CIHR-IMHA Inclusive Research Excellence Prizes

Aboriginal Peoples

Social Justice

Well-being, Health and Biomedical Discovery

Deadlines

Academic Unit: Inquire with unit

Memorial Deadline: Friday 14th, February 2025

External Deadline: Wednesday 19th, February 2025

Description

The CIHR-IMHA Inclusive Research Excellence prizes are designed to recognize completed research projects under the broad IMHA mandate areas that have demonstrated a strong commitment to one of  six (6) cross-cutting concepts covered under research domains / pools. Please note that some pools focus on approaches/methods/impacts rather than a specific research area, and therefore, may receive applications conducting projects from a variety of areas falling under the broad IMHA mandate areas.

CIHR’s Strategic Plan 2021-31 Priority A, Strategy 1 is to champion a more inclusive concept of research excellence. There is a growing recognition that rewarding traditional notions of research excellence can bias research assessment and the types of research projects funded, thereby acting as a barrier to maximal impact. A renewed concept of research excellence prioritizes transparent and collaborative science, values equity, diversity, and inclusion, and recognizes fundamental knowledge creation, knowledge mobilization, multiple ways of knowing, and non-traditional research methodologies. It also recognizes patients (or people with lived experience), the public, providers, decision-makers, and other users of research outputs as active collaborators throughout the entire research process. As CIHR embarks on this commitment to champion a new concept of research excellence and develops a guiding framework, CIHR-IMHA will contribute by awarding Inclusive Research Excellence prizes, which will be used as one input to guide this important work by celebrating completed research projects that have incorporated one of these cross-cutting methodologies.

Our Strategic Plan priority area 3, Nurture Leaders, recognizes that power and privilege have informed leadership in many organizations and communities. Therefore, to support CIHR Strategic Plan Priority B, Strengthen Canadian Health Research Capacity, CIHR-IMHA will work with partners to foster leadership that is equitable, diverse and inclusive and that supports Indigenous self-determination in research. The CIHR-IMHA Inclusive Research Excellence prizes will showcase diverse Canadian leadership and talent across IMHA mandate areas and are one input to CIHR-IMHA’s commitment to invest in early- and mid-career researchers.

Research Domains / Pools

Prizes will be awarded for completed research projects in the following six pools:

1. Indigenous Health Research Prizes: Indigenous Health Research is defined as any field or discipline related to health and/or wellness that is conducted by, grounded in, or engaged with, First Nations, Inuit or Métis communities, societies or individuals and their wisdom, cultures, experiences, or knowledge systems, as expressed in their dynamic forms, past and present. Prizes in this pool will be awarded for completed research projects aligned with the TCPS 2-Chapter 9: Research Involving the First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Peoples of Canada, that exemplify the guiding principles of Indigenous Health Research: Indigenous-focused; inclusive of, or grounded in, Indigenous knowledge; inclusive of, or led by, Indigenous communities as decision-makers/partners.
2. Open Science Prizes: CIHR’s Strategic Plan 2021-2031 Priority A, Strategy 3 is to promote open science. Open science refers to various approaches to make scientific knowledge more accessible and reusable for the benefit of science and society. In line with a 2021 UNESCO Recommendations on Open Science report, prizes in this pool will help foster a culture of open science and align incentives with open science. Prizes will be awarded for completed research projects that contributed to open science as a discipline and/or exemplified the use of open science resources and approaches to further knowledge, increase research rigour and robustness, enhance collaboration with partners outside of academia, and disseminate research to achieve greater impact. (See Additional Information for more information on open science)
3. Research Impact Prizes: As a signatory to the Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), CIHR is committed to excellence in research funding and to ensuring that a wide range of research results are valued as part of the review process. Aligning with DORA’s recommendations is one of the ways that CIHR is advancing a more inclusive concept of research excellence. Prizes in this pool will be awarded for completed research projects that exemplified research that informed decision-making, had a health impact, and/or produced economic and/or social impacts. These impact categories were recommended within the 2009 Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (CAHS) report on health research impacts.
4. Team Science Prizes: As noted by a 2017 CAHS report on the Academic Recognition of Team Science, successful health science research relies on collaboration among experts across disciplines, institutions, or countries, all working together. To address multiple barriers (such as concerns about individual career advancement), an expert panel convened by CAHS called for research funders to promote a more inclusive understanding and recognition of team science. Prizes in this pool will be awarded for completed research projects where the team composition and environment were integral to the research and had a demonstrable impact on end users.
5. Patient Engagement Prizes: Patient engagement in research involves meaningful and active collaboration in governance, priority setting, conducting research and knowledge translation. Depending on the context, patient engagement may also engage people who bring the collective voice of specific, affected communities. Prizes in this pool will be awarded for completed research projects that exemplified the Strategy for Patient-Oriented Research Patient Engagement Framework‘s four guiding principles: inclusiveness, support, mutual respect and co-build with respect to working with patient partners.
6. Implementation Science Prizes: Implementation Science is the scientific study of the methods and strategies used to implement evidence-informed interventions into routine health care in clinical, organizational, or policy contexts. CIHR-IMHA’s Strategic Plan 2021-26 Priority area 4 Scale Up for Impact recognizes the need to fund implementation science research to evaluate scaled-up health service programs in real-world settings. Prizes in this pool will be awarded for completed research projects that advanced the evidence base on how to implement, evaluate, adapt, and spread (share) evidence-informed interventions or care policies. This may have been done across different regions, conditions, populations or contexts.

See ResearchNet for more information.

Funding Sources

Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR)