Proof-of-Principle

The Weston Family Foundation has been supporting research studying the microbiome for seven years. In recent years, there has been a surge of interest and investment in understanding the role of the microbiome in human health and disease, yet we are only beginning to understand the potential implications of the microbiome in healthy aging.

The Proof-of-Principle (POP) is a funding program, through the Weston Family Microbiome Initiative, meant to provide support of Canadian research efforts on the microbiome, focusing on advancing the application of the microbiome in improving human health. With three funding calls (2023, 2024, and 2025) and for each call, total available funding up to 300,000 over 30 months.

The most recent Proof-of-Principle program funding was announced in 2023: The Microbiome & Precision Nutrition. The human body is host to trillions of microbes. Research suggests that these organisms play important roles in health and disease and have a profound bearing on nutrition.

The Proof-of-Principle 2023: Microbiome & Precision Nutrition program aimed to understand how the microbiome influences the impact of diet on human health with a focus on precision nutrition.

To learn more about the projects that received funding in 2023 please visit this link.

The Proof-of-Principle 2024 program will provide research grants of up to $300,000 over a maximum of 30 months to support high-impact projects that seek to leverage the microbiome to maximize the health benefits of biomarkers of disease and therapeutic response.

To learn more about the POP 2024 funding opportunity visit the grant call.

Proof-of-Principle 2024 Grant Call

Stay tuned for more information about the Proof-of-Principle 2025 funding opportunity. Follow us on LinkedIn for updates. 

LinkedIn

Proof-of-Principle 2024: Microbial biomarkers of disease and therapeutic response

Program Overview

The Weston Family Foundation, through its Proof-of-Principle program, funds Canadian scientists performing high-risk, high-reward translational research that leverages the microbiome towards improving human health.

Biomarkers are a critical component of modern healthcare, with diverse applications in disease prevention, detection and monitoring, as well as therapeutic development. They are poised to play an increasingly important role in personalized medicine, providing means to estimate an individual’s disease risk and prognosis, and predict and monitor an individual’s response to a given therapy.

Emerging research suggests that the microbiome is a potentially understudied source for biomarkers that holds significant potential for predicting and understanding individual responses to therapeutic or preventative strategies. Consequently, there may be opportunities to manipulate or target the microbiome to enhance an individual’s response to these strategies. 

The Foundation is pleased to announce the launch of a new funding opportunity to address these key areas in microbiome research. The Proof-of-Principle 2024 program aims to support high-impact projects that seek to identify, validate, or apply microbiome-based biomarkers of disease and therapeutic response.

Eligible projects will:

  • Evaluate compositional or functional microbiome biomarkers.
  • Build on established responder/non-responder phenotypes towards the optimization of therapeutic or preventative strategies.

Please refer to the Program Details for a full description.

Funding available per project: Up to $300,000 over a maximum of 30 months.

Important dates:

  • Program information session:  May 1, 2024 register here or May 7, 2024 register here
  • Letter of Intent deadline: June 4, 2024 apply here
  • Award announcement: October 2024

For more information about this program, including details on project and applicant eligibility, Foundation definitions, program review criteria and expected project outcomes, please see the relevant documents below.

We welcome you to contact us with any program related inquiries. Please send your questions to microbiome@westonfoundation.ca.

Relevant Documents

Proof-of-Principle 2023: The Microbiome and Precision Nutrition

Program Overview

The Weston Family Foundation, through its Proof-of-Principle program, funds Canadian scientists performing high-risk, high-reward translational research that leverages the microbiome towards improving human health.

The human body is host to trillions of microbes. Research suggests that these organisms play important roles in health and disease and have a profound bearing on nutrition. The Foundation is pleased to announce the launch of a new funding opportunity. The Proof-of-Principle 2023 program will support high-impact projects that seek to leverage the microbiome to maximize the health benefits of precision nutrition.

Eligibile projects will:

  • Leverage the microbiome to maximize the benefits of nutrition in people.
  • Evaluate microbiome heterogeneity and how it impacts nutrient metabolism in humans.

Please refer to the Program Details for a full description.

Funding available per project: Up to $300,000 over a maximum of 30 months.

Important dates:

  • Program information session:  June 14, register here or July 5, 2023 register here
  • Letter of Intent deadline: August 1, 2023 apply here
  • Award announcement: November 2023

For more information about this program, including details on project and applicant eligibility, Foundation definitions, program review criteria and expected project outcomes, please see the relevant documents below.

We welcome you to contact us with any program related inquiries. Please send your questions to microbiome@westonfoundation.ca.

Relevant Documents

Sarah Cook

Sarah Cook joined the Weston Family Foundation in January 2022 as a Grants Coordinator. She is responsible for supporting the operational needs of programs related to the Weston Family Microbiome Initiative and Northern Science and Knowledge.

Prior to joining the Foundation, Sarah worked on the Operations and Finance teams for a number of Canadian and international non-profit organizations including the Stephen Lewis Foundation and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health Foundation.

Sarah holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Development Studies and a Postgraduate Certificate in International Development Management.

$8M in funding awarded for crucial brain health research

As part of its commitment to decreasing neurodegenerative diseases of aging and improving the well-being of Canadians, the Weston Family Foundation is pleased to announce nearly $8 million in funding for brain-health research.

In November 2020, the Foundation launched Brain Health: 2021 – Lifestyle Approaches and Microbiome Contributions. The program, jointly run by the Weston Brain Institute and the Weston Family Microbiome Initiative, was designed to support projects examining the impact of lifestyle and the microbiome on the maintenance of optimal brain health, and specifically the prevention or delay of neurodegenerative diseases of aging, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. Applications for the program were reviewed by a panel of international experts and four projects were selected to receive funding:

  • Dr. Alex Parker (Université de Montréal) – $1.6M
    • Project description: Conducting a clinical study to assess the benefit of a probiotic in treating amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia.
  • Dr. Manuel Montero Odasso (St. Joseph’s Health Care London/Lawson Research Institute) – $1.5M
    • Project description: Testing whether an at-home, personalized intervention targeting specific lifestyle risk factors for dementia can improve brain health in older adults suffering from mild cognitive impairment.
  • Dr. Simon Bacon (Concordia University) – $1.5M
    • Project description: Examining bariatric surgery patients and how dramatic changes in diet can influence brain structure and function, towards identifying patterns that can improve cognitive health as well as those associated with risk of cognitive decline.
  • Dr. Thien Thanh Dang Vu (Concordia University) – $1.5M
    • Project description: Testing whether an online cognitive-behavioural intervention program can improve the sleep quality and ultimately the cognitive performance of patients with cognitive complaints who are suffering from insomnia.

In addition to the above grants, an additional $1.8 million was awarded to six grantees through the Weston Family Microbiome Initiative Proof-of-Principle program. The awarded projects seek to leverage the microbiome to improve diverse aspects of brain health, including combatting Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Multiple Sclerosis, improving mental health, and supporting cognitive development in early-life.

These grants follow on the footsteps of $12 million in Foundation funding to the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA) for a new brain-health initiative announced in November 2021.

The Healthy Brains, Healthy Aging Initiative will augment the CLSA platform, and marks the first time a national study of aging in Canada has introduced both brain imaging and microbiome analyses to investigate cognitive aging in the population over time. Read more about the Healthy Brains, Healthy Aging Initiative here.

$12M awarded to give researchers new tools to advance healthy aging science

The Weston Family Foundation is pleased to announce $12 million in funding to the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA), hosted at McMaster University, for a new initiative that will shed light on the many factors that influence brain health as we age, including lifestyle and the human microbiome.  

The Healthy Brains, Healthy Aging Initiative will feature a cohort of 6,000 research participants who are currently enrolled in the CLSA. It marks the first time a national study of aging in Canada has introduced both brain imaging and microbiome analyses to investigate cognitive aging in the population over time.

The goal of the six-year initiative is to enhance the CLSA platform with longitudinal data from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain and microbiome analyses of the gut, to help researchers examine how diverse lifestyle, medical, psychosocial, economic, and environmental factors as well as changes in the microbiome correlate with healthy aging outcomes.

The Weston Family Foundation mission

As part of its overall giving strategy, the Weston Family Foundation dedicates funding to catalyze and scale science-based approaches to improve the health and well-being of Canadians as they age. Specifically, the Foundation aims for more Canadians maintaining optimal health with aging; decreased economic burden of diseases of aging in Canada; and more Canadians equipped with knowledge and strategies to maintain optimal health and independence.

Potential breakthroughs as a result of data gathered by the Healthy Brains, Healthy Aging Initiative will not only improve the health of Canadians as they age, but will generate research evidence to inform policy and programs that increase the agency of Canadians on their own health outcomes.

Click here for more info.

Press release: Announcing the Healthy Brains, Healthy Aging Initiative

$9.3 million in funding awarded to support innovative microbiome research in Canada

The Weston Family Foundation, through its Weston Family Microbiome Initiative, is pleased to award $9.3 million in funding to Canadian researchers through the Proof-of-Principle, Catalyst, and Transformational Research programs.

