Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario funded research

The Foundation is proud of the fact that it funds researchers at all stages of their careers through a variety of funding programs.

The most common is through the Grants-in-Aid program. GIAs are operating grants for research projects of up to three years in length. This kind of Foundation funding covers expenses such as salaries for technicians and research assistants, materials and supplies required to perform the study, and travel that’s directly connected to the execution of the project. It doesn’t cover the salaries of the Principal Investigator or co-applicants.

We also fund personnel awards. These are salary awards that allow investigators to protect their time to devote to their research work – whether during a short period of time for summer students or several years in the case of Career Investigators or Endowed Chairs.

Whether individuals are applying for project or personnel support, their proposals are all subject to scientific peer review to ensure the applicants, the studies proposed and the environments they’ll be conducted in, are of the highest caliber. This ensures the best value for donor dollars.

In 2010 and 2011, due to challenging economic conditions, we had to make the difficult decision to suspend the offering of some of our personnel funding competitions. Thankfully, we have succeeded in maintaining a relatively stable funding environment for our GIA applicants during the same period.

Currently, the Foundation is developing a new five-year strategic plan that involves a review of our research portfolio. At the same time, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, in concert with each of the provincial Foundations, is evolving the national research funding strategy. These two activities will jointly frame research funding opportunities for the years ahead. 

Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario funded research projects in 2010/2011 (PDF 400K).

Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario 2011 Research Report – Imagine (PDF 783K) 

Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario 2010 Research Report – Imagine (PDF 783K) 

Last reviewed: December 2011