Your Donations Drive Our Research

When you donate to Crohn’s and Colitis Canada, you are making a life-altering impact as your donation is driving innovative inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) research. It is thanks to donors from coast-to-coast that we are able to fund projects each year that strengthen Canadian IBD research and brings us closer to cures.

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Here we take you on the journey of how your donations translate into research focused on discovering the causes, treatments, and ultimately, the cures for Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.  

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How We Make Funding Decisions

Every fall, we open a call for grant applications, inviting scientists to submit their research proposals for funding.
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We use a rigorous grant review process to ensure we fund the best and brightest researchers, and to guarantee the review process is fair, transparent, and free of conflict. We assign each application to three reviewers that have the scientific expertise to evaluate the quality, feasibility, and relevance of the proposal. The reviewers are assigned to applications if and only if they have been determined to be free of conflicts of interest with the applicants. 

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Funding the Best and Brightest

The reviewers are peers, meaning they are fellow researchers and clinicians with scientific expertise, and have received major funding to support their own research. Reviewers cannot have a conflict of interest (read our Reviewer Conflict of Interest and Confidentiality Policy) with the applications they review. In addition to thoroughly reviewing their assigned applications, each reviewer provides written comments and a score. Scores from 0.0 (rejected) to 5 (outstanding) are submitted in advance of an annual in-person grant review meeting held in the spring.

To ensure the research that receives funding reflects the needs of patients, we invite individuals living with Crohn’s or ulcerative colitis to provide feedback on the proposals as lay reviewers.

IBD nurses participate as part of the grant panel and provide their expert advice based on their knowledge of the healthcare system and patient needs.

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Once all reviewers have individually reviewed their assigned applications in detail, the collective group of reviewers gather in person to discuss all of the applications received that year. Each reviewer presents feedback on the applications they individually reviewed. The reviewers then collectively discuss each application.

After an in-depth discussion, assigned scientific reviewers agree to a consensus score for the application in question. All grant reviewers are then asked to individually score the application by at most 0.5 points around the consensus score. For example, an application with a consensus score of 4.0 out of 5.0 may receive scores from other reviewers that range from 3.5 to 4.5. Average scores are calculated, and applications that receive the highest average scores above a cutoff score of 3.5 are considered for funding. The number of research projects funded each year depends on the total donations received by Crohn's and Colitis Canada. Every year, we are not able to fund all highly scored applications due to a lack of funding. We could be funding more with your support!

Researchers that receive funding ensure Crohn’s and Colitis Canada stays up-to-date on the status of their research by submitting annual progress and financial reports. While projects are underway, and in the years following completion, researchers share their findings and how their research is improving care for people living with Crohn’s and colitis and getting us closer to finding the cures.

Guided by Experts

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Crohn’s and Colitis Canada relies on guidance from our Scientific and Medical Advisory Council (SMAC) as we strive towards fulfilling our mission of discovering cures and improving the lives of children and adults affected by Crohn’s and colitis.

Learn about the four areas of research that Crohn’s and Colitis Canada is able to fund thanks to your donor dollars:

Finding Causes and Triggers
Discovering Novel Treatments
Helping Manage Symptoms
Getting the Best Care

  • Canada has among the highest incidence rates of Crohn's and colitis in the world.
  • 1 in 140 Canadians lives with Crohn’s or colitis.
  • Families new to Canada are developing these diseases for the first time.
  • Incidence of Crohn’s in Canadian kids under 10 has doubled since 1995.
  • People are most commonly diagnosed before age 30.

Other Areas of Interest