This funding will support innovative research in the microbiome field, with a focus on improving human health. Awarded researchers are pursuing advanced research initiatives in diverse areas including prebiotics, live biotherapeutics, lifestyle approaches, and medical technologies. Funded projects are examining the role of the microbiome in various areas of disease, including immunity and infection, cancer, brain health, and metabolic diseases.

Created in 2016, the Weston Family Microbiome Initiative seeks to accelerate the understanding and application of the human microbiome in healthy aging. Including this new round of awards, more than $18 million has been committed for microbiome research through this initiative.  

The microbiome is believed to greatly influence human health and physiology throughout life. For this reason, the research supported by these targeted funds could play a key role in efforts to support healthy aging and advance the Foundation’s objective of improving the well-being of Canadians.

About the Grants

The Proof-of-Principle Program (up to $300,000 over up to 24 months) supports high-impact projects that pursue translational or interventional research.

The Catalyst Program (up to $450,000 over up to 36 months) supports early-career researchers undertaking highly innovative projects in the microbiome sciences.

The Transformational Research Program (up to $1 million over up to 36 months) supports transformative, novel, high-risk, high-reward translational research projects.

Through these programs, these new grants are supporting 34 Canadian research teams.

New Funding Available

The 2021 Proof-of-Principle Program is accepting letters of intent until August 31, 2021. This funding opportunity will provide research grants to support high-impact projects that pursue translational or interventional research regarding the microbiome’s influence on brain health, or via the interactions between diet, nutrition, and the microbiome. More details can be found here.

Proof-of-Principle 2021

This funding opportunity will provide research grants of up to $300,000 over a maximum of 24 months to support high-impact projects that pursue translational or interventional research regarding the microbiome’s influence on brain health, or via the interactions between diet, nutrition, and the microbiome.


Please refer to the Program Details and Request for Applications (RFA) for more information and details on how to apply.

Program Overview

Goal: To provide funding to innovative projects that seek to leverage the microbiome to deliver new translational interventions or preventative strategies for improving health. This includes modifying, manipulating, or exploiting the microbiome to confer immune benefits or treat diseases, with a focus on brain health and diet & nutrition.

Funding: Up to $300,000 per project over up to 24 months. The Foundation will commit up to ~ $3,000,000 to projects selected through this program (approximately 10 projects).

Project Eligibility:

  • Develop a new microbiome intervention or preventative strategy for improving brain health; OR
  • Leverage the microbiome to maximize the benefits of diet and nutrition.
  • Full definitions can be found in the Program Details document.

Application Process

  1. Confirm intent to apply by emailing microbiome@westonfoundation.ca
  2. Submit a completed Letter of Intent (see template below) via westonfdn.smartsimple.ca

Important dates

Information Webinar: August 3, 2021 (register here) & August 5, 2021 (register here) @ 3:00pm ET
LOI deadline: August 31, 2021 @ 2:00pm ET
Proposal deadline: October 22, 2021 @ 2:00 pm ET
Anticipated award announcement: December 2021

Brain Health

In November 2020 the Foundation launched Brain Health 2021: Lifestyle Approaches and Microbiome Contributions, seeking to increase the number of Canadians maintaining better brain health throughout their lives.

In this $7M pilot round, funding of up to $1.5M over three years will be available to Canadian researchers who propose projects that look for new ways to maintain or improve the brain health of Canadians. Projects should aim to evaluate the link between brain health and lifestyle approaches, the contributions of the microbiome to brain health, or both.

To read more about Brain Health 2021 program, go to our Grant Calls page.

Read the press release here: New $7M Brain Health Program Now Accepting Letters of Intent from Researchers

Proof-of-Principle Program

The Proof of Principle program supports Canadian research efforts on the human microbiome. The objective of this program is to fund Canadian scientists performing high-risk, high-reward translational research that leverages the microbiome towards improving human health.

The program is split into two funding approaches: Microbiome Mechanisms and Lifestyle Approaches, as outlined below:

Microbiome Mechanisms

This funding opportunity will provide research grants to support high-impact projects that seek to improve our understanding of the relationship between the microbiome and health towards future applications.

Eligible projects include the following:

  • Significantly expand mechanistic understanding of the microbiome in influencing physiology, health and disease.
  • Provide new insights that lead toward novel or improved applications of the microbiome to improving health.

Lifestyle Approaches

This funding opportunity will provide research grants to support high-impact projects that seek to leverage the microbiome to improve health.

Eligible projects include the following:

  • Establish an innovative line of translational or implementation research and provide proof-of-principle evidence in support of new health applications.
  • Work towards a recommendation, intervention or preventative strategy that improves health by leveraging the microbiome.
  • Focus on eligible research surrounding the application of lifestyle approaches in microbiome health.

For information about the Proof-of-Principle program, see our Grant Calls.