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Our Research Investments

Understanding our investment in cancer research
  1. Home
  2. Research
  3. For researchers
  4. Our Research Investments

The Canadian Cancer Society has a rich legacy of fueling discoveries that have improved how we prevent, diagnose, treat and live with and beyond cancer. Each year, CCS invests millions into innovative and impactful cancer research making measurable progress toward our 4 long term goals.

Discover how funds are distributed by research pillar across our research goals.

Research Pillars

Projects at CCS are categorized according to one of four research pillars:

Laboratory-based projects that rely on basic/fundamental research and include an understanding of disease mechanisms and/or model development
Projects that include trials, settings or studies related to the diagnosis, treatment and/or prevention of diseases in human subjects
Research that focuses on the quality, accessibility and equity of healthcare and assesses or attempts to solve barriers to care such as treatment adherence, national strategies/frameworks and/or health literacy
Research that refers to the non-medical factors that affect a person’s health that take place at the community and population-level

Research Pillar Investment

Research Pillar investment table
*The total investment shown here is not reflective of CCS’s total research investment for the given year, as not all grants and awards are categorized to a research pillar. Investment is provided as the dollar value and the percentage of total research investment. Research pillars are selected by grantees; however, CCS has adjusted the data as needed for grants within the training programs (Research Training Awards, Emerging Scholar Research Grants) to better reflect the projects’ focus.

Research Goals

Projects at CCS are categorized to one or more research goals:

Reduce risk so fewer people in Canada will develop cancer
Fewer people will be diagnosed with Stage 3 or Stage 4 cancer
People with cancer will live longer and with improved quality of life during and after treatment
Equitable and timely access to innovative and affordable high-quality cancer prevention and care for more people in Canada

Research Goal Investment

Research Goal Investment Table
*The total investment shown here is not reflective of CCS’s total research investment for the given year, as not all grants and awards are categorized to a research goal. Investment is provided as the dollar value and the percentage of total research investment.

Investment by Fiscal Year

2023-2024 Fiscal Year

The graphic below depicts our 2023-2024 research investment broken down by research pillars across our four research goals. For example, the Canadian Cancer Society invested $1.99M into prevention and/or risk-reduction focused research. Of that $1.99M, $1M was invested into biomedical research, $196K was invested into clinical research, $253K was invested into health services/systems research, and $537K was invested into social, cultural, environmental and population health research.
2023-2024 fiscal year total investment pie charts