Funding boost to health research
December 20, 2023
Health researchers at UVic's Faculty of Social Sciences received a funding boost last week from Michael Smith Health Research BC. The Convening & Collaborating (C2) and Reach funding programs are enabling health researchers to foster collaboration, disseminate and implement evidence, and increase the impact of their research — ultimately improving the health of people and communities in BC.
C2 awardee Dr. Catherine Costigan, Department of Psychology, is working to create and share innovative models for language interpreter services and cultural bridging in health care.
“With this award, I will be able to help promote language interpretation and cultural brokering services within health care,” says Catherine. “This will ensure that newcomers’ health care needs are adequately addressed across primary care, urgent care, mental health care and acute care contexts.”
These team-based funding programs mobilize communities for research impact as well as build research talent for BC’s future. The programs support research collaborations and co-development between researchers and the people who will use the research; and also enable health researchers and professionals to develop skills and experience in knowledge translation. This translating of knowledge then plays a crucial role by accelerating the pathway from evidence to impact on policy and practice.
Reach awardee, Dr. Cecilia Benoit (Emerita, Sociology) and her co-researchers, located at the Canadian Institute of Substance Use Research at the University of Victoria, are partnering with Foundry BC and youth across the province to co-develop a knowledge transfer tool to disseminate the “Lower Risk Cannabis Use Guidelines for Youth, By Youth” that were recently developed in partnership with youth in Victoria.
“This new funding will allow us”, says Cecilia, “to continue our collaboration with youth, help to amplify their voices and perspectives on low-risk cannabis use, and ensure that they are well compensated for sharing their living and lived experiences with the research team”.
C2 awards support health researchers and research users to engage in meaningful collaboration to co-create relevant and impactful research for people such as patients, health practitioners and policymakers.
"This C2 funding will allow us to gather a group of researchers, people with lived experience of drug-related brain injuries, and community leaders who support them, and then all together, co-create a list of priorities for future research, as well as producing a community-driven list of recommendations for recognizing and responding to hypoxic brain injury after non-fatal overdose, a critical piece in addressing the opioid crisis in BC,” says Mauricio Garcia-Barrera, Associate Dean Research, Faculty of Social Sciences.
Strong partnerships are integral to helping develop BC’s health research talent and allow us to fund more researchers while helping partners optimize their research dollars to advance their research priorities. Health Research BC thanks the partners that co-funded eight of the 2023 C2 and Reach awards:
- Alzheimer Society of BC
- BC Nurses Union
- Tai Hung Fai Charitable Foundation with Edwin S.H. Leong Centre for Healthy Aging
Learn more about partnerships.
Congratulations to all the funding recipients. See the full list of awardees: