2024 Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Health System Impact Fellowship

Eligibility

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

For an application to be eligible, all the requirements stated below must be met:

1. The Nominated Principal Applicant (NPA) must be one of the following:
   1. 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, the NPA 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 applicant falls within the special case exception – see FAQ document [ PDF (418 KB) ] for definition of current or past employee).
4. A health system supervisor from the host health system organization** who is a health system leader (an executive-level decision maker – i.e., an individual who makes decisions about, or influences, health policies/programs/practices and who is able to make use of the research to inform decision-making) within the organization (and who is a different individual than the academic supervisor – see below) that has committed to hosting the NPA for embedded research opportunity must be identified as the Primary Supervisor.
   1. By committing to hosting a fellow, the health system supervisor:
      1. Confirms their organization will contribute the 30% partnership funding towards the award
      2. Confirms their organization has a mechanism to pay the 30% funding to the awardee (either via transfer agreement to the awardee's academic institution or direct payment to the awardee)
      3. Confirms their commitment to supervising and mentoring the awardee for the duration of the fellowship (see Review Criteria and How to Apply for details)
   Note: While universities and research institutes (i.e., organizations whose primary mandate is to conduct or fund research) may play an important role in the HSI program, they are not eligible health system 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 B: the academic supervisor must secure the NPA with post-doctoral status at the university by the start date of the award.
6. For applications involving, but not necessarily focused upon, First Nations, Inuit and/or Métis Peoples, 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 (see How to Apply for more details) 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
   NOTE: Applicants are responsible for determining whether this eligibility criterion applies to their application. Not attaching this document when required will result in your application being withdrawn.
7. For awards held within host partner organizations located in Canada, the NPA may be a Canadian citizen, permanent resident, Protected Person under subsection 95(2) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (Canada), 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, or a Protected Person under subsection 95(2) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (Canada). In all scenarios, the NPA 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: An applicant 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) in the same year (see Conditions of Funding, holding other awards, below).
9. The NPA must complete one of CIHR's three interactive modules on sex and gender in research and include the Certificate of Completion with their HSI Fellowship application (see How to Apply 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, health services/systems research, health economics, health policy, population health, Indigenous Peoples' health, artificial intelligence, public health, epidemiology, gerontology, data science, etc. See How to Apply for more information.

**A health system or 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 organization is defined as an organization that contributes to: direct service delivery; mandated quality monitoring; the development of policies 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. Eligible international health system host partner organizations must be multinational in scope, include Canada as a country in its multinational partnership/membership, and offer a health services and policy research-relevant project to prospective applicants that is applicable to the Canadian context with potential to generate learnings for Canada.

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 system 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 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 with at least 60% of their time focused on an impact-oriented embedded research 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 with at least 70% of their time focused on their impact-oriented embedded research 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 / Health System Impact Training Platform** and National Cohort Retreat.

*Flexibility in the time commitment will enable awardees to make meaningful contributions to a health system organization's impact goal, become immersed in the culture and operations of the organization, and benefit from mentorship by heath system 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.

Application deadlines

RSO detailed review deadline

RSO final internal review deadline

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.

How to Apply

• The application process for this funding opportunity is comprised of one step: Full Application
• All documents must be uploaded as unprotected PDF documents and not exceed 30 MB.
• Any other information that exceeds the character limits, or is not required, will be removed from the application prior to peer review.
• As this is a unique funding opportunity, only some of the components of the general Fellowship Awards – Application Instructions will apply. Specific instructions stating what is required are found below.
• All participants listed, with the exception of Sponsors, are required to:
  • Have/obtain a CIHR PIN.
  • Complete the Self-identification Questionnaire.
• Reminder to applicants: Please ensure that your application is complete (includes all required signatures) and is submitted on time to CIHR.
  • CIHR cannot legally accept an application until the "Consent and Submit" task is completed on ResearchNet.
  • In order to ensure fairness in the evaluation of applications, CIHR will not accept updates to applications after the application submission.
• Note: When completing the application, applicants must protect the privacy and confidentiality of all potential team members, staff, collaborators, etc. How an individual self-identifies is personal and confidential information, which must not be disclosed.

Specific instructions to complete the ResearchNet application can be found on the Health System Impact Fellowship webpage.