ICES awarded nearly $5 million from CFI to enable world-class research and analytic capabilities
March 13, 2026, Toronto, ON — ICES has received new funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) for projects that address some of the country’s most pressing health system challenges, with a total federal investment of $4.98 million dollars.
Through the CFI’s Innovation Fund, ICES will invest in infrastructure that expands access to linked health and social data, strengthens technology for machine learning (ML), and supports the scaling of research studies across Canada. Team leads on the project are Dr. Astrid Guttmann, Interim CEO and Senior Core Scientist at ICES, and J. Charles Victor, Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships and Digital Services at ICES.
“This investment from CFI allows us to push the boundaries of what is possible in health data science in Canada,” said Dr. Guttmann. “By linking richer social data with detailed clinical data and embedding equity at every stage of our work, we are building the foundation for research that directly improves outcomes for populations who have traditionally been underserved.”
The CFI award will support infrastructure to:
- Build capacity to collect and link social data with highly detailed clinical data, enabling deeper insight into the social factors that shape health.
- Expand analytic and methodological capabilities for machine learning (ML) studies using integrated social and health data.
- Establish a first‑in‑Canada system to equitably recruit patients into pragmatic clinical trials directly from population‑level data.
- Scale research nationally using methods that transform complicated health data into a common, easy‑to‑use format and allow for data from different parts of the country to be used without being moved or shared.
A significant portion of the planned infrastructure expansion will directly benefit early career researchers, who often face barriers accessing the computational tools, advanced data, and secure environments required for modern health data science.
“Equipping early career researchers with leading-edge tools and data is essential to sustaining Canada’s capacity for impactful health research,” said Victor. “This infrastructure will give emerging data scientists the ability to work with the most advanced methods and multisector data resources available in the country.”
National impact within five years
The enhanced infrastructure will help generate equitable social, health and economic benefits for Canadians within five years, by enabling more responsive health research, inclusive clinical trials, and more effective health system planning at regional and national scales.
“This award positions ICES and our partners to lead a new era of secure, equity‑focused data science in Canada,” added Dr. Guttmann. “Our goal is a healthier, more equitable future for all communities, and we thank the Canada Foundation for Innovation for their contribution to this shared vision.”
For more information, please contact:
Charlotte Lam
Communications Associate, ICES
[email protected]
437-317-8804
Acknowledgements
This initiative represents the contributions of a multidisciplinary team across ICES. We gratefully acknowledge the expertise and leadership of:
- Peter Austin, ICES/University of Toronto
- Hilary Brown, ICES/University of Toronto
- Amit Garg, ICES/University of Western Ontario
- Douglas Lee, ICES/University Health Network
- Jennifer Rayner, ICES/Alliance for Healthy Communities
- Amol Verma, ICES/Unity Health Toronto
- Marian Vermeulen, ICES
- Bo Wang, University Health Network/University of Toronto