About

The CITF is supporting over 100 studies to generate knowledge about immunity to SARS-CoV-2. The subjects addressed by these studies include the extent of SARS-CoV-2 infection in Canada, the nature of immunity, vaccine effectiveness and safety, and the need for booster shots among different communities and priority populations in Canada.

The CITF Databank was developed to further enhance the impact of our funded studies by allowing additional research using the data collected for CITF-supported studies. We centralize population-level seroprevalence estimates and harmonize individual-level data deposited in the CITF Databank to provide the research community, both in Canada and around the world to a wide variety of standardized COVID-19 data.

Types of data in the CITF Databank

The CITF offers two types of data for researchers:

Aggregate data

The CITF Databank also includes statistical aggregates from some studies in the form of seroprevalence estimates. Some of these estimates are stratified by characteristic, such as geographical region and age group.

Individual-level data

The CITF Databank centralizes and harmonizes individual-level data from CITF-funded studies that have all ethical requirements to deposit data in the CITF Databank and have completed a data sharing agreement.

studies harmonized

studies submitted to the databank

studies with data coming to the databank

participants with questionnaire data

participants with serology data

participants with both types of data

To facilitate harmonization, studies were asked to use the CITF-created Core Data Elements (CDE): a set of standardized survey questions and laboratory measurements intended to capture essential information related to COVID-19 epidemiology and immunity.

The CITF CDE include:

Socio-demographic questions: individual identity (age, sex, gender, ethnicity, education, etc.), location of residence and living conditions, general health, and occupation.
COVID-19-related questions: participant behaviors, travel history, symptom history and infection status.
Vaccine dosage questions: participant vaccination history.
Serological and cell-mediated immunity assay results.

View the list of studies in the CITF Databank

For more information about our CDE and CITF data sharing policies and procedures, visit our Tools and Information for Researchers page.

Data Access Process

Individual-level data and aggregate data are associated with distinct data access processes – both are completely free of charge.

Aggregate data: open access

Visit the CITF Open Access Dataverse to download the data and see our Seroprevalance in Canada webpage to explore the plotted data.

Individual-level data: restricted access

The CITF Databank contains de-identified individual-level data, which is available through restricted access; researchers wishing to use these data must submit a request to the CITF. To access the data in the CITF Databank, please enter the CITF Data Access Portal below.

Access Portal Create an Account

Applications for access to the CITF Databank are accepted and assessed by the CITF Data Access Committee on an ongoing basis. Once you have filed an application for access, your request is sent for administrative review by the Data Access Office. Once the application is deemed complete, it is reviewed by the Data Access Committee. For a more detailed description, please see the Data Access Procedure.

Watch the CITF Databank Seminar

The CITF Data & Analysis team held a seminar to better explain the CITF Databank, including currently available data and the application process.

Download the presentation

The CITF Databank can be used for:

Populations in the CITF Databank

The following plot shows the distribution of primary and secondary populations of studies expected to the CITF Databank. To view the specific studies in each category, click on a secondary population in the outer ring.

CITF Data Access Committee

The CITF Data Access Committee (DAC) is guided by the CITF’s Data Access Policy to assess the feasibility of the research proposal submitted in support of a data access request, and the compliance of the proposed research with CITF Guiding Principles.

DAC Members

Mr. Alexander Bernier (Committee chair)
Academic Associate, Centre of Genomics and Policy

Dr. Mark Brockman
Professor, Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University

Dr. Chelsea Gabel
Faculty of Social Sciences, McMaster University
Member, Gilbrea Centre for Studies in Aging, Faculty of Social Sciences
Director, McMaster Indigenous Research Institute, Faculty of Social Sciences
Associate Professor, Health, Aging & Society, Faculty of Social Sciences
Joint Appointment, Indigenous Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences
Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Well-Being, Community Engagement, and Innovation, McMaster University

Dr. Jeff Kwong
Senior Scientist and Program Leader, Populations and Public Health Research Program, ICES
Scientist, Public Health Ontario
Family Physician, Toronto Western Family Health Team
Professor, Department of Family and Community Medicine and Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto

Mr. Philippe Latouche
Patient Partner and Long COVID advocate, Lived experience with long COVID

The CITF works with Maelstrom Research, a research group based at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre in Montreal that has developed a standard approach to documenting and disseminating metadata from epidemiological studies. Maelstrom Research has supported the CITF in standardizing and harmonizing the data collected by CITF-supported studies.

Data Governance

To facilitate transparency and accountability in the management of the CITF Databank, the CITF has developed a Data Governance Framework. This Framework establishes the mechanisms for administration, custodianship and sharing of data deposited in the CITF Databank.