CIHR Project Grant: Spring 2026
UBC researchers have received $45.8 million in combined funding in the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Project Grant: Spring 2026 competition.
Nation-wide, CIHR approved 439 research grants, totaling $412 million in investment, alongside 19 priority announcement grants totaling $1.9 million in additional funding.
Fifty-one projects from UBC received funding through this prestigious competition, including several members from the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Our sincere congratulations to the following Pharm Sci researchers:
Wei Zhang
Principal Investigator(s): Bansback, Nicholas (School of Population and Public Health); Hsu, Amy (University of Ottawa); Magalhaes, Sandra (University of New Brunswick); Zhang, Wei (Pharmaceutical Sciences), How Does Home Care Services Use Impact Downstream Healthcare Utilization and System Costs for Canada's Aging Population? A Cross-Provincial Longitudinal Cohort Study
Kate Johnson
Principal Investigator(s): Duan, Kevin (Medicine); Cleland, Stephanie (Simon Fraser University); Johnson, Kate (Pharmaceutical Sciences), The Canadian Air pollution, Economics and Respiratory Outcomes (Can-AERO) Study: PM2.5 Exposure, COPD Exacerbations, and the Cost Effectiveness of Air Cleaners
Joel Finbloom
Principal Investigator(s): Finbloom, Joel A (Pharmaceutical Sciences), Biofilm-Mimetic Nanofibrous Microgels to Encapsulate Bacterial Live Biotherapeutic Products and Overcome Oral Delivery Challenges for the Treatment of Ulcerative Colitis
Ly Vu
Principal Investigator(s): Vu, Ly (Pharmaceutical Sciences), Translation control by CNOT4 in myeloid leukemia
Health Research BC Engage Award
Members of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences have been awarded funding through the inaugural Michael Smith Health Research BC (MSHRBC) Engage Award. This new award is the first funding opportunity under MSHRBC’s Impact Pathways Program. It supports 50 teams across BC in strengthening collaboration, exploring shared priorities, and laying the foundation for future knowledge mobilization.
The Engage Award has recognized 19 teams with UBC affiliations. These teams bring together researchers and research users from a variety of contexts, including health system staff, policymakers, community organizations, Indigenous Peoples and organizations, people with lived experience, and private and not-for-profit organizations. We congratulate the following Pharm Sci members for their achievements:
Jason Min
Primary Applicant: Jason Min; Research User Co-lead: Mei-ling Wiedmeyer (Family Doctor, Clinical Lead); Host Institution: University of British Columbia, Collaborating in scarcity: engaging an action-oriented team to explore healthcare provider shortages in the care of vulnerable populations under the Interim Federal Health Program (IFHP)
Colleen Inglis
Primary Applicant: Colleen Inglis; Research User Co-lead: Marni Radford (Island Health Community Health Services); Host Institution: Island Health, Co-Developing Community-Based Care Pathways to Support Healthy Aging and Improve Care Coordination for Older Adults in the Comox Valley
These awards, spanning cross-provincial health care research, nanomedicine, leukemia research, and community-based care partnerships, reflect the breadth of research happening across the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences. We're proud of our colleagues' contributions and look forward to seeing where this work leads.