Rapid Response: Canada 2020

Neurodegenerative diseases of aging are among the least understood and most undertreated diseases today. If ignored, the social and economic costs of managing these diseases will continue to rise. Meeting these challenges requires pioneering approaches to accelerating treatments.

The Rapid Response: Canada program was created to provide seed funding to catalyse novel, high-risk, high-reward translational research. Preliminary data is not required.

*The deadline for submitting applications to the Rapid Response: Canada 2020 program has now passed*

To see the results of the program and grantees awarded, please visit: Nearly $10 million in grants awarded to neuroscience researchers across Canada.

Continuing for 2020

  • The budget of the Rapid Response: Canada 2020 program has been increased to a maximum of $300,000 over up to 18 months.
  • Expanding the type of complementary approaches eligible for funding to other lifestyle interventions including but not limited to: speech therapy, cognitive therapy, music therapy, social interaction, if these applications meet our other scope criteria and have specific supportive evidence/justification (from published literature or unpublished data) to warrant further investigation.
  • Encouraging applications that bring in other fields such as: AI, big data, machine learning, data science, and computer science.

Program Overview

Goal: To provide seed funding for novel, high-risk, high-reward, translational research that will accelerate the development of therapeutics for neurodegenerative diseases of aging.

Funding: A maximum of $300,000 over up to 18 months per project.

Applicant Eligibility: Eligible Principal Applicants must be working in Canada at least 30% of the time at or above the level of Postdoctoral researcher, and be affiliated with a Canada Revenue Agency-qualified donee institution located in Canada. Co-Applicants/Collaborators must be at the post-doctoral level or above and can be working outside Canada.

If the Principal Applicant is not appointed at the institution from which they are applying, they need to apply with a research supervisor (an “Administrative Supervisor”) who is at or above the level of Assistant Professor or equivalent, with an appointment at the institution from which they are applying.

Applicants may appear in any role on any number of projects.

Project Eligibility:

  • Be translational research that helps accelerate the development of therapeutics for neurodegenerative diseases of aging
  • Be the development of a therapeutic and/or tool, and/or select complementary approaches (Please refer to the Program Details for more information)
  • *Preliminary data is not required for this program

The Rapid Response program will have multiple calls per year, alternating between two different disease groups (outlined below). Applicants should apply to the group best suited to their project.

Alzheimer’s & Related Diseases:

  • Alzheimer’s disease
  • Frontotemporal dementia
  • Mild cognitive impairment
  • Vascular contributions to the above
  • Prodromes to the above

Parkinson’s & Related Diseases:

  • Parkinson’s disease
  • Dementia with Lewy bodies
  • Multiple system atrophy
  • Progressive supranuclear palsy
  • Vascular contributions to the above
  • Prodromes to the above

Application Process

The application process consists of two stages:

  1. Letters of Intent (LOIs)
  2. Proposals

An application requires the submission of a Letter of Intent which will be reviewed by our scientific review committee. Applicants with high potential projects will then be invited to submit a Proposal. Instructions for submitting the Proposal will be sent to those invited.

Program Documents

Program Details

Alzheimer’s & Related Diseases

Parkinson’s & Related Diseases

Important dates

Please note: Some deadlines for the Rapid Response: Canada 2020 program have been extended.

Alzheimer’s & Related Diseases:Parkinson’s & Related Diseases:
Online applications open:February 5, 2020February 5, 2020
LOI deadline:
March 27, 2020 
April 24, 2020 at 2:00pm ET
April 30, 2020 
June 4, 2020 at 2:00pm ET
Proposal deadline:
August 5, 2020 
August 20, 2020 at 2:00pm ET
September 22, 2020 
October 13, 2020 at 2:00pm ET
Anticipated award notification:October 2020December 2020

Program Information Webinar

The Institute will hold a Program Information Webinar for each disease focus, to provide further details on the program and answer any questions. However, if you have questions specific to your project (e.g., project scope), we encourage you to contact us.

Alzheimer’s & Related Diseases: February 24, 2020 at 1:00pm ET
The webinar has passed.

Parkinson’s & Related Diseases: March 20, 2020 at 1:00pm ET
The webinar has passed.

Early Phase Clinical Trials: Canada

Neurodegenerative diseases of aging are among the least understood and most undertreated diseases today. Diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s are placing a large and increasing burden on society. If ignored, the social and economic costs of managing these diseases will rise significantly within a generation. Meeting these challenges requires pioneering approaches to accelerating treatments.

