Healthy Cities Research Initiative – Planning Grants for Implementing Healthy Urban Policy

• The CIHR Healthy Cities Research Initiative (HCRI) is a major initiative led by the Institute of Population and Public Health (IPPH) in collaboration with the Institute of Aging (IA), Institute of Gender and Health (IGH), Institute of Health Services and Policy Research (IHSPR), Institute of Indigenous Peoples’ Health (IIPH), Institute of Musculoskeletal Health and Arthritis (IMHA), and Institute of Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes (INMD). HCRI is designed to deepen Canada’s scientific leadership in planning, designing and building healthy cities. Achieving the goal of leadership in the science of healthy cities requires partnership across many sectors and all levels of government.
• The Planning Grants for Implementing Healthy Urban Policy supports collaboration between city leaders and researchers and co-development of activities related to implementing and evaluating interventions in urban settings that would improve health and wellbeing. The goal of this funding opportunity is to facilitate the design of implementation research projects that could possibly be funded in the future through CIHR’s Project Grant Program, CIHR’s Healthy Cities Research Initiative, or opportunities from other funders.
• This opportunity is composed of two parts: a five-day immersive workshop in a leading healthy city, and a post-workshop planning and knowledge mobilization activity/event.
• To support the research planning process, teams composed of four city/community leaders and one researcher will be required to participate in a five-day workshop organized by 880 Cities. The theme for this workshop is active transportation AND public space. The workshop will take place in Fall 2024 in Copenhagen, a world leader in this area. Teams will benefit from examining how this model city has designed, implemented and evaluated its active transportation and public space interventions and will draw on these learnings to develop action plans and intervention research ideas for their own Canadian cities. The required workshop will explore the connection between improved health outcomes and well-designed, maintained and programmed parks, streets, bike lanes, schoolyards, plazas and other public spaces, and will emphasize opportunities for using data and research to continually monitor and improve infrastructure to meet the needs of people of all ages, abilities and socioeconomic backgrounds.
• NOTE: this workshop will be conducted in English only. Following the workshop, teams will host a planning and knowledge mobilization activity/event in their own community.
• In addition to the Objectives outlined above, the specific objectives of this pool are to:
  • Empower and support communities and researchers to collaboratively adapt, implement and evaluate healthy cities interventions with the ultimate goals of maximizing the success, long-term sustainability, health and equity-promoting potential of interventions; and
  • Build capacity among knowledge users and implementers to continually monitor and improve urban environments to meet the needs of people of all ages, abilities, cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds.

Funds Available

• The maximum amount per grant is $68,065 per year for up to one (1) year. Of this $68,065:
  • $43,065 is designated to cover registration and travel costs of participation in the five-day workshop; and
  • Up to $25,000 is for the planning and knowledge mobilization activities.