ICRH Community Development Program Grants - Sleep and Circadian Rhythms and Venous Thromboembolic Diseases Clinical Trials

The main objective of this funding opportunity is to catalyze the development and enhance the cohesion of two ICRH communities in the following priority research areas: sleep and circadian rhythms and venous thromboembolic diseases clinical trials.

Specific objectives of the Community Development Program

The Community Development Program in the area of sleep/circadian rhythms will:

• generate new knowledge, conducting research across a nationally-linked alliance of researchers and knowledge users;
• bridge gaps between research outcomes and impact on health by
  • accelerating translation of research discoveries into clinical applications, best practices and/or the marketplace;
  • developing, validating and evaluating interventions that change significant aspects of practice;
  • evaluating outcomes of implementation of interventions to demonstrate impact.

The Community Development Program in the area of venous thromboembolic diseases clinical trials will:

• generate new knowledge relevant to clinical trials with a focus on quality of care and effectiveness research;
• enhance the capacity for knowledge transfer to maximize the impact of applied research on clinical practice/care/health outcomes, while integrating models for patient and decision-maker engagement.

To achieve these objectives and to add value to the research enterprise, the Community Development Program will:

• possess world-class capacity to address the identified research problem(s), challenge(s), or opportunity(ies);
• build a critical mass of technical and scientific expertise on a national scale to provide research leadership and enhance impact by bringing together a unified group of investigators and other stakeholders;
• identify key knowledge gaps and promote/create national and international collaborations among researchers and with knowledge users to address those gaps in a coherent fashion;
• integrate research and knowledge translation projects into a coherent program which will generate solutions that will be implemented to produce social and economic benefits for Canadians;
• actively engage patient representatives in research planning and decision making by including a patient on the Executive Committee of the Community Development Program AND on the Steering Committees of each of the clinical trials undertaken by the Program (if applicable);
• promote and facilitate the sharing of ideas, tools, methods, and resources and the dissemination of research outcomes;
• incorporate a significant training, mentoring, and career development mandate to add value to training opportunities already available, through innovative approaches;
• facilitate the development and completion of pilot clinical trials projects leading to reduced delays associated with the eventual submission of potential definitive clinical trials proposals – only applicable to the venous thromboembolic diseases clinical trials CDP.

Essential Characteristics of the Community Development Program:

• National in scope (include investigators from a minimum of six provinces).
• Developed in collaboration with appropriate partners and stakeholders.
• Inclusive, multidisciplinary and multi-thematic (e.g., include expertise from at least 3 of the following 4 CIHR themes: biomedical; clinical; health systems/services; and social/cultural/environmental/population health)
  • For the venous thromboembolic diseases clinical trials CDP: inclusion of basic biomedical researchers as part of this program is strongly encouraged.
• Committed to scientific excellence in the generation of new knowledge and its translation.
• Well positioned to facilitate effective interactions and collaborations between the scientific community and stakeholders (clinicians, decision-makers, industry, patients, and other knowledge-users outside of the academic community).

It is expected that partners will have the opportunity to participate in these Programs’ activities and projects and bring their own expertise, particularly in the area of knowledge exchange and translation. These partnerships are expected to enhance these communities’ capacity to address the problem(s), challenge(s), or opportunity(ies) for which they are generating solutions.