Team Grant : Pan-Canadian Network : Emerging LHS in Perinatal Mental Health

Team Grant : Pan-Canadian Network : Emerging LHS in Perinatal Mental Health

(Pan-Canadian Network : Emerging Learning Health System in Perinatal Mental Health)

Sponsor(s)

The Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction

The content of this funding opportunity has been updated

Date updated :

Section(s) updated : Important Dates

Tri-Agency CV

This funding opportunity uses the tri‑agency CV . This narrative‑style CV is more flexible and allows applicants to best highlight their wide range of outputs and expertise. The tri‑agency CV allows applicants to capture relevant information, describe their career trajectories in more detail, provide indicators of quality and impact, and provide context to their contributions in a narrative format to help peer reviewers assess their track record. More information on the new CV is available on the tri‑agency CV – frequently asked questions page.

As we gradually transition to the tri‑agency CV, the system may continue to display references to the CCV. Please note that all participants must follow the tri‑agency CV instructions as specified in the Funding Opportunity and complete and attach the tri‑agency CV. (Updated : )

For details on using the tri‑agency CV on this funding opportunity, see the How to Apply section.

This funding opportunity will support the development of a learning health system (LHS) network in perinatal mental health. The LHS approach integrates research, data, and knowledge for continuous improvement in care to help ensure that the most effective treatments are consistently updated and implemented equitably across Canada. This approach would also enable the rapid translation of research findings into clinical and care practice, providing a mechanism for evaluating program impacts and improving equitable service delivery. Furthermore, this approach would ensure continuous improvement in efficiency and effectiveness of the processes of the LHS. The network is expected to develop an LHS by : (i) collecting and synthesizing data from real‑world practice ('practice to data'), (ii) using that data to answer questions and generate new and useful knowledge ('data to knowledge'), and (iii) applying that knowledge to improve care to equitably meet the needs of people with lived / living experience (PWLLE), caregivers / families and communities served ('knowledge to practice'), which includes knowledge mobilization and implementation science; see Additional Information.

Excellent research and LHSs should incorporate open science practices that enable timely access and sharing of research findings, data, and other outputs, see Additional Information.

Perinatal mental health (PMH) is an area that has seen significant research and service delivery investment / advancement in recent years at the local and regional levels. Perinatal mental illness occurs during prenatal and postpartum periods and includes conditions such as depression, anxiety, and post‑traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). If untreated, these conditions can have long‑lasting effects, increasing the risk of chronic mental health issues for the parent and developmental challenges for the child. Despite the availability of evidence‑based treatments, barriers such as stigma, lack of knowledge, and limited access to care—especially in rural areas—create a gap in treating individuals to full remission. Additionally, First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Peoples, racialised people, persons with disability, and those that identify as 2SLGBTQI+ face higher rates of perinatal mental illness, with even less access to appropriate care.

Across Canada, there are several specialised PMH programmes located in academic centres that provide gold‑standard care, including psychological and pharmacological treatment, but they are often burdened with long waitlists. Referrals depend on geographic location and primary care provider knowledge, creating an inequitable system. Timely intervention can prevent long‑term negative outcomes and improve quality of life for both parent and child. Specialised programmes are already collaborating on clinical guidelines and quality indicators for care, as well as engaging Indigenous experts for culturally safe care. However, despite these efforts, there remains a lack of an integrated, equitable system for timely access to perinatal mental health services. The ability to link programmes and local networks to develop an LHS in PMH would improve health outcomes, health equity, service delivery, and cost. Additionally, an LHS would ensure proper integration of PWLLE and caregiver / family insights, which are key in PMH patient care.

Applicants are expected to ensure equitable access of diverse researchers, including First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples, to opportunities available within the research team that will be established with program funding. This includes ensuring the research environment is supportive and any systemic barriers are addressed effectively and swiftly (see the Best Practices in Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Research for guidance and examples of systemic barriers).

Applicants are expected to adopt data management best practices to enable reproducible science and to enable successful sharing across the network (e.g., the FAIR principles – Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable). Final data policies and procedures, for example data access procedures, are expected to be publicly available. See Additional Information for more details.

Research Areas

This funding opportunity will support a project relevant to the development of a pan‑Canadian learning health system network in perinatal mental health (PMH).

Role and Contributions of Applicant Partners : CIHR recognises that a broad range of partners may be relevant to this opportunity and it is expected that applicant(s) describe the role of all applicant partners and how / if they will contribute to research and research‑related activities. Any consideration of risk and / or conflict of interest should also be explained, as appropriate.

