Funding, News and Announcements

CIHR has launched the Health Research Training Platform (HRTP) Pilot Funding Opportunity.

With the HRTP Pilot, CIHR will support the development of research leaders of tomorrow by equipping trainees and early career researchers (ECRs) with the experiences and skills needed to lead high-impact, interdisciplinary health research careers in a rapidly evolving research landscape.

Key messages:

• The Health Research Training Platform (HRTP) Pilot funding opportunity will fill a gap in the career development opportunities available to trainees and ECRs. Through the HRTP Pilot, trainees and ECRs will have access to interdisciplinary, inter-jurisdictional, and intersectoral training environments (i.e., “platforms”) where they will benefit from high-caliber mentors and gain the skills required for academic and non-academic careers. At the same time, the researchers serving as mentors will have an opportunity to access up to $2.4M over six years to advance their fields of research by training and mentoring the next generation of researchers in their field.
• Through this pilot competition, funds will be available to establish up to 12 platforms focused on specific fields of research (e.g., drug safety and effectiveness, digital health solutions for seniors), to be led by a Nominated Principal Applicant (NPA). These NPAs and their teams will, in turn, take on trainees and ECRs as mentees and, over the course of six years, provide them with an extensive training program that covers academic skills and beyond, to encompass science communication, knowledge mobilization, grant writing, project management, etc.
• Through the funded platforms, trainees and ECRs will receive comprehensive training from academic, non-academic, and knowledge-user mentors from a variety of disciplines, ultimately providing trainees with a broad-based foundation that can serve as a springboard to independent careers within and outside of academia.
• In addition to providing training for ECRs, this pilot competition will generate opportunities for ECRs to be active participants in the development of training platforms (i.e., by requiring at least one ECR applicant and at least two ECR mentors per platform).
• CIHR will take stock of lessons learned from the HRTP Pilot funding opportunity to continue to improve its career development and training support offerings to the health research community – including how best to support NPAs in the crucial role they serve as mentors to the next generation of health researchers. Future iterations of this competition are not confirmed at this time.
• Potential applicants are encouraged to read the full funding opportunity to learn more about the HRTP Pilot funding opportunity and to attend the upcoming applicant webinar. The webinar date and time will be shared with the research community in the near future.

Deadlines

Internal
Application: June 8, 2021 at 4:30pm

Funder
Registration: April 21, 2021 at 9pm AST
Application: June 22, 2021 at 9pm AST