The Indigenous Health Equity Fund (IHEF) is a real, named federal funding program administered by Indigenous Services Canada (ISC). It is not a research grant program in the way a tri-agency or NIH award is — it funds health services, infrastructure, and short-term innovative health projects for First Nations, Inuit, and Métis communities. But research administrators at Indigenous health organizations, universities, and health authorities that receive or partner on IHEF-funded work still need to understand it, because any project that generates health data under this fund inherits Indigenous data governance obligations that differ from a standard institutional data management plan (DMP).
This page covers what the fund actually is and does, its two funding streams, eligibility and application mechanics for the competitive stream, and — the part most relevant to CASRAI’s audience — what data governance and reporting expectations attach to funds administered on a distinctions-based, Indigenous-led basis.
What the Indigenous Health Equity Fund is
Announced as part of federal efforts to close health outcome gaps for Indigenous Peoples in Canada, the IHEF provides $2 billion over 10 years (approximately $200 million annually), beginning in the 2024–2025 fiscal year. It is administered by Indigenous Services Canada and is directed to First Nations, Inuit, and Métis communities and organizations in support of distinctions-based, Indigenous-led approaches to health service delivery.
“Distinctions-based” is a specific policy term in this context: it means funding and program design are set separately for First Nations, Inuit, and Métis populations rather than through a single pan-Indigenous framework, reflecting that these are distinct peoples with distinct governance structures, histories, and priorities.
The two funding streams
Distinctions-Based Funding
Approximately $190 million a year flows to First Nations, Inuit, and Métis communities as a long-term, predictable base of funding for their own health priorities. This stream is not a competitive grant; it is a flexible allocation intended to give communities durable funding they can plan around rather than a one-off project award.
Targeted Initiatives
Approximately $10 million a year supports short-term, innovative, activity-driven projects on cross-cutting Indigenous health priorities. This is the competitive, project-based stream:
- Maximum award: up to $500,000 per project
- Project duration: up to 3 years
- Eligibility: organizations must be directly invited by Indigenous Services Canada to apply — this is not an open call. Communities already receiving Distinctions-Based Funding, First Nations in British Columbia served by the First Nations Health Authority, and organizations funded in the immediately prior cycle are generally excluded from a given round.
- Assessment criteria: a clear, single-purpose objective; detailed activity descriptions; a feasible (short-term-favoring) timeline; measurable outcomes and success metrics; an itemized, justified budget; and demonstrated innovation or partnership value.
Application deadlines and eligible-invitee lists are set per funding cycle and have shifted year to year (a 2025–2026 cycle deadline of May 30, 2025 was published for invited organizations at time of research) — always confirm the current cycle’s dates directly against the official ISC pages linked at the end of this guide rather than relying on a past-cycle date.
What the fund does and does not pay for
Eligible uses span primary care, health infrastructure, public health, and mental wellness programming. The fund explicitly excludes services already insured under the Canada Health Act — physician services, diagnostic testing, and hospital care remain funded through provincial/territorial health insurance and other existing mechanisms, not through the IHEF. This exclusion matters for anyone drafting a Targeted Initiatives proposal: a project scoped as delivering insured clinical services is not fundable under this program regardless of its Indigenous-health framing.
Why this matters for research data management
The IHEF is not framed by Indigenous Services Canada as a research fund, and a project shouldn’t be described that way in a proposal to it. In practice, though, many Targeted Initiatives projects involve some form of data collection: needs assessments, health surveillance, program evaluation, or community health data systems built to demonstrate the “measurable outcomes” the assessment criteria require. Any of that generates data about Indigenous Peoples, and that puts a project squarely inside the governance frameworks Canadian Indigenous data sovereignty practice has built specifically for this situation — frameworks that sit alongside, not instead of, an institution’s usual research data management obligations.
The starting reference point is OCAP Principles (Ownership, Control, Access, and Possession), developed and stewarded by the First Nations Information Governance Centre (FNIGC). OCAP asserts that First Nations communities and organizations, not the funder or the researcher’s home institution, hold ownership and control over data collected about them, their members, or their territories. A distinctions-based fund like the IHEF is a direct real-world instance of the governance model OCAP describes: funding flows to the community, and data generated with that funding is understood to remain under community authority rather than defaulting to institutional or funder ownership.
At a broader, international level, the CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance (Collective Benefit, Authority to Control, Responsibility, Ethics), developed by the Global Indigenous Data Alliance (GIDA), articulate the same commitments in a form usable outside the First Nations-specific OCAP framework — relevant for Inuit- and Métis-led IHEF projects, and for any multi-jurisdictional collaboration. See GIDA (Global Indigenous Data Alliance) and Indigenous Data Governance for the underlying concepts, and Indigenous Data Sovereignty for how these principles relate to the broader claim that Indigenous Peoples have the right to govern the collection, ownership, and application of data about their own peoples, lands, and resources.
For research administrators, the practical implication is that a standard institutional DMP template is not sufficient on its own for an IHEF-funded (or comparable distinctions-based) project. Data ownership, storage location, access permissions, and downstream use all need to be negotiated with and controlled by the funded community or organization — not assumed to default to the grantee institution’s standard repository and licensing practice. See Data Ownership, Community-controlled research, and Indigenous community review for how this plays out in practice, and CASRAI’s guide on the research data lifecycle for where these decisions fit into standard DMP planning.
How this compares to research-ethics frameworks elsewhere
The IHEF is a Canadian federal funding mechanism, not a research ethics code, and it should not be confused with one. Research administrators working across jurisdictions should note the distinction from Australia’s AIATSIS Code of Ethics for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Research, which is a research-conduct standard (not a funding program) built around similar principles — Indigenous self-determination, Indigenous leadership, and impact assessed by and with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. The two instruments operate in different countries and different legal contexts, but both operationalize the same underlying premise found in OCAP and CARE: that Indigenous Peoples, not external institutions, hold authority over decisions affecting their communities, including decisions about data.
Frequently asked questions
Who administers the Indigenous Health Equity Fund?
Indigenous Services Canada (ISC / SAC — Services aux Autochtones Canada) administers the fund.
How much funding does the IHEF provide?
$2 billion over 10 years, roughly $200 million annually starting in the 2024–2025 fiscal year, split between Distinctions-Based Funding (~$190 million/year) and Targeted Initiatives (~$10 million/year).
Is the Indigenous Health Equity Fund a research grant?
No. It funds health services, infrastructure, and short-term community health projects, not research as such. Projects funded through it can still generate data that falls under Indigenous data governance obligations, which is the connection to research data management covered on this page.
Can any organization apply to the Targeted Initiatives stream?
No. Targeted Initiatives is invite-only — organizations must be directly invited by Indigenous Services Canada. Communities already receiving Distinctions-Based Funding, First Nations in British Columbia served by the First Nations Health Authority, and prior-cycle recipients are generally excluded from a given round.
What data governance principles apply to data generated under the fund?
There is no IHEF-specific data policy published separately from ISC’s program pages; in practice, projects should apply the OCAP Principles (for First Nations data) and/or the CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance, negotiating ownership, control, access, and possession terms directly with the funded community or organization rather than defaulting to a grantee institution’s standard data management plan.
Official sources
- Indigenous Services Canada, Indigenous Health Equity Fund (program overview)
- Indigenous Services Canada, Indigenous Health Equity Fund — Targeted Initiatives (eligibility and application details)
This page describes a real, named federal funding program current as of mid-2026 research. Funding amounts, cycle dates, and eligibility criteria are set annually by Indigenous Services Canada — confirm current-cycle details against the official pages above before relying on them for an active application.
