Soutien à la recherche et concours FR/EN - Soutien à des initiatives structurantes sur le vieillissement et la santé des populations / Support for structuring initiatives on Aging and Population Health - 2e Édition

Call for proposals for structuring initiatives - Second Edition 2022-2023

Aging and Population Health: Issues and Perspectives

Introduction

Population health research aims to identify, understand and act on the social determinants of health in order to guide public health interventions and inform public policy with the goal of improving the health of populations. The mission of the QPHRN is to support the development of population health research capacity in Quebec. Interdisciplinary, inter-institutional and intersectoral collaborations, essential to the understanding of contemporary health problems, are favoured.

Aim of the competition

The pandemic crisis and the rise of remote intervention have accelerated and exacerbated inequalities among populations, especially among particularly vulnerable people, including the elderly, who are far from digital culture. Over the past two years, it become clear that care facilities for the elderly have been the first to be neglected by resources, specifically nursing homes and CHSLDs. Thus, several existing issues such as insolation, social inequalities in health and access to care as well as the use of new technologies have been brought to the forefront. 

In this perspective, the goal of this competition is to allow researchers from different sites and sectors in Quebec to develop a structuring research project focused on issues related to aging. These projects may explore ethical issues, new forms of social inequalities in health and/or the use of new technologies in the context of aging. Projects at the intersection of these three topics will be prioritized and may fall within the fields of care, promotion, and prevention of aging. For example, they could focus on the articulation between palliative care and support, the living conditions of the elderly, the quality of the care services, telehealth, the current and post-pandemic situation, and the impact of possible new pandemics on care environments for the elderly and future changes in these environments. Variety of questions arise, including ethical and equity issues, putting forward an ethics of technologies in stage of advances of the new technologies. How does science ethics intervene when it comes to taking into consideration the evidence, generated in an accelerated way, and scientific expertise? How does the care of the elderly bring to light new forms of systemic injustice in our society and reinforce already existing inequalities? How can we highlight the points of tension between the ethics of resource allocation and management measures during the pandemic in an ad hoc manner?

This structuring initiative is at the crossroads of these issues in terms of ethics, equity, inequalities and the use of new technologies. Thus, the QPHRN's Ethics, Social Inequalities in Health and Equity, and ICT and Health axes intend to support three structuring initiatives exploring the issues and perspectives related to healthy aging of populations at the intersection of these three themes. The structuring aspects must be clearly demonstrated in the funding application. The research team must explain the structuring role of the project, for example by bringing together researchers, research teams or knowledge users from different institutions, disciplines or sectors of intervention around the same scientific question. Collaborations between QPHRN axes and other organizations involved will be considered positively.

Eligibility Criteria

  • This competition is open to regular RRSPQ research members. 
  • At the time of funding, the team must not have funds from any other granting agency for this project. 
  • A regular QPHRN research member may submit only one application to the Aging and Population Health: Issues and Perspectives competition as a principal investigator or co-principal investigator.
  • The same researcher may submit several submissions or appear as a co-investigator in several submissions to the current competitions to support structuring initiatives of the QPHRN and its Axes, on other themes. However, in order to provide equitable access to this support to the greatest number of our members, the same researcher (principal investigator or co-investigator) cannot be funded more than once per year. If the same investigator appears in multiple submissions to the network's SI competitions, priority may be given to the submission with the highest score in the evaluation. 
  • The team must commit to submitting a grant application to an external organization (other than the QPHRN) at the end of this financial support and inform the strategic axis leaders.
  • Literature reviews, even systematic ones, cannot constitute eligible projects in this competition. 
  • The same project may be funded only once by the FRQS, the RRSPQ and/or its strategic axes and Training Programs. 

Evaluation Criteria 

The evaluation of proposals will take into account the following elements:

  • Scientific quality: clarity of the problem and objectives; rigor of the methodology; feasibility of the proposal and the timetable for its completion; expected results and spin-offs in terms of future project or impact of the research on society.
  • Relevance in relation to at least one of the preferred research areas of the three QPHRN strategic axes that fund this call, and particularly focused on issues related to aging populations to. intersectionality of Ethics, Social Inequalities of Health and Equity, and digital technologies. 
  • Interdisciplinary, inter-institutional, and intersectoral team collaborations: researchers must have different and complementary expertise.
  • Priority will be given to projects including at least two regular QPHRN research members from two different universities. 
  • Possible high value-added collaborations/partnerships (community partner, key actors in health policy, knowledge users, etc.) Leverage: the ability to attract partners and obtain other sources of funding (e.g., the potential of the project to lead to the submission of a grant application to the research granting agencies).
  • Sustainability plan: a description of the project's prospects for development beyond the year of QPHRN funding.
  • Description of a clear and realistic timeline: the timeline must be spread over one year.

Commitments

  • Researchers who are funded will be required to submit a financial report to demonstrate the use of the allocated funds and a scientific report. 
  • Funded researchers agree to acknowledge the QPHRN's financial participation and to use the QPHRN logo (if possible), including in publications, announcements, and communications. The following wording is suggested: "The research team would like to thank the Ethics, Social Inequalities in Health and Equity and ICT and Health axes of the Quebec Population Health Research Network (QPHRN) for their contributions to the funding of this project." "The research team would like to thank the Ethics, Social Health Inequalities and Equity and ICT and Health axis of the Quebec Population Health Research Network (QPHRN) for their contribution to the financing of this project." 
  • Awardees agree to publish the title and an abstract of their research (in French and English) on the QPHRN website upon announcement of their selection. 
  • Researchers who are funded are expected to attend the Network's annual scientific day and may be asked to present their results at that time. 

Application

Applications must be submitted by email in .doc, .docx, or .pdf format with the subject line " Aging and Population Health: Issues and Perspective”s by 5:00 p.m. on February 15, 2023 to tzvetelina.tzoneva@mcgill.ca.

Download the application form

Evaluation of applications

Applications will be evaluated by a committee established by the Ethics, Social Inequalities of Health and Equity, and ICT and Health axes, and results will be communicated within one month of the project submission deadline, subject to the availability of designated reviewers.

Information

For further information, please contact Tzvetelina Tzoneva, Ethics Axis Coordinator, at tzvetelina.tzoneva@mcgill.ca

 

Submission deadline

February 15th, 2022 - 5pm

Dépôt : tzvetelina.tzoneva@mcgill.ca

Amount

45 000$ (3 fundings of 15 000$ each)

Download the pdf description of the competition

Download the application form

Le RRSPQ fête ses 20 ans !