Funds Available

CIHR and partner(s) financial contributions for this initiative are subject to availability of funds. Should CIHR or partner(s) funding levels not be available or are decreased due to unforeseen circumstances, CIHR and partner(s) reserve the right to reduce, defer or suspend financial contributions to grants received as a result of this funding opportunity.

• The total amount available for this funding opportunity is $6,000,000, enough to fund one grant for up to five (5) years.

For more information on the appropriate use of funds, refer to Allowable Costs.

The specific objectives of this funding opportunity are to :

For an application to be eligible, all the requirements stated below must be met and be clearly identified as such in the Participant Table (See How to Apply section) :

Note : Elders and / or Indigenous Knowledge‑Holders may participate on an application in a Collaborator role without the need to secure a CIHR PIN. However, the participant must be listed in the submitted Participant Table (see How to Apply ). Their contributions to the proposed activities and their meaningful engagement must be captured in the research proposal to address the points outlined in the evaluation criteria. Please note, names of Collaborators do not appear in CIHR funding decision databases and documents.

CIHR is committed to promoting the inclusion and advancement of those who have been historically excluded from science as one of the means to enhance excellence in research, training and knowledge mobilisation. This means recognising and reducing systemic barriers, mitigating biases, as well as including and benefiting from the full pool of talented researchers and trainees. CIHR’s position on equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) is available in the Tri‑Agency Statement on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. Beyond efforts to bolster EDI, CIHR recognises that First Nations, Métis and Inuit are rights‑holding as First Peoples of Canada, and initiatives should be developed through distinctions‑based approaches, as found in the strategic plan and the Action Plan : Building a healthier future for First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples.

Research Security

The Policy on Sensitive Technology Research and Affiliations of Concern (STRAC Policy) is applicable to this funding opportunity. Consult the Tri‑Agency guidance on the STRAC Policy for more information.

Applicants are advised to consult the Use of Grant Funds section of the Tri‑Agency (CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC) Guide on Financial Administration (TAGFA) to determine if an expenditure is an appropriate use of grant funds.

To further clarify, the following expenses are examples of appropriate uses of grant funds, provided they satisfy the principles and pertinent directives of the TAGFA :

Use of Personal Information

All information is shared in accordance with the Privacy Act.

As per the Privacy Act, personal information means information about an identifiable individual that is recorded in any form.

Conditions of Funding

In addition to the general conditions of funding governing CIHR grants, the following are the program specific conditions of funding applicable to this funding opportunity :

The NPA will be required to submit annual reports during the term of the grant (including during the Authority to Use Funds period).

Up to 2 progress meetings for the purposes of reporting on the project’s progress, sharing lessons learned, and knowledge mobilisation.

The Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction will perform a relevance review on the summary of the application to identify applications that are in alignment with the objectives of this funding opportunity.

Applications that are not deemed to be relevant will be withdrawn from the competition.

For information on CIHR’s peer review principles, see the Peer Review : Overview section of CIHR’s website.

To support the strategic objectives of this funding opportunity, the following evaluation criteria will be used :

Clarity, appropriateness, and feasibility of the research approach / design to address the objectives of the funding opportunity and meet the needs identified in the proposal.

The extent to which the PWLLE and caregiver / families engagement plan is clear and robust (see How to Apply).

The extent to which the project will have a substantive and sustainable impact on health outcomes, practice, programmes, and / or policy.

Extent to which the requested budget (inclusive of funds allocated for PWLLE / caregiver / family engagement, knowledge mobilisation and dissemination activities) is justified.

Funding Decision

The highest ranking application be funded. Applications that receive a rating below 3.5 will not be funded.

The names of successfully funded applicants will be published on the CIHR website.

Partner and Internal Collaborator Participation

The opportunity to add new partners and internal collaborators to this funding opportunity may arise after publication. These partners and internal collaborators may not be listed; however, the principles that govern relevance review, including consent to share information and funding decisions, will still apply.

Note, this funding opportunity is using the tri‑agency CV.

Have / obtain a CIHR PIN

The Primary Affiliation field of the My CIHR Profile is important for various funding related activities, including eligibility assessments and Research Support Fund calculations (if applicable). Your My CIHR Profile can be accessed by clicking on your name in the top right‑hand corner of the ResearchNet screen. If your Primary Affiliation name is not available in the drop‑down menu, contact the CIHR Contact Centre.

