The report showed mental-health research spending in Canada has recently declined overall, from $167.4 million in 2015 to $152.6 million in 2018. The median size of individual grants for mental health research in Canada was $71,000 for 2015 to 2019 inclusive, the lowest among developed countries studied.
Almost all funding for mental-health research in Canada is from government and other public sources. The is the major research funder. CIHR’s data, provided to us, show recent improvement. For the five years from 2016–17 to 2020–21, grants for mental health research increased from $61.1 million to $132.2 million. The research funding over the five years was $413.6 million, lower than funding for cardiovascular research or for cancer research .
Outside of federal funding, sources of research money are patchwork. A few provincial governments have funded mental-health researchers or research projects. Independent foundations, not-for-profit organizations, individual and corporate donors and philanthropy provide support for mental-health research. Yet philanthropic sources are fragmented. Together, fundraising charities and philanthropic sources provide only an estimated 1.7 per cent of funding for mental health research in Canada.
Researchers say they need not only more funding, but also funding with fewer strings attached. Winners of the Royal-Mach-Gaensslen Prize whom we surveyed highlighted the difficulty in getting funding for innovative, high-risk/high-reward research. They also emphasized the need for long-term funding. One noted the lack of funding for essential research to find effective prevention and treatments.Article contentWe need larger and longer-term grants to researchers.
Adequate research funding would go a long way to helping Canadians who experience mental-health problems, improving outcomes for individuals and for Canada’s society and economy.Article contentis president of the University of Ottawa Institute of Mental Health Research and and vice-president of research at