The Early Phase Clinical Trials: Canada program was created to provide funding support for clinical trials and clinical trial sub-studies with excellent preliminary data.

*The deadline for submitting applications to the Early Phase Clinical Trials: Canada 2020 program has now passed*

To see the results of the program and grantees awarded, please visit: Nearly $10 million in grants awarded to neuroscience researchers across Canada.

Continuing for 2020

  • Applications focused on complementary approaches (e.g., diet, physical activity, sleep, speech therapy, cognitive therapy) are eligible for the Early Phase Clinical Trials program, if they meet our other program scope criteria and have specific supportive evidence/justification (from published literature or unpublished data) to warrant further investigation. Please refer to Institute definitions on complementary approaches for more details.
  • The Early Phase Clinical Trials: Canada program runs on a rolling basis. Applicants may submit an LOI at any time and will be notified of whether to prepare a full Proposal within ~2 months of LOI submission.
  • See our participant recruiting suggestions for ways of strengthening your recruiting plan in your proposal, and making recruiting faster and easier.

Program Overview

Please refer to the Program Details and Request for Applications (RFA) documents for more information (last updated: January 22, 2020).

Goal: To provide funding to support clinical trials and/or clinical trial sub-studies that could accelerate the development of therapeutics for neurodegenerative diseases of aging.

Funding:  A maximum of $1,500,000 per project over up to 4 years. If you are requesting a budget between $1.5 to $2 million per project, please contact Cristina Tang (cristina.tang@westonbrain.org) prior to applying.

Applicant Eligibility: Principal Applicants must be a researcher working in Canada at least 30% of the time, hold a position at or above the level of Assistant Professor or equivalent, and be affiliated with a Canada Revenue Agency-qualified donee institution located in Canada. Co-applicants and Collaborators must be at the post-doctoral level or above and can be working outside Canada. Applicants may appear in any role on any number of projects.

Project Eligibility: Eligible projects must meet these conditions to be eligible:

  • Be a clinical trial(s) and/or a clinical trial sub-study(s) that accelerates the development of therapeutics for neurodegenerative diseases of aging.
    • Projects that require only up to $300,000 over up to 18 months may also be submitted to the Rapid Response program.
    • Translational research other than clinical trials and/or clinical trial sub-studies should be submitted to the Transformational Research program or the Rapid Response program.
  • Be the development of a therapeutic and/or tool, and/or complementary approaches.

Application Process

The application process consists of two stages:

  1. Letters of Intent (LOIs)
  2. Proposals

An application requires the submission of a Letter of Intent which will be reviewed by our scientific review committee. Applicants with high potential projects will then be invited to submit a Proposal. Instructions for submitting the Proposal will be forwarded to those invited.

Applicants can expect to receive the outcome of their LOI application within ~2 months of submission.

Apply now

Brain Health 2021

The program seeks to increase the number of Canadians maintaining better brain health throughout their lives. This program aims to advance the treatment (e.g., symptomatic relief, disease modification) and/or prevention of neurodegenerative diseases of aging by accelerating the development and implementation of lifestyle approaches and/or identifying the contribution of the microbiome.

*The deadline for submitting applications to the Brain Health: 2021 – Lifestyle Approaches and Microbiome Contributions program has now passed*

To see the results of the program and grantees awarded, please visit: $8M in funding awarded for crucial brain health research.

Program Overview

Goal: To accelerate the development of lifestyle approaches and an understanding of the contributions of the microbiome in maintaining brain health starting in midlife.

Funding: Up to $1.5 million per project over up to 3 years.

Applicant Eligibility: Principal Applicants must be a researcher working in Canada at least 30% of the time and hold a position at or above the level of Assistant Professor or equivalent. Co-applicants and Collaborators must be at the post-doctoral level or above and can be working outside Canada.

Project Eligibility: Eligible projects can be Research Questions or Implementation Initiatives.

Research Questions: Hypothesis-based questions that help accelerate the development of lifestyle approaches or microbiome contributions to brain health.

Application Process

The application process consists of two stages:

  • Letters of Intent (LOIs)
  • Proposals

To apply, applicants must submit an LOI to the Foundation. Selected applicants will then be invited to submit a Proposal. Each LOI and Proposal is peer-reviewed by a scientific review committee.