Note : Elders and / or Indigenous Knowledge Holders may be named as Collaborators on your application, allowing them to participate without securing a CIHR PIN. (Please note, names of Collaborators do not appear in CIHR funding decision databases and documents).

Specific instructions to complete your ResearchNet application

List all participants in the “Identify Participants” task. Consult the Eligibility section and ensure that all requirements are met.

The maximum length of CVs is 5 pages in English and 6 pages in French. Any content in excess of the page limit set for the language in which it is written will be removed without further notice to the CV owners or the NPA.

Consult the Tri‑Agency CV instructions and the Tri‑Agency CV – Frequently asked questions for assistance with completing the tri‑agency CV template.

Note : For the purpose of this task in ResearchNet, key participants can only be listed once. For key participants fulfilling multiple roles (see Eligibility), select one participant type in ResearchNet, but ensure these participants are identified for all roles they fulfill within the uploaded Participant Table.

Note : Elders and / or Indigenous Knowledge‑Keepers identified in ResearchNet as Collaborators for administrative purposes but that fulfil a key participant role must provide their tri‑agency CV through the task “Attach Other Application Materials” (see below).

Curriculum Vitae (mandatory for key participants)

The Nominated Principal Applicant and all remaining key participants (maximum 15) must upload their tri‑agency CV. All TCVs must be uploaded as individual PDFs and labelled as “TCV – Last name, First Name”.

All applicants (key and other), excluding Collaborators have the option of providing additional information / context regarding their most significant contributions relating to the application. The contributions that are described should be directly relevant to the grant application, and should demonstrate how the applicant will contribute to the application at hand.

Task : Enter Proposal Information

Research proposals written in French will be allowed to submit additional pages in support of evidence demonstrating that French documents require approximately 20% more space than similar English documents. Therefore, to ensure an equitable amount of space is provided, the following page limits will apply :

12 pages when the Research proposal is written in English

Note : Any additional pages over the above‑mentioned limit will be removed with no further notification to the Nominated Principal Applicant.

Task : Identify Sensitive Technology Research Areas

Task : Complete Summary of Research Proposal

Task : Enter Budget Information

Task : Attach Other Application Materials

Label as “SGBA Certificate – Name ” (mandatory for NPA and EDI Champion) After completing the appropriate training module that applies to your research project, you will receive a certificate of completion that you will save and upload here. The training module should take approximately 40 minutes to complete. Upload the certificate as an unsecured PDF.

This funding opportunity seeks applicants who self‑identify as Indigenous (First Nations, Inuit, or Métis) and / or can provide evidence of having meaningful and culturally safe involvement with Indigenous Peoples. This form is mandatory at minimum for the Indigenous Research Champion, but can also be filled for every applicant fulfilling this requirement.

The DMP should describe the collection, creation, documentation, storage, protection and of the source data. Where applicable, the DMP should also describe considerations related to Indigenous research data management and data sovereignty.

Download this table template which will be used for eligibility and peer review assessment. All participants (including Collaborators) should be listed in the Participant Table.

Key participants must be clearly identified in the Section 1 of the table. If a participant fulfils multiple eligibility requirements, repeat the name of this participant on the appropriate rows. The ‘Expertise and Experience’ box should be used for a brief description of what the participant brings to their role on the application. If a participant holds multiple roles, this description can vary for each role. The participant fulfilling one of these roles must also submit a tri‑agency CV (see Task : Identify Participants ).

Task : Download Supplemental Application Information

Task : Manage Access (optional)

Task : Print Signature Pages

Signature of the Nominated Principal Applicant is not required for applications submitted through ResearchNet.

Note : Additional partners / internal collaborators, including from industry and the private sector, may join this funding initiative over the coming year.

Internal Collaborators

Canadian Institutes of Health Research

At the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), we know that research has the power to change lives. As Canada’s health research investment agency, we collaborate with partners and researchers to support the discoveries and innovations that improve our health and strengthen our health care system.

CIHR – Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction

The Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction (INMHA) supports research to enhance mental health, neurological health, vision, hearing, and cognitive functioning and to reduce the burden of related disorders through prevention strategies, screening, diagnosis, treatment, support systems, and palliation.

