Open funding opportunities from Canadian Blood Services

October 28, 2021
Dr. Geraldine Walsh

Funding to drive innovation and education

DYK, Canadian Blood Services has multiple competitive funding programs open to Canadian researchers, educators and trainees interested in pursuing projects focused on Canadian Blood Services priorities? Through these programs, Canadian Blood Services drives innovation in blood transfusion, cellular therapy, and transplantation, and builds capacity through training and education.

The following competitions are currently welcoming applications or letters of intent by November 15, 2021:

Canadian Blood Services Graduate Fellowship Program: Providing stipend support for young investigators who want to initiate or continue training in the field of transfusion science. Graduate students undertaking full-time research training in a Canadian institution are invited to apply.  
Application deadline: November 15, 2021 

BloodTechNet Award Program: An educational grant supporting the development of innovative educational projects that network the transfusion, cellular therapy and transplantation communities in Canada.  
Application deadline: November 15, 2021 

James Kreppner Award Program: Supporting the legal, regulatory and/or ethical aspects of (a) donation, collection, storage, and use of blood, blood products, and novel uses of hematopoietic stem cells; and (b) organ and tissue donation and transplantation. 
Letter of Intent deadline: November 15, 2021 
Application deadline: January 31, 2022 

Recipients of past funding

The BloodTechNet is one of Canadian Blood Services most dynamic competitive funding programs, and it is currently supporting six educational projects across Canada. Successful applicants from last year’s BloodTechNet competition began their projects in the spring and summer of 2021. To learn more about these projects read our May 2021 blog post “Funding award updates and open competitions” or check out Our Funded Research Projects webpage.

Learn about other impactful BloodTechNet-funded projects:

Successful applicants from last year’s Graduate Fellowship Program also began their projects in spring and summer 2021. Congratulations to the awardees:

New recipients: 

  • Michael Verret (University of Ottawa/Supervisor: Dean Fergusson) - Perioperative transfusion threshold: A population-based observational study.
  • Mahsa Yazdanbakhsh (University of Alberta/Supervisor: Jason Acker) - Donor factors and product quality.
  • Zi Yan Chen (University of Toronto/Supervisor: Heyu Ni) - Mechanisms of anti-αIIb mediated miscarriage in fetal and neonatal alloimmune thrombocytopenia.
  • Carina Da Silva Paredes (University of Ottawa/Supervisor: Sandra Ramirez-Arcos) - Transcriptome analyses of Staphylococcus aureus grown in platelet concentrates with focus on virulence.

Renewed recipients: 

  • Emel Islamzada (University of British Columbia/Supervisor: Hongshen Ma) - Deformability based cell sorting enabling quality control of stored red blood cells
  • Richa Kaushal (University of Ottawa/Supervisor: Nicolas Pineault) - New solution for cord blood unit preservation

Learn more about their Graduate Fellowship Program projects on Our Funded Research Projects webpage.

The James Kreppner Award Program competition was not run last year, but check out our blog post “University of Alberta’s Timothy Caulfield receives James Kreppner Award” to read about the work funded in 2019. Dr Caulfield and his team are using this funding to better understand complex legal and regulatory issues related to the marketing practices of private cord blood banks.

Interested in applying for funding?

If you are interested in applying for these competitions, visit our research funding opportunities page where you’ll find more information on our current funding opportunities. If you have any questions, contact the Centre for Innovation by email at centreforinnovation@blood.ca.

To stay informed about Canadian Blood Services’ Centre for Innovation funding opportunities, please sign-up for the Research & Education Round Up.

Canadian Blood Services – Driving world-class innovation

Through discovery, development and applied research, Canadian Blood Services drives world-class innovation in blood transfusion, cellular therapy and transplantation—bringing clarity and insight to an increasingly complex healthcare future. Our dedicated research team and extended network of partners engage in exploratory and applied research to create new knowledge, inform and enhance best practices, contribute to the development of new services and technologies, and build capacity through training and collaboration. Find out more about our research impact. 

The opinions reflected in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Canadian Blood Services nor do they reflect the views of Health Canada or any other funding agency.