Notice of Upcoming Funding Opportunity: Summer 2024 ICS Planning and Dissemination Grants: Planning Grants for Implementing Healthy Urban Policy

Introduction

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) is pleased to announce the upcoming launch of the Summer 2024 ICS Planning and Dissemination Grants which include the following funding pool sponsored by the Healthy Cities Research Initiative.

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.

Overview

This opportunity is composed of two parts: a five-day immersive workshop in Helsinki, 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 8 80 Cities. The theme for this workshop is healthy urban policy implementation. The workshop will take place in Spring 2025 in Helsinki. Teams will benefit from examining how the model city has designed, implemented, and evaluated healthy urban policies such as housing and sustainable growth, healthy and active public spaces for all seasons, and planning the equitable city for all ages 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 infrastructures and interventions, and will emphasize opportunities for using data and research.

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.

The specific objectives of this Sponsorship 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.

Specific Requirements:

• An application must include a team of five (5) people, including the Nominated Principal Applicant (NPA). No other participants may be included. Within the five-person team there must be:
  • One population and public health researcher with an active research program in population and public health;
  • One senior elected official with decision-making authority (i.e., Mayor, Deputy Mayor or Councillor) or Indigenous leader with decision-making authority;
  • One Medical Officer of Health or designated senior health policy officer; and
  • Two of the following:
    • Chief city planning or senior planning staff;
    • Director- or manager-level staff working on built environment and health;
    • Director- or manager-level staff working in a sector relevant to support the implementation of the chosen healthy urban policy; or
    • Director- or manager-level staff working on recreation and public space.
    • Senior-level staff working at a community-based organization (e.g., community health centres, community-based primary healthcare practices, Indigenous representative organizations, etc.)
• A Letter of support from the Mayor, Deputy Mayor or Councillor committing support for participation in the workshop and subsequent planning and knowledge mobilization activities. If applicants are unable to obtain this letter of support before the application deadline, they must submit it by email entitled "Letter of Support: Implementing Healthy Urban Policy" to support-soutien@cihr-irsc.gc.ca no later than 8:00 p.m. (EST) on September 5, 2024. 
• A Participant Table. In table format, list all participants with their affiliations, region, their role on the application (NPA, Co-Applicant), the partner group they are representing (include everyone required by eligibility), and a short description of the expertise (and products, if applicable) each brings to the proposal.
• Knowledge users and trainees are not eligible to apply as the NPA or researcher;
• Researchers on previously funded Planning Grants for Implementing Healthy Urban Policy teams that attended the in-person workshop in Copenhagen in 2023 or 2024 are not eligible to apply as an NPA or researcher for this competition;
• Participation of the full team in the five-day workshop in Spring 2025 is required.

Webinar

CIHR will be hosting a webinar to inform participants about the requirements of this upcoming funding opportunity and to answer questions. To find out more information and to register, visit the Webinars page.

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.

Anticipated Timelines

Launch: June 11, 2024
Application Deadline: August 7, 2024
Funding Start Date: November 1, 2024

The official CIHR funding opportunity will be posted on ResearchNet in the coming weeks.

For a full list of CIHR funding opportunities, please visit ResearchNet.

Contact Information

For general inquiries please contact:

CIHR Contact Centre
Telephone: 613-954-1968 
Toll Free: 1-888-603-4178
Email: support-soutien@cihr-irsc.gc.ca

Date modified:

2024-06-07