-19, Post COVID-19 Condition, Ebola, Mpox, H5N1, and Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR).

CRPPE's strategic investments are guided by its Interim Investment Plan. For a full list of present and past funding opportunities, visit the investment page.

Supporting 35 new projects to respond to avian influenza A(H5N1)

In 2024, the CRPPHE in partnership with the CIHR Institute of Infection and Immunity, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and Michael Smith Health Research BC, and in collaboration with the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the Public Health Agency of Canada, initiated a rapid funding response to provide $5.2M to 35 research projects to help Canada prevent, prepare for, recover from and respond to outbreaks of avian influenza A(H5N1).

The funded projects are taking interdisciplinary, One Health approaches to:

  • understand how the avian influenza A(H5N1) virus can spread between humans, domestic animals, and wild birds;
  • assess the safety and effectiveness of medical interventions, such as the use of existing or novel influenza vaccines and therapeutics;
  • explore the effectiveness of physical and environmental interventions, such as technological health and safety improvements to agricultural and livestock facilities;
  • develop and test novel strategies for disease detection and monitoring, such as wastewater surveillance; and
  • engage with communities with higher risks of exposure to the avian influenza A(H5N1) virus, including Indigenous communities and rural and agricultural settings, to ensure that Canada’s public health strategy to prevent, contain and mitigate the impacts of avian influenza is inclusive, comprehensive, and sustainable.
The Health Research Training Platform (HRTP)

The HRTP funding program contributes to the development of interdisciplinary, inter-jurisdictional, and intersectoral research training platforms that attract a diverse cadre of trainees and early career researchers, equipping them with the foundational skills and knowledge required to lead the next generation of researchers and subject-matter experts.

Through this opportunity, the CRPPHE has strategically invested $3.3 million over six years in the following three funding pools, which are aligned with some of CRPPHE's priority areas of research:

Applied Public Health Chairs

The CRPPHE funded three Applied Public Health Chairs in the 2024 cohort. The aim of this funding program is to support mid-career public health researchers, whose work helps Canada strengthen and maintain its capacity for responsiveness and evidence-based policymaking in the face of new and ongoing public health crises.

Building community trust around vaccination

Dr. Devon Greyson, University of British Columbia

Vaccine hesitancy and skepticism entered the mainstream conversation during COVID-19, but public trust in vaccination is a longstanding issue.

Dr. Devon Greyson – the new CRPPHE-funded Applied Public Health Chair in Behavioural Science and Community-Based Approaches to Address Mis-/Dis-information – hopes to sustain long-term public trust and credibility by using community-grounded research approaches and community collaboration.

Research at the intersection of animal and human disease

Dr. Samira Mubareka, Sunnybrook Research Institute

The primary cause of novel pandemics and disease outbreaks are animal in origin, referred to as zoonotic diseases.

It is these public health threats that Dr. Samira Mubareka, newly named to the CRPPHE funded Applied Public Health Chair in Pandemic and Health Emergency Prevention, Preparedness, Response and Recovery, will study. The Chair's primary research goal is to identify settings and situations that present a high risk of disease spread by studying human-animal interactions.

Ethics during pandemics

Dr. Maxwell Smith, University of Western Ontario

Dr. Maxwell Smith is bringing his expertise in public health ethics to his new CRPPHE-funded Applied Public Health Chair of Applied Ethics in Health Emergencies. Working with local, provincial, and international decision-makers, Dr. Smith will explore the concept of ethical preparedness in relation to infectious disease threats, and will study ethical questions around the fair allocation of resources, balancing individual rights and the collective good, and experiment design and conduct during emergencies.

CIHR Research Excellence, Diversity and Independence (REDI) Early Career Transition Award

The REDI Early Career Transition Award supports post-doctoral researchers, clinicians, and research associates as they begin faculty careers in academic settings. The program also offers mentorship as researchers establish their independent research programs.

Committed to increase Canada's capacity and readiness to respond to ongoing and emerging health threats, the CRPPHE funded two REDI recipients in the award's first cohort.

