CIHR Health System Impact Fellowship (for Post-Doctoral Researchers) 2022-2023

Eligibility

**Postdoctoral Applicants are only eligible for Stream B**

For an application to be eligible:

1. The Nominated Principal Applicant (NPA) must be one of the following:
   1. Stream A: a trainee who is enrolled full-time in a doctoral degree and studying HSPR or related fields* for their doctoral training at Canadian CIHR eligible institution and who has not previously held a HSI doctoral award.
   2. Stream B: a trainee who has obtained their doctoral degree in a HSPR or related field* and who has not previously held a HSI post-doctoral award.
2. For the purpose of this funding opportunity, trainees cannot hold or be on leave from an independent research position.
3. The NPA must not be a current or past employee of their proposed host partner organization or a current owner or shareholder of their proposed host partner organization (unless the candidate falls within the special case exception – see FAQ document [ PDF (323 KB) ] for definition of current or past employee).
4. A health system supervisor that is a decision maker from a health system or related organization** (and who is a different individual than the academic supervisor – see below) that has committed to hosting the trainee for the experiential learning opportunity must be identified as the Primary Supervisor.
   1. By committing to hosting a fellow, the health system supervisor:
      1. Confirms its organization will contribute the 30% partnership funding towards the award
      2. Confirms its organization has a mechanism to pay the 30% funding to the awardee (either via transfer agreement to the awardee's academic institution or direct to the awardee)
      3. Confirms its commitment to supervising and mentoring the awardee for the duration of the fellowship (see Review Criteria and How to Apply for details)
   2. Eligibility for Mitacs funding requires that the host partner organization's 30% contribution flow through Mitacs to the awardee. Primary Supervisors from the host partner organizations must indicate in their letter of support whether they provide consent to flow their funds through Mitacs (see Additional Information section).

   Note: While universities and university-based research institutes may play an important role in the HSI program, they are not eligible host partner organizations in this funding opportunity.

5. An academic supervisor who has an academic appointment with a university-based graduate training program in Canada (and who is a different individual than the health system supervisor) must be identified as the Supervisor.
   1. Stream A: the academic supervisor must be the trainee's primary PhD supervisor.
   2. Stream B: the academic supervisor must secure the awardee with post-doctoral status at the university by the start date of the award.
6. For any applications involving Indigenous Health Research, the NPA, health system supervisor and the academic supervisor must self-identify as Indigenous (First Nations, Inuit or Métis) or provide evidence of having meaningful and culturally safe involvement with Indigenous Peoples in order to:
   1. Prioritize First Nations, Inuit and Metis Peoples and communities in leading their research agendas;
   2. Promote cultural safety (of and appropriate engagements by researchers working with Indigenous Peoples in meaningful ways to ensure that respectful relations are established;
   3. Add value to the research through the use of Indigenous culturally relevant theoretical and conceptual frameworks, and Indigenous culturally appropriate research protocols, including Indigenous methodologies; and
   4. Promote equity and development of trainees, researchers and knowledge users who are of Indigenous ancestry.
7. For awards held within host partner organizations located in Canada, the NPA may be a Canadian citizen, permanent resident or citizen of another country. For awards held within host partner organizations located outside Canada (i.e., international pool), the NPA must be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident. In all scenarios, the fellow must be registered at an eligible institution (see the CIHR Application Administration Guide – Part 4) at the time of the award start date.
8. Applying for other awards: A candidate can apply for the HSI award and other federal awards programs (e.g., Canada Graduate Scholarships – Doctoral (CGS D), Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships (Vanier CGS), Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships (Banting PDF), Mitacs Accelerate in the same year (see Conditions of Funding, holding other awards, below).
9. The applicant must complete one of CIHR's three interactive modules on sex and gender in research and include the completion certificate with their HSI Fellowship application (see How to Apply section for further details).
10. Applicants are permitted to submit only one application per HSI Fellowship competition.

*Examples of HSPR or related fields include, but are not limited to, population health, health economics, health policy, Indigenous Peoples' health, artificial intelligence, public health, epidemiology, gerontology, data science, etc. See How to Apply for more information.

**A health system or related host partner organization may be a public, private for-profit, or not-for-profit organization at the local, regional, provincial/territorial, or federal/national level (e.g., national health or health-related organization, Indigenous health organization [community-based or other, such as an Indigenous non-governmental organization], ministry of health, community hospital, academic teaching hospital, health authority, quality council, public health organization, health charity, consulting firm undertaking health or health-related work, pharmaceutical company, health-related professional association). With the addition of an international stream, international health system host partner organizations that are featured in the Partner Linkage Tool are also eligible to participate as a host partner organization. A health system or related host partner organization is defined as an organization that contributes to: direct service delivery; mandated quality monitoring; the development of policy or programs that affects the health of individuals, populations and/or the health system; the development, provision or evaluation of technologies/products/services; or consulting services aimed at improving health outcomes and/or health system effectiveness and efficiency.

