The Women’s Health Research Institute (WHRI), in partnership with the BC Women’s Health Foundation, is pleased to announce the 2026 WHRI Leveling Up: Women’s and Newborn Health Research Action Grant competition to support previously pilot-tested women’s* and newborn’s health research projects involving a) screening or diagnostic tools; or b) treatment interventions. These tools/interventions must have proof-of-concept pilot data and be ready to advance to the next stage of empirical testing, or a larger-scale trial, or scale-up, or implementation. One grant will be awarded at $100,000 for a two-year period. The WHRI Leveling Up Grant competition is distinct from the WHRI Catalyst Grant program in that it is intended to fund the next phase in the research discovery pipeline. As such, it is a requirement that the applicant demonstrate how the proposed project represents the “next level”.  

Awards are open to BC researchers at a university or research hospital setting, but candidates must be a member of the WHRI and cannot have held a Catalyst Grant as a Principal Applicant in the past three cycles, including the current Catalyst Grant competition. Eligible researchers include academic researchers and clinician scientists. 

*We define women’s health as encompassing both sex-specific conditions, sex differences across conditions, and gendered experiences affecting cis and trans women, and gender diverse people assigned female at birth.