Existing since March of 2001, Brain Star is a program of CIHR’s Institute of Neurosciences Mental Health and Addiction (CIHR-INMHA). Brain Star is administered under the Institute Community Support Grants and Awards program and is designed to recognize the excellence of research done in Canada by students and trainees in all fields and disciplines covered by CIHR-INMHA.

The specific objectives of the Brain Star program are to:

• Promote research careers in neuroscience, mental health and addiction in Canada.
• Stimulate the involvement of students and trainees in the Institute and increase awareness of INMHA activities among students and trainees.

There are significant barriers for clinical psychiatrists to develop academic research programs. These include the extensive medical training required by the clinical specialty, and the relative lack of available clinical psychiatrists given the increasing demands for mental health services across Canada. This leads to a significant underrepresentation of clinical psychiatrists among academic mental health researchers, with a corresponding loss of the unique patient-oriented perspective they bring. Women clinical psychiatrists are at an even greater disadvantage than men in this context, given the additional societal and family pressures that may contribute to further reducing the amount of time they have available to devote to pursuing academic research.

A recent study of gender inequity for academic psychiatrists in Canada (1) found that women had fewer research publications than men, with a lower mean h-index. This disparity was particularly pronounced for junior faculty, where women psychiatrists made up almost half the assistant professors, compared to only a third at the associate professor level, and less than a quarter at the full professor level. These findings support the results of an earlier study of gender differences in academic psychiatry in Ontario (2) that found that women were less involved in research, less likely to hold pharmaceutical funding and less likely to have published within the last five years than men. Women described their careers as less successful than men but felt less regret in choosing psychiatry as a career.

In order to improve the equity of women in academic psychiatry, this career development award has been created in partnership with the Canadian Psychiatric Association (CPA). The CPA is the national voluntary professional association for Canada’s 4,700 psychiatrists and 900 residents. As the national voice of Canada’s psychiatrists, the mission of the CPA is to promote the highest quality of care and treatment for persons with mental illness, and to advocate for the professional needs of its members by promoting excellence in education, research and clinical practice.

•  If you are interested in applying for this award, please contact Dr. Batia Stolar, Associate Vice-President, Research & Graduate Studies, at avp.research@lakeheadu.ca

The EU Joint Programme – Neurodegenerative Disease Research (JPND) has launched a multinational rapid-action call for expert Working Groups addressing the impact of COVID-19 on Neurodegenerative Diseases research.

JPND launched a call for leading scientists in the field to establish community-led Working Groups dedicated to discuss research strategies that concern the impact of COVID-19 on the development and progression of neurodegenerative disease as well as on the care of patients suffering from neurodegenerative diseases. These strategies can also consider the impact of COVID-19 on neurodegenerative disease research itself, how it is conducted and how it influenced technological innovations for neurodegenerative diseases.

This call will not fund direct research activities. Instead, Working Groups will be funded for up to 9 months with 50.000€ each to cover their expenses (e.g. meetings and travel costs). They must provide outputs of value to the broader research community, e.g. best-practice guidelines, methodological frameworks or foresight publications.

CIHR Institute of Aging will support one Working Group relevant to any area of the call and the Public Health Agency of Canada will support one Working Group on methods and sources of data to enable or improve the surveillance of the impacts of COVID-19 as they relate to the development or progression of neurodegenerative diseases.

This will be a one-step call, submission deadline is December 14, 2021.

Please contact Jill Sherman, International Research Faciliator, if this opportunity is of interest at intl.research@lakeheadu.ca

Program objectives

Projects for regular grants (up to $25,000) must meet at least 1 of the following program objectives:

• promoting volunteerism among seniors and other generations
• engaging seniors in the community through the mentoring of others
• expanding awareness of elder abuse, including financial abuse
• supporting the social participation and inclusion of seniors
• providing capital assistance for new and existing community projects and programs for seniors

If your proposed project is requesting capital assistance, you must choose 2 program objectives.

Under this call, it is mentioned in the guidelines that permission is required from the relevant Provincial Governments before applying to this program.  However, permission is not required for Ontario Region, therefore Lakehead may apply as it normally would.

As well, under this call, a postsecondary institution may submit more than application if the project activities are distinct from each other.

This call for proposals is a joint endeavour between the National Research Council of Canada's (NRC) Aging in Place Challenge program and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research - Institute of Aging (CIHR-IA). The focus of this call is to seek technological solutions to assist older adults with mental health conditions and/or those who experience social isolation so they can live well in the community. For the purpose of this call, technological solutions are defined as devices or interventions that are enabled or enhanced by technology. This call is open to development of novel technologies, or research investigating novel application of existing technologies.

Crohn’s and Colitis Canada is delighted to announce the launch of its 2022 Grants-in-Aid of Research (GIA) Competition. The GIA program supports research projects directly related to IBD that are aligned with Crohn’s and Colitis Canada’s Promise and strategic directions. Funding is limited to a maximum of $125,000 per year, for up to three years, contingent upon available funds.