Gender differences in health, access to and use of health care are long-standing concerns for health systems worldwide, and sex and gender inequities continue to persist in Canada's health system, from research to care to outcomes. Women are more likely to die of preventable illnesses and live with chronic illnesses. They are facing significant intersecting health inequities and barriers to accessing timely, quality, appropriate, and coordinated care based on socio-economic status, sexual orientation, gender, racism, culture, age, language, Indigeneity, immigration status, location and/or disability. In addition, public health emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic amplify and exacerbate gender-based barriers and long-standing social disparities and inequities, putting women, girls, and gender-diverse people at a higher risk of poor health outcomes.
Evidence-informed and culturally safe interventions (i.e., programs, services, policies, technologies, devices) that aim to improve access to health care for women, girls, and gender diverse people are critically needed to reduce persistent disparities in health outcomes across Canada. We need to strengthen research and knowledge mobilization with a sex, gender, and intersectional lens to enhance health outcomes, eliminate gaps in access to care, and improve the quality of women's healthcare across Canada.
As a result, the National Women's Health Research Initiative (NWHRI), a joint initiative between CIHR and Women and Gender Equality Canada (WAGE), was announced as part of the 2021 federal budget to advance a coordinated research program that addresses under-researched and high-priority areas of women's health and to ensure new evidence improves women's, girls’, and gender-diverse people's care and health outcomes. The initiative aims to ensure that all people in Canada navigating the health system have access to gender-sensitive, culturally appropriate, trauma-informed, non-stigmatizing, evidence-based, high-quality healthcare across their life course.
The NWHRI is composed of two funding streams: The Pan-Canadian Women’s Health Coalition and the Innovation Fund. The Coalition, comprised of hubs and an overarching Coordinating Centre, aims to maximize the visibility and impact of women's health research and practice in Canada, committing to the principles of equity, diversity, inclusion, and Indigenous Rights.
The overall objective of the Innovation Fund is to support research in areas of women's health that have been chronically underfunded and under-researched. It includes two funding opportunities: 1) Biomedical Discovery Grants, launched earlier in 2023; and 2) Operating Grants to support translational research and implementation science research in women's health. This funding opportunity focuses on the Innovation Fund - Operating Grants.
The specific objectives of this funding opportunity are:
- To strengthen the integration, uptake, deployment and/or scale-up (spread) of evidence-based solutions (i.e., programs, services, policies, diagnostics, therapeutics, technologies, devices) that directly benefit women, girls, and gender diverse people’s health, and that improve their access to and experience within the health care system.
- To foster knowledge mobilization activities throughout the research process to expedite the transfer of knowledge, support improvements, and inform local adaptation, implementation, and adoption of evidence-based solutions for women, girls, and gender diverse people’s health at the community and/or population level.
