Blockbuster $300M funding commitment for heart and stroke research

Toronto, ON – Through its newly formed Heart and Stroke Foundation Research Leadership Circle, the Heart and Stroke Foundation has announced a $300 million, multi-year commitment to 18 of Canada’s leading research institutions.

The foundation says it is the largest commitment to research in its 60-year history. Over the next 10 years, the majority of its research dollars will be funneled toward the partner institutions, which are:

• Dalhousie University (Halifax)
• McGill University (Montreal)
• McMaster University (Hamilton)
• Montreal Heart Institute
• Mount Sinai Hospital (Toronto)
• Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
• Queen’s University (Kingston)
• St. Michael’s Hospital (Toronto)
• Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre (Toronto)
• The Hospital for Sick Children (Toronto)
• University Health Network (Toronto)
• University of Alberta (Edmonton)
• University of British Columbia (Vancouver)
• University of Calgary
• University of Manitoba (Winnipeg)
• University of Ottawa
• University of Ottawa Heart Institute
• University of Toronto
• Western University (London)

“This $300-million commitment will allow our partners an unprecedented ability to plan major research projects, foster greater collaboration and attract even more of the world’s best researchers within and outside of Canada to fight these insidious diseases.” said David Sculthorpe, CEO, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada.

Each year, the foundation funds almost 1,500 researchers in medical institutes, universities, hospitals, and communities across the country. It says this new approach commits longer term funding to partner research institutions whose research programs are most likely to advance foundation goals.

Notwithstanding the advance commitments to the 18 Research Leadership Circle partners, the foundation says its merit-based, peer review process will continue to govern all funding.

“As a researcher who has received funding from the Heart and Stroke Foundation, I commend them for taking this innovative approach,” said Dr. Andrew Pipe, chief of the division of prevention and rehabilitation at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. “It is great to see the foundation maintain the integrity of the peer review process and also provide long-term research planning stability to these partner institutions which has never been available in the past.”