1. 2017 Health Professional-Investigator (HP-I) Program
Valerie To | Director, Research Competitions

2. Info-Session Agenda Purpose of the Program Program Objectives
Eligibility Requirements
Partnerships
Host Institution Responsibilities
Award Amount and Duration
Reporting Requirements
Key Competition Dates
How to Apply
Application Process Flow
Evaluation Criteria
Contact Information
Thank you for taking the time to participate in the webinar. The HP-I program is one of our new programs which culminated from a series of consultations that MSFHR had with the research community. It is a program that we are very excited about. I will take you briefly through the purpose and objectives of the program, followed by the eligibility criteria, talk about the award amount and duration and the application flow in the grants management system and the evaluation criteria.

3. HP-I vs. Scholar Awards How are they different?
Which one is right for me?
Val – at this point we need to zoom into the diagram and then explain the difference between the two programs.
This diagram demonstrates the difference between the Scholar and the HP-I programs. The Scholar is a research-focused program where as the HP-I program supports HPs who work in the BC health system and are looking to enhance their research skills. The scholar has an established research track record whereas the HP has some demonstration of research in their career. For scholars the expectation is that they will commit to a 75% protected time whereas we expect the HP-I to commit to a minimum of 50% or 20 hours per week to research activities. The scholars have to be within 5 years from their first university appointment whereas there is no time restriction for the HP-I. There is a single set of evaluation criteria for the Scholars (at this point, Val – you will need to explain that it is possible that some HPs will be eligible to apply to the Scholar program because in spite of being a HP and having a license to practice in BC, they are fully engaged in research activities i.e % of their time and have very little clinical service duties). These HPs will be evaluated against the same criteria for scholars). However in the HP-I program the evaluation criteria is specific to HPs.)

4. Purpose of HP-I Program
Narrow the gap between health research and its implementation by supporting health professionals to conduct and apply research relevant to health and/or the health system.
Provide health professionals the opportunity to link their practical knowledge of patient care and health service delivery to a research project, and to develop their capacity to contribute significantly to their field.
The purpose of the HP – I program is to narrow the gap between health research and its uptake by supporting HPs who have the practical knowledge of patient care and health service delivery and can now link the two to develop a research project that will contribute significantly to their field of expertise;.

5. Program Objectives
HP-I provides health professionals who are actively involved in patient care or public health practice the opportunity to address significant research questions that will directly impact patient health and/or the health system in BC by:
Providing funding support for health professionals to conduct research.
Contributing to the development of the research careers of health professionals.
The objective of the program is to give those HPs who are actively engaged in patient care or public health practice to develop research questions that will have a direct impact on patient health and or the health system. We do this by giving the HPs the funding support to conduct research and develop their research careers.

6. Eligibility Requirements
All applicants must:
Be a member of a regulated health profession.
Hold a bachelor’s degree or higher.
Be engaged in active clinical service as defined by their professional scope of practice.
Be actively involved in patient care or public health practice in BC.
Have a level of research training and/or experience appropriate for the proposed research project.
The applicant must be a member of the regulated health professions – we have provided the link in the guidelines to the BC Professions Act. Must have a bachelor’s degree or higher. They must be engaged in active clinical service as defined within the scope of practice of their health profession. This is very important and I will explain in the next slide what is meant by scope of practice. They must be actively involved in patient care or public health practice and have had some exposure to research activities and training that is approporate for the research project they have developed for the application.

7. Scope of Practice
Definition of scope of practice depends on the health profession and includes activities that are related to patient care and/or health service delivery within the public health system:
Administrative and management duties
Clinical teaching
Development of guidelines
Education
Research
Consultations
Each health profession has a defined scope of activities or practice that the HP engages in to maintain licensure. These activities can be direct clinical care with patients as well as include other activities such as (Val – go down the list). The example here that I would like to give is that of a registered nurse who is registered and has the license to practice in BC but is not actively engaging with patients on a day to day basis. Instead the registered nurse supervises a team of nurses who work with patients and this RN is responsible to take the learnings and develop guidelines, apply the learnings to develop a research questionws, give consultations, etc. This RN would be eligible to apply to the HP – I program.

