The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) is the Government of Canada’s health research investment agency and is under the authority of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Act. The CIHR is an independent agency and is accountable to Parliament through the Minister of Health.

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research is composed of 13 institutes, each dedicated to a specific area of focus. The Institutes provide leadership and financial support to health researchers and trainees across Canada, including faculty and graduate students at York University.

The functions of the CHIR are:

• Funding both investigator-initiated research as well as research on targeted priority areas;
• Building research capacity in under-developed areas and training the next generation of health researchers; and
• Focusing on knowledge translation that facilitates the application of the results of research and their transformation into new policies, practices, procedures, products and services.