Important dates

Online applications open: August 5, 2020
LOI deadline: November 25, 2020
Proposal deadline: April 15, 2021
Anticipated award notification: July 2021

Program Information Webinar

The Foundation will hold two Program Information Webinars to provide further details on the program and answer any questions. However, if you have questions specific to your project (e.g., project scope), we encourage you to contact us directly.

Webinar #1: September 10, 2020 at 1:00 pm ET – Webinar has passed
Webinar #2: October 15, 2020 at 1:00 pm ET – Webinar has passed

Weston Brain Institute

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What We Do

Neurodegenerative diseases of aging are among the least understood and most undertreated diseases today. Diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s are placing a large and increasing burden on society and, without intervention, the costs to manage these diseases will rise ten-fold within a generation.

As a part of our Healthy Aging Strategy, we aim to reduce the burden of neurodegenerative diseases of aging on Canadians by supporting the investigation of novel lifestyle approaches, and accelerating the development of therapeutics. To achieve this, we address gaps and inefficiencies in scientific research by supporting high-risk, high-reward projects while leveraging world-class business and scientific expertise. We also aim to foster innovation in funding processes, to increase philanthropic impact in health grantmaking in Canada.

What We Fund

Although our work is continuously evolving, currently we have two priorities for our funding:

  1. Improved lifestyle approaches
    Reducing incidence and progression of neurodegenerative diseases of aging through improved lifestyle approaches
  2. Novel medical interventions
    Reducing incidence and progression of neurodegenerative diseases of aging through novel medical interventions

For current funding opportunities, please see our Grant Calls.

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Featured Projects

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Weston Family Focused Ultrasound Initiative

Follow-on Funding 2023 Program

Rapid Response 2025

Healthy Aging

The Challenge

Canada has an aging population: it is estimated that by 2030 there will be 9.5 million Canadians over the age of 65—a 28% increase from 2020. Statistics Canada reports that almost 75% of Canadian seniors have at least one chronic health condition. In fact, although Canadians aged 65 and above make up only 20% of the population presently, they incur nearly 50% of the country’s health care costs, and those amounts will continue to increase as our aging population grows.†

Three researchers at a laboratory at the University of Toronto

Our Goal

To catalyze and scale science-based approaches to significantly improve the health and well-being of Canadians as they age. Specifically, we aim for:

  • More Canadians maintaining optimal health with aging
  • Decreased economic burden of diseases of aging in Canada
  • More Canadians equipped with knowledge and strategies to maintain optimal health and independence

Our Approach

The Foundation’s support of innovative health research dates back to the early 1960s when Garfield Weston donated $1M to the Banting and Best Institute at the University of Toronto. Since that time, we have supported hundreds of translational research projects through the Weston Brain Institute and the Weston Family Microbiome Initiative. And we have learned a few things along the way. Our funding approach reflects those learnings and continues to evolve to help us reach our goals.

After nearly a decade of supporting research into therapeutics and intervention for brain diseases of aging, we are increasing our emphasis on lifestyle approaches and prevention.

We are using a funnel approach by establishing sequential programs to spark new ideas, shepherd promising findings, and scale ambitious projects. This will enable us to support multiple high-quality, proof-of-concept projects with those showing significant promise receiving additional funding and being advanced to scaling opportunities.

† Sources: Gibbard, Robyn. Meeting the Care Needs of Canada’s Aging Population—July 2018. Ottawa: The Conference Board of Canada, 2018; Statistics Canada; Canadian Institute for Health Information

Our Healthy Aging Initiatives

Brain imaging software on a computer monitor

Weston Brain Institute

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Weston Family Microbiome Initiative

New $7M Brain Health Program now accepting Letters of Intent from researchers

The Foundation has announced that it is accepting letters of intent from Canadian researchers for a new program: Brain Health: 2021 – Lifestyle Approaches and Microbiome Contributions. The $7M program is designed to support projects examining the impact of lifestyle and the microbiome on the maintenance of optimal brain health.

Press release: New $7M Brain Health Program Now Accepting Letters of Intent from Researchers

Announcing the Weston Family Focused Ultrasound Initiative at Sunnybrook

The Weston Family Foundation (formerly The W. Garfield Weston Foundation), through its Weston Brain Institute, has announced a landmark $16.7-million philanthropic grant to establish the Weston Family Focused Ultrasound Initiative at Sunnybrook. This initiative is set to revolutionize the treatment of brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, brain cancer and ALS.

Press Release: Announcing the Weston Family Focused Ultrasound Initiative at Sunnybrook