Dr. Kehinde Olobatuyi

Emerging infectious diseases globally cause significant impact, leading to expected and sometimes unexpected illnesses, deaths, and disruptions in travel, business, and daily life.

Dr. Olobatuyi's research aims to accurately quantify the prevalence of bacteria pneumonia and COVID-19, predict new COVID-19 variants, and assess the often hidden impacts of pandemics on vulnerable communities – such as opioid overdoses – to help Canada plan for future pandemics.

Dr. Henok A Sahile

Tuberculosis (TB), caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis , is the leading cause of death by an infectious disease. Lengthy treatment regimens and rapid emergence of drug resistance bacteria are the major challenges to effectively manage the disease. Dr. Sahile's research focusses on the development of new anti-TB medications that potentially shorten treatment duration and are more effective against multidrug resistance bacteria—a health threat that is top of mind for the CRPPHE.

Progress updates: CRPPHE-funded research at work

Knowledge mobilization is a critical aspect of all research, but is particularly important when the research is addressing a current health emergency or is aimed at preventing the development of an emerging threat. Here we share some early outputs and knowledge mobilization activities of CRPPHE-funded researchers.

Long COVID Web—the Canadian Post COVID Condition Research Network

With $20 million of funding from the CRPPHE, the Canadian Post COVID-19 Condition (PCC) Research Network, now called Long COVID Web, has been working over the past year to set research priorities and strengthen research capacity. Their achievements include awarding $2.1M to foundational research projects and seed grants; supporting trainees through grants and awards; hosting and co-hosting a variety of meetings including the 1st Canadian Symposium on Long COVID; and developing new relationships and collaborations. Their work continues and will deliver real and lasting improvements in the lives of people with PCC.

Research coordination and collaboration

As part of its mandate, the CRPPHE plays an important role in coordinating research related to pandemic preparedness and health emergencies, collaborates with research partners and agencies nationally and internationally, and supports many other activities including knowledge mobilization events, Best Brains Exchanges, networking opportunities, and more. In addition to regularly convening and engaging with its Steering Committee to coordinate research efforts across Canada in the area of pandemics and health emergencies, the CRPPHE undertakes a number of other research coordination activities. Here are some examples of this work:

The CRPPHE represents CIHR in the Global Research Collaboration for Infectious Disease Preparedness (GloPID-R)

GloPID-R facilitates coordination and information sharing among major global funding organizations through its working groups, guidance, tools, and many resources. The aim is to increase preparedness and speed up the research response to outbreaks with pandemic potential around the world.

CIHR is a founding member of GloPID-R, and CRPPHE's Executive Director, Dr. Marisa Creatore, is the current CIHR representative. Being a member of GloPID-R enables greater collaboration and coordination between CIHR and the international research community in the area of pandemic preparedness and response.

Linking Provincial Public Health Organizations around Pandemic Preparedness through the Health System Impact Fellows (HSIF) Embedded research program

(Stay tuned for the 2025 application period)

The CRPPHE is partnering with the CIHR Institute of Health Services and Policy Research (IHSPR) to invest in their long-standing Health System Impact Program and create an opportunity for pandemic preparedness and health emergency fellows to be hosted by provincial public health organizations. These fellows, along with their supervisors, will be supported to collaborate on research, share data and findings and coordinate future research topics across provincial organizations.

Meet the 2024 cohort of fellows, funded by the CRPPHE:

* Fellows hosted by provincial public health organizations

This program will contribute to meeting the objectives of the CRPPHE by:

  • building capacity in applied public health and public health systems research focused on pandemics and health emergencies;
  • improving integration at the provincial level of public health research, policy and practice to support evidence-informed decision-making; and
  • building a community of practice of fellows, supervisors and knowledge users who could coordinate a cohesive response to future health emergencies.

The value of building strong integration between research and practice has been repeatedly highlighted as a means to ensure timely, relevant, and evidence-informed public health and health care responses.

Read about the 2023 CRPPHE-funded fellow Caroline Li-Maloney and her research on the effect that extreme heat has on women’s health across their lifetimes and within life phases – from menstruation to pregnancy to menopause.

Date modified: