Health Professional-Investigator (HP-I) Program

The Michael Smith Health Research BC Health Professional-Investigator Program helps close the gap between health research and its implementation. HP-I awards support health professionals who are actively involved in patient care to conduct and apply research relevant to health and/or the health system to ultimately improve health outcomes in BC and beyond.

Our Health-Professional Investigator (HP-I) program will pause for the 2023 competition cycle.

As BC’s health research agency, we are committed to continuous improvement by soliciting and listening to feedback to better support current and future needs of the provincial health research system in a rapidly changing and evolving environment. This pause will allow us to conduct a thorough review of six years of competition data to re-evaluate the program, develop improvements, and ensure it best meets the needs of BC’s health research community and the health system. This includes considerations around patient partner engagement, equity, diversity and inclusion, and Indigenous reconciliation and self-determination.

We remain committed to funding health professional-investigators. The revised HP-I program is expected to return for the 2024 competition cycle. The pause does not impact funding to current HP-I award holders. The 2022 HP-I competition is proceeding as scheduled and the anticipated notice of funding decisions will be announced early spring 2023.

As we continue to support the health research community, our ongoing work includes: supporting research talent recovery from the pandemic – through our research continuity fund, now in its third year; increasing support for Indigenous health research career development – as we work with Indigenous partners to explore opportunities to fund and support Indigenous-led research initiatives; and maximizing partnership opportunities to support research funding.

We are committed to rigorous, ongoing evaluation of all our competitions and measuring the impact of our funding programs. We remain dedicated to building health research talent for BC’s future because attracting, retaining, training and growing a diverse health research workforce is critical for better health and health care and a stronger economy.
Please reach out to the helpdesk at helpdesk@healthresearch.bc.ca should you have any questions.