New funding opportunity to support the development of a pioneering youth mental health platform

By enhancing technical and research capabilities of Canadian neuroscientists, this new program will support a ground-breaking national project that aims to help make important advances in the field of youth mental health possible.

Brain Canada is pleased to announce the launch of the first-ever Brain Canada Youth Mental Health Platform, powered by RBC Future Launch. Open to groups of investigators, this funding opportunity is intended to support the development, operation, and maintenance of a large-scale national platform that enhances the sharing of centralized research resources, thereby increasing access to equipment, expertise, data, protocols and more in the area of youth mental health, for three years.  

“This is a call to action to the youth mental health research community for the development of a national youth mental health platform with the ultimate goal of sharing data across disciplines, including people with lived experience,” says Dr. Viviane Poupon, CEO and President of Brain Canada. “The development of this platform will create synergies across these groups while accelerating the practical application of research findings to improve youth mental health services.”

Interested applicants will be required to first register a team by December 14, 2021 at 16:00 ET. Selected applicants will then be invited to proceed to submit a Full Application by February 15, 2022 at 16:00 ET.

“The global pandemic has completely upended the lives of young people across our country,” says Mark Beckles, Vice-President, Social Impact and Innovation, RBC. “RBC Future Launch is committed to partnering with Brain Canada to invest in an infrastructure to build and share youth mental health knowledge across teams and disciplines, to address the barriers to care. We want to be part of a solution that will find new ways to reach young people and ensure they can access the mental health supports they need.”

This funding opportunity has been made possible thanks to an anchor gift of $2-million from the RBC Foundation.

Please refer to the Request for Applications for additional details.