8. Eligibility Requirements Cont’d.
Hold an appointment at, or have a commitment for an appointment from a BC host institution with a MOU with MSFHR.
Must commit to spending at least 50% of their time conducting research.
Be a Canadian citizen, permanent resident or foreign national.
Not have already submitted an application for the 2017 MSFHR Scholar Award competition.
The appointment that we are referring to here is one that will allow the HP-I to conduct research within the scope of practice as defined by their health professional and host organization, be able to apply for and hold peer reviewed funds as a PI and be able to publish their results. Must commit to spending at least 50% or a minimum of 20 hours per week. We stipulate the minimum 20 hours per week because through the consultation process we are aware that most HPs do no work a typical 40 hour week – we have been told that some HPs work hours per week therefore we would not expect that these HPs would be able to commit to a 50% protected time. Therefore we say the minimum 20 hours per week..

9. Partnerships
There are two ways for applicants to be considered for partnered awards:
for instructions on how to register your interest for a partnered award and how your research relates to partner areas of interest.
MSFHR uses keywords provided by the partners to identify applications that may be relevant to and align with the partners’ area of interest.
MSFHR partners with other funders with a health focus to build capacity and fill strategic gaps in health research in BC. Partnered awards offer researchers the opportunity to develop relationships with the partners and their community of stakeholders such as patients and the public. We will list the names of partners as they come aboard on the Partnership page on MSFHR website as well as our Research Competitions staff will contact the ORS departments at the host institutions to inform them of the partners. Applicants can go to the partnership page and if they find a partner whose mandate matches the research project, they can send an to for instructions on how to register their interest. If the partners come on board after the Full Application deadline, then MSFHR will match the keywords of the partners with those of the applications and if a match is found, will inform the respective applicants. Please note that the partners have the final say on the application they wish to support. Partnerships save the Foundation money which goes towards funding another HP-I.

10. Host Institution Responsibilities
Provide an appointment that allows the award recipient to engage in independent research – must be in place by the start date & for the duration of award.
Use MSFHR funds to support one or more of the following:
Salary and benefits of the award recipient.
Protected time for a minimum of 0.5 FTE dedicated to the award recipient’s health research activities.
Stipends and/or salaries of students, residents, post-doctoral fellows, RA’s, research technicians and statisticians working directly with the award recipient on the proposed research project.
If the HP already has their time for research protected by their host institution, then they can use the MSFHR award funds to pay for the salaries of postdoctoral trainees, research assistants, etc. who are directly working with them on the proposed research project.

11. Award Amount and Duration
The budget envelope for this funding opportunity is $4,500,000 – enough to fund at least 10 award recipients over the maximum five-year term of the award
An initial $90,000 per year
3 Years
Option to renew for 2 years at $90,000 per year*
*Award renewal is contingent upon successful review of a renewal application by an external review panel.

12. Reporting Requirements
Submit progress reports and provide updated CCVs to MSFHR on an annual basis.
Renewal application form will be available three months prior to the end of the third year of the award. Requirement include:
Detailed research progress report for years 1-3
Updated CCV and research plan for years 4-5
Summary of future research directions beyond this timeline
Renewal applications will be evaluated by an external review panel. Approved applications will be eligible for 2 years of additional funding.

13. Key Competition Dates Action Target Date Competition Launch
November 1, 2016
Letter of Intent (LOI) Deadline
December 2, 2016
Anticipated Notice of LOI Decision
December 19, 2016
Full Application Deadline
February 3, 2017
Anticipated Notice of Funding Decision
Week of May 8, 2017
Anticipated Start of Funding
June 1, 2017

14. How to Apply Create an account in MSFHR ApplyNet
If you have an existing MSFHR ApplyNet login and password and have forgotten the information, DO NOT LAUNCH A NEW ACCOUNT
Call MSFHR Help Desk at or
Application is composed of two stages that are completed using ApplyNet:
*Host institutions typically have their own internal deadlines that are earlier than that of MSFHR’s. Please check with the Office of Research Services, or equivalent, at your host institution for more information
Complete Eligibility Quiz and submit LOI form
Complete full application*

15. Application Process Flow

16. Evaluation Criteria Track Record CCV – MSFHR Abbreviated Version
Three reference letters
Research Proposal
Main hypothesis
Your role
KT activities
Target audience and outcome
Research Environment & Support
Dept. Head & Dean Forms
Clear commitment by Host Institution

17. Contact Information
Questions regarding the application and submission process
Rashmita Salvi
Manager, Research Competitions
Zach Tanner
Coordinator, Research Competitions
Questions regarding the MSFHR ApplyNet system
MSFHR Help Desk