COHÉSIF 2026-2027 competition
COHorte pour l'Évaluation des effets Sanitaires et Incidences des Fonderies (COHÉSIF)
(COHort for the Assessment of Health Effects and Impacts of Smelters)
2026-2027 competition
Please note: the research program currently open for funding is presented in French by the Fonds de recherche du Québec (FRQ). The excerpts from the program rules presented on this page have been translated by artificial intelligence, and the French version prevails in the event of a discrepancy between the two versions.
Program Objectives
The program aims to establish and support a research infrastructure dedicated to the collection and organization of human and environmental health data, in the form of a longitudinal cohort and a biobank. This infrastructure will study and evaluate possible associations between individuals’ health profiles and their exposure profiles to industrial contaminants. Priority will be given to populations living or having lived near the Horne smelter in Rouyn-Noranda, with the possibility of expanding to other industrial settings in Quebec.
By the end of this funding period, the infrastructure must have compiled data and biological samples that are accessible to the scientific community to support research projects in population health and environmental health. It will be grounded in the FAIR principles (findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable), enabling rapid operational deployment.
Its design must also allow it to adapt to the changing needs of communities and align with government and scientific population surveillance initiatives that may be implemented. Data management policies must also be established to ensure that all data generated—including data from subsequent cohort-based projects—is integrated into the infrastructure, thereby ensuring the centralization and long-term preservation of the information.
The data collected should, but are not limited to:
- Include residential, occupational, and medical histories;
- Provide longitudinal documentation of individuals’ health status and risk factors;
- Include biological and environmental samples that allow for the assessment of exposures and potential health effects;
- Allow for linkage with other existing data sources, particularly medical-administrative and environmental databases;
- Align with biomonitoring studies that may be implemented, and expand the cohorts of such studies as needed by the infrastructure;
- Enable the re-contacting of participants for subsequent or supplemental data collection.