Learning Health System

A Learning Health System (LHS) is a health system in which research, data, and experience generate knowledge and evidence that is embedded in and applied to processes, policies and practices to continuously innovate and improve health equity, service delivery and cost, as well as improve the experience for service providers and people accessing services. The LHS concept has been developed for more than a decade by experts from a wide range of disciplines (e.g., clinical‑scientists, clinicians, healthcare analytics, statisticians, biostatisticians, epidemiologists, healthcare informaticians, research funders, etc.). LHSs aim to ensure services remain flexibly, adaptable, and in the best interest of outcomes for individuals by collecting and applying data and knowledge into practice.

A in Canada, a conceptual framework has been developed to support the implementation of LHSs grounded in core values such as equity, adaptability, person focused, shared accountability, scientific integrity, etc.

Data Management Plans

A data management plan (DMP) is a formal document that details the strategies and tools you will implement to effectively manage your data both during your research project and after its completion. DMPs contribute to :

Implementation Science

Implementation science is the scientific study of methods and strategies that facilitate the uptake of evidence‑based practice and research into regular use by practitioners and policymakers. The field of implementation science seeks to systematically close the gap between what we know and what we do (often referred to as the know‑do gap) by identifying and addressing the barriers that slow or halt the uptake of proven health interventions and evidence‑based practices.

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Principles and Guidelines

Wise Practices for including an Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Champion

The champion can take on roles as an educator, mentor, consultant, facilitator, advocate, co‑investigator or principal applicant. In each role, champions are responsible for promoting and integrating EDI considerations throughout all stages of the research.

The list below provides examples of the types of activities champions may engage in. This list is not exhaustive or prescriptive; rather, it is intended to provide guidance for the inclusion of champions.

These tips will ensure that both champions and research benefit fully from the role.

CIHR recognises that First Nations, Métis and Inuit are rights‑holding as Indigenous Peoples of Canada and may not consider themselves to be part of equity‑seeking groups (e.g., women, racialised minorities, persons with disability, and members of 2SLGBTQI+ communities). Taking a rights‑and distinctions‑based approach to Indigenous self‑determination in research is important to reflect this position and to strengthen Indigenous health and well‑being.

Cultural Safety

Respectful relationships can be established Footnote 2, Footnote 3, Footnote 4, when the research environment is socially, spiritually, emotionally and physically safe. Cultural safety is a participant‑centred approach that encourages self‑reflexivity among health researchers and practitioners. It requires an examination of how systemic and personal biases, authority, privilege and territorial history can influence these relationships. Cultural safety requires building trust with Indigenous Peoples and communities in the conduct of research.

Realising cultural safety in health and wellbeing research entails understanding the social, political and historical contexts that have resulted in power imbalances. It requires an individual to have cultural humility, competence, sensitivity and awareness in determining relevant health research policies, programmes, and project approaches with Indigenous Peoples.

Meaningful and culturally safe practices refer to equity in health research and delivery. In a meaningful and culturally safe research environment, each person’s identity, beliefs, needs and reality are acknowledged. Participants feel safe based on mutual respect, meanings, learning experiences and shared knowledge. Cultural safety empowers people and ensures that the participating community, group or individual is a partner in decision‑making.

The First Nations Principles of Ownership, Control, Access and Possession (OCAP® Footnote 1) serve as an example of First Nations self‑governance, but are distinct to First Nations and not distinct to Inuit or Métis collectives and organisations. CIHR recognises that a distinctions‑based approach is required to ensure that the unique rights, interests and circumstances of the First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples are acknowledged, affirmed, and implemented.

Open Science

“Open science” refers to an approach to research that emphasises open sharing of research outputs, resources, methods or tools, at any stage of the research process. Publications, research data and software, notebooks, peer review, educational resources and citizen science all fall within its scope. In the context of this funding opportunity, grant holders are required to make peer‑reviewed publications openly accessible within 12 months of publication, as per the Tri‑Agency Open Access Policy on Publications. Grant holders are also encouraged to provide access to data that support published findings, for example by depositing data in a public repository and providing the digital object identifier (DOI) for the dataset in all publications, so long as providing access to the data does not compromise patient privacy or otherwise conflict with ethical or legal obligations.

Footnotes

Footnote 1

OCAP® is a registered trademark of the First Nations Information Governance Centre (FNIGC).

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Footnote 2

Evidence of the capacity and experience of the research team to work in Indigenous communities in a meaningful and culturally safe way.

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Footnote 3

First Nations Health Authority. (n.d.). Cultural Safety and Humility. Received November 12, 2018.

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Footnote 4

Williams, R. (1999). Cultural safety – what does it mean for our work practice? Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 23(2), 213-214.

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