Summary

The Health System Impact (HSI) Fellowship provides an embedded research opportunity for highly-qualified PhD trainees and post-doctoral researchers studying health services and policy research (HSPR), or related fields. This is a unique opportunity for awardees to:

• apply their research and analytic talents to critical health system challenges that are being addressed by health system organizations (e.g., public, private for-profit, not-for-profit, and Indigenous health organizations) outside of the traditional university setting, and
• develop and expand professional experience, new skills, and networks.

While embedded in a health partner organization for the duration of their fellowship, awardees are exposed to how a health system organization works, how decisions are made, and how research and analytic skills contribute to an organization's rapid learning and improvement. Accordingly, the program also aims to build embedded research capacity in health system organizations to support the advancement of learning health systems (LHSs) across Canada.

The HSI Fellowship program contains a stream for doctoral trainees and a stream for post-doctoral researchers:

• Doctoral trainees receive a paid one-year experiential learning opportunity where they are embedded in their health system partner organization for at least 60% of their time focused on an impact-oriented project of direct relevance to their partner organization. The remaining time (up to 40%), is protected to continue with their doctoral program commitments*.
• Post-doctoral researchers receive a paid two-year experiential learning opportunity where they are embedded in their health system partner organization for at least 70% of their time focused on their impact-oriented program of work. The remaining time (up to 30%), is protected for academic research*.
• Both doctoral and post-doctoral awardees also receive:
  • Co-mentorship from a health system leader within the health system partner organization and an academic supervisor at the awardee's affiliated university.
  • Professional development training in a set of enriched core competencies and networking opportunities by way of participation in the HSI National Cohort Training Program and National Cohort Retreat.

*Flexibility in the time commitment will enable awardees to make meaningful contributions to an organization's impact goal, become immersed in the culture and operations of the organization, and benefit from mentorship by executive leaders, while also protecting time to continue with doctoral program commitments or post-doctoral academic research with an academic supervisor. This immersion in both the health system and academic communities, and the co-mentorship by a health system leader and an academic supervisor, are unique elements of the HSI Fellowship program.

Overall, the HSI Fellowship program blends research and professional competency development with practical, hands-on experience that is complemented with unique mentorship opportunities, designed to accelerate awardees' professional growth and better prepare them to embark on a wide range of career paths and with greater impact. It welcomes a diversity of types of projects and programs of work – including applied and/or community-based research, policy analysis, quality improvement, implementation science, intervention research, surveillance, and more – as long as the work relates to critical challenges in health care that are being addressed by the organization and that work contributes to achieving the health system organization's impact goal. The program is launched annually and examples of previously funded HSI Fellows, their host partner organizations, and programs of work can be found on CIHR's website.

Application deadlines

Program application deadline

NOTE: Consult your Faculty Associate Dean (Research) (ADR) regarding Faculty-specific deadlines and submission processes.

Principal Investigators: Complete a Research Management System (RMS) record, including a copy of your complete application, and submit this for approvals in RMS.

Postdocs, students, and trainees: For fellowships and externally-sponsored research training awards or opportunities, you must complete the Research Funding Application Approval (RFAA) Trainee PDF form, and submit it, along with a complete copy of the application, to Research Services at rsotrainee@ucalgary.ca. Trainees should not use RMS at this time.

Approvals: The University of Calgary requires that all funding applications be approved prior to submission. Approval requires signatures via either RMS or the RFAA Trainee form, in the following order:

• Principal Investigator
• Department Head
• Faculty ADR/Dean
• Research Services (on behalf of the Vice-President Research)

Read the Meaning of Grant Signatures policy to understand what your approval means. Please see the agency guidelines for details about which signatures are required on your application, as it may differ from internal requirements.

Late submissions: Late submissions will only be accepted in cases of medical or family emergencies, or other exceptional circumstances. If you submit your RMS record to Research Services after the internal deadline has passed, you must secure additional approvals. Please read: Late Applications Process.

Funding Opportunity:

• English
• French

Partner Linkage Tool: *will be updated weekly following the holidays

• English
• French

Survey to submit a partner profile:

• English
• French

CIHR eligible institutions:

• English
• French

FAQ:

• English
• French

Link to webinar recording: https://youtu.be/cs3xXt4RzqY

Contact Information

For all inquiries, please contact:

CIHR Contact Centre
Telephone: 613-954-1968
Toll Free: 1-888-603-4178
Email: support-soutien@cihr-irsc.gc.ca

For service hours, please consult our Contact us page.