2023 CIHR Health System Impact Fellowship: Competition now open

We are also pleased to announce our co-funded 2022 awardees.

Michael Smith Health Research BC is a proud partner of the CIHR Institute of Health Services and Policy Research Health System Impact Fellowship (HSIF) program. This program provides doctoral and postdoctoral researchers an experiential learning opportunity within health system organizations, where they can advance impact goals and contribute to improved health system performance. Applications are now open for the 2023 competition PhD and Postdoctoral Fellow (PDF) streams.

The program aims to enhance understanding and communication between health researchers and health system decision-makers to promote the uptake of evidence-informed policy and reinforce the importance of policy-relevant research.

2023 competition key dates

• Information webinar for applicants (must pre-register): December 21, 2022, 9 a.m. PT
• Application deadline: March 2, 2023
• Anticipated notice of decision: August 2, 2023
• Funding start date: September 1, 2023

Learn more about the 2023 Health System Impact (HSIF) Fellowship.

Congratulations to the 2022 award recipients

This year Michael Smith Health Research BC is pleased to partner with CIHR to co-fund eight of 11 fellows in BC, supporting the development of BC’s health policy talent while addressing pressing policy issues in our province.

Support from Health Research BC enables the 2022 HSIF recipients to investigate diverse research areas including: connecting policy making, health care delivery, and population research to address early years health inequities in BC; developing a risk index for multimorbidity surveillance in BC; and, implementing a restorative approach in long-term care to heal and learn from the harms of COVID-19.

One fellow is Kalli Hood, a PhD student in civil engineering who also has a background in epidemiology and public health. Kalli is interested in strategies to provide access to safe drinking water and her research aims to evaluate potential sources of lead exposure in drinking water and its broader health impacts alongside the BC Ministry of Health.

One example of many outcomes from the fellowship is from 2019 fellow Dr. Shelley Cook. Her research has helped reinforce a cultural shift within Community Living British Columbia (CLBC) – the provincial crown corporation that funds supports and services to adults with developmental disabilities – toward broad and long-lasting changes that will better serve people with Intellectual and/or Developmental Disability (IDD) and Multiple, Complex Needs (MCN).

A report of key findings and recommendations related to the health and service delivery needs of people living with IDD and MCN will help inform future policies and practices. Stemming from the research and recommendations, CLBC will establish a data innovations project to help the organization better understand integrated and coordinated care across health systems for people with IDD/MCN.

As BC’s health research agency, Michael Smith Health Research BC is committed to building research talent for BC’s future. Partnering with CIHR allows us to support more BC-based fellows through partnership, reduce duplication in the system, and build capacity for the integration of policy research into decision-making. These researchers are part of a national cohort of 43 individuals based throughout Canada.

Learn more about Health Research BC partnership opportunities.

Subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

—-

The 2022 Health System Impact Fellowship program is an investment of over $4.7M, which provides talented PhD trainees and postdoctoral researchers a unique opportunity to work directly within health organizations to tackle real-world health system challenges. Funding for these recipients is provided by the Canadian Institute of Health Research, Fonds de recherche du Québec – Santé, Michael Smith Health Research BC, Mitacs, the Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation, and 30 health organizations across Canada.