Catalyst Grant Funding

2025 Catalyst Grant Competition - Closed*

The Edwin S.H. Leong Centre for Healthy Children at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and the University of Toronto (U of T) is committed to supporting multi-disciplinary teams of investigators to pilot upstream interventions that demonstrate real-world impact on child health. 

Application Process

Awards will be granted following rigorous peer review by a Selection Committee drawn from across U of T and SickKids. In advance of reviewing full applications, there will be a Letter of Intent (LOI) stage to assess potential applications for relevance and to help foster potential collaboration of groups working on similar proposals.

Funding Request Guidelines

The proposed project must address the impact of the innovation on improving the health and well-being of children and their families, in the context of known health inequities. Proposals that leverage additional funding opportunities (e.g., private/public partnerships) are welcome, although stand-alone funding requests will be considered.

Prioritization will be considered for proposals that:

• Bring different disciplines and/or stakeholders to tackle complex problems using innovative approaches.

• Have the potential for spread and scale.

Applicants can request funding of up to $75,000 total for up to 2 years, with priority given to projects that can be completed in 1 year. Grants needing smaller amounts are very welcome and the committee will try to fund as many high-quality projects as possible. In exceptional circumstances, the maximum budget requested can be up to $125,000 for larger scope projects.

Eligibility & Allowable Expenses 

• Principal Investigators must hold a faculty level appointment at U of T and be eligible to hold grants. Students, trainees and fellows without staff appointments may be listed as co-applicants or team members but cannot apply as principal applicants.

• Principal Investigators and all team members must first register as Leong Centre members in order to qualify for funding.

• More than one application can be submitted by the same applicant; however, priority will be given to funding as many distinct research groups as possible. A condition of the grant is that investigators commit to present findings at Leong Centre Rounds and include acknowledgement of the Edwin S.H. Leong Centre for Healthy Children in all associated presentations and publications.

• Applicants successful at the LOI stage must submit a completed REDcap application by the deadline. Confirmations of receipt will be sent.

• Applications must include the project outline, detailed budget and alignment with Leong Centre vision. Incomplete or late applications will not be accepted.

• Awards will be provided at the discretion of the Selection Committee and based on the grant criteria and the innovative nature of the project submissions.

• Allowable expenses include trainee salaries, conferences and knowledge translation activities, equipment and open access journal fees, in adherence with the Tri-Agency (CIHR, NSERC & SSHRC) Financial Administration Guide.

Funding Request Process 

Letter of Intent – Due Friday October 17, 2025 - 12pm (noon) ET
Invitations for Full Applications will be delivered before the end of October.

Full Application – Due Friday December 12, 2025 - 12pm (noon) ET
For invited applications successful at the Letter of Intent stage.

Notice of awards will be delivered in February 2026.
Please note, there will be no feedback provided at the LOI stage; for Full Applications, all available feedback will be included in the award decision letters.

Adjudication Process 

• Letters of Intent will be reviewed by the leadership of the Leong Centre, who will then decide on invitations to submit a Full Application.

• Full Applications will be reviewed by a Selection Committee; ad hoc reviewers may be included in the review process as subject matter experts. Each application will be reviewed by at least 1 primary reviewer and 1 secondary reviewer, depending on the number of submissions received and scored according to a standardized set of award criteria:

  • Innovative

  • Addresses issues related to the health and well-being of children and youth, particularly as it relates to equity

  • Has scientific merit

  • Feasibility

  • Quality and breadth of team

  • Relevance to the vision of the Leong Centre

• If a Selection Committee member wishes to apply, they will be excused from the adjudication process for that application and a replacement Committee member will be appointed.

• Multi-disciplinary research is strongly encouraged including involvement of team members outside of the department or faculty of the Principal Investigator.

Past Competition Themes

2024: “Intervention & Policy Research for Child Health Equity”

2023: "Innovations that Make a Difference"

2022: “Data Impact for Children’s Health and Equity” 

2021: "Engaged Research for Child Health Equity"

2020: "Equity in the health and well-being of children and their families in the context of COVID-19"