Congratulations to BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute (BCCHR) and Women’s Health Research Institute (WHRI) investigators and their teams who were awarded funding through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Spring 2025 Project Grant competition.
BCCHR received $9,193,780 in new research grants. BCCHR investigators’ funding success rate was 24.13 per cent compared to the national average success rate of 15.45 per cent.
View the CIHR summary of Spring 2025 Project Grant results.
Project Grants
Dr. Rajavel Elango — Healthy Starts
Project: “Amino acid requirements in young adult females: Effect of menstrual cycle phases”
Funding amount: $914,176 over five years
Dr. Pascal Lavoie — Healthy Starts
BCCHR co-investigators: Dr. Alexander G. Beristain, Dr. Amy Lee, Dr. Genelle Lunken, Dr. Stuart Turvey
Project: “Understanding the impact of early-life RSV infections on infant immunity and long-term health”
Funding amount: $2,023,426 over five years
Dr. Steven Miller — Brain, Behaviour & Development
BCCHR co-investigators: Dr. Julia Charlton, Dr. Thiviya Selvanathan, Dr. Jessie van Dyk
Project: “Brain maturation and neurodevelopment in moderate-late preterm infants”
Funding amount: $1,346,400 over five years
Dr. Steven Miller — Brain, Behaviour & Development
BCCHR co-investigators: Dr. Thiviya Selvanathan, Dr. Jessie van Dyk, Dr. Tamara Vanderwal, Dr. Dzung Vo
Project: “Trajectories of brain maturation and neurodevelopment in adolescents born very preterm”
Funding amount: $1,178,100 over five years
Dr. Souvik Mitra — Evidence to Innovation
BCCHR co-investigators: Dr. Jeffrey Bone, Dr. Steven Miller, Lindsay Richter, Dr. Joseph Ting
Project: “Single-dose Prophylactic INdomethacin in extremely preterm infants – A multicenter pilot randomized blinded placebo-controlled trial (the SPIN Pilot RCT)”
Funding amount: $600,524 over three years
Dr. Melanie Murray (Women’s Health Research Institute)
BCCHR co-investigators: Dr. Monika Kowatsch
Project: “Hormones and markers of aging in women”
Funding amount: $956,250 over five years
Dr. Gina Ogilvie — Healthy Starts (Women’s Health Research Institute)
Project: “HPV FOCAL LEGACY: Longterm evaluations of gains in cervical cancer prevention”
Funding amount: $1,285,200 over five years
Dr. Manish Sadarangani — Healthy Starts
BCCHR co-investigators: Dr. Matthew Carwana, Dr. Elodie Portales-Casamar
Project: “Better outcomes in babies with bacterial meningitis, a randomized controlled trial: BOBBie”
Funding amount: $1,534,598 over five years
Dr. Susan Samuel — Evidence to Innovation
BCCHR co-investigators: Jeffrey Bone, Dr. Jessica Dennis, Dr. Cherry Mammen
Project: “Investigating immune biomarkers in children with idiopathic nephrotic syndrome”
Funding amount: $517,906 over five years
Dr. Paul Yong — Healthy Starts (Women’s Health Research Institute)
BCCHR co-investigators: Emma Goodwin, Dr. Natasha Orr
Project: “Navigating sexual pain and the pelvic examination in endometriosis”
Funding amount: $952,426 over five years
Dr. Dewi Schrader — Brain, Behaviour & Development
Project: “Towards improved MRI biomarkers for children with pharmaco-resistant seizures”
Funding amount: $1,078,650 over five years
