Terry Fox institute offering $25M for AI development

VANCOUVER – The Terry Fox Research Institute launched a $25-million Digital Health Innovation Fund to fuel private- and public-sector breakthroughs that is focused initially on precision medicine for cancer and neuroscience, and other diseases through big data, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI)-based approaches and solutions.

The program is being established through the Digital Health and Discovery Platform, led by the Terry Fox Research Institute, with funding provided by Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) Canada under its Strategic Innovations Fund (SIF), Stream 4.

“In partnership with ISED, we are delighted to announce this new strategic fund to stimulate and incentivize private-sector and entrepreneurial partners to join forces with our research, academic and health care institutions and their researchers, so together we accomplish what patients tell us is critical to improving outcomes: their data must be appropriately shared among data providers and users in ways that are completely safe and secure for patients,” said Dr. Jim Woodgett (pictured), TFRI’s president and scientific director.

“We hear you loud and clear and the funds provided here for this kind of collaborative work is what will get us all to that important finish line.”

NOTE Full details of the new Digital Health Innovation Fund, including the Request for Applications, will be available Friday, March 28 on the DHDP website.

A total of up to $25 million will be available until March 2027 through the fund, which will operate under a reimbursement model.

The DHDP is a pan-Canadian initiative focused on improving health outcomes for Canadians by bringing together health researchers, AI and data scientists and industry partners to advance precision medicine. The new fund will support research programs/projects and their teams through their use of the platform.

Projects will be selected for their compelling science and will play an important role in advancing research as well as contributing to a robust and collaborative data ecosystem that is accessible through the platform.

“The Government of Canada is proud to partner with the Terry Fox Research Institute and its DHDP members in the quest to improve patient outcomes by investing in enterprises and health system researchers across Canada. This collaborative work will help find cutting-edge innovations to identify, diagnose and treat diseases,” said the Honourable Anita Anand, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry. “We’re on the verge of a new frontier in digital health data research that will help transform how we treat diseases for the benefit of all Canadians.”

Government investment in these top research, academic, entrepreneurial, business and industry minds, and funding innovative collaboratives initiatives across multiple diverse areas of this digital health ecosystem, will yield significant benefits to our knowledge economy, including new job and training opportunities here at home, new commercialization opportunities, and help accelerate the country’s reputation as a leader in AI and machine learning.

The fund gives small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), multinational enterprises (MNEs), hospital and research networks and foundations, not-for-profits, data scientists, health informaticians, and oncologists across the country access to new dollars for projects that advance applications for emerging digital health technologies and innovations, foster continued growth, collaboration and discovery across our knowledge economy as well as create commercialization opportunities within industries such as pharmaceuticals and imaging.