The 2023 DIME Health Professions Education Research Grant competition is now closed

The Department of Innovation in Medical Education (DIME) offers a yearly Health Professions Education Research Grant. This grant supports projects that involve scholarship in health professions education within the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa. Our aim is to assist early-career researchers in their medical education projects in order to improve medical education scholarship at the university.

DIME Health Professions Education Research Grant 2023/2024

Please see the list of 2023/2024 grant recipients below!

Call for Proposals

Goals

The Department of Innovation in Medical Education (DIME) is pleased to announce a call for proposals for the DIME Health Professions Education Research Grant 2023. The goal of this research grant is to support projects that involve scholarship in health professions education within the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa. The project may involve any aspect relevant to health professions education including, but not limited to; undergraduate, postgraduate, continuing professional development. Research focused on program evaluation or quality improvement will be considered but the project must be clearly focused on research and the implications to education must be explicit.

Eligibility

  1. The primary investigator (PI) must be involved in teaching and/or health professions education research at the University of Ottawa. Applications may be individual or joint, involving one or more departments, disciplines, or faculties. Students, residents and fellows may apply but if so a faculty member involved in teaching and/or health professions education research must be identified as a senior co-investigator or supervisor on the project.

  2. The PI on this submission must have had an academic appointment for five or less years. If the PI has been on faculty anywhere for longer but is within the first five years of doing education research (e.g., first published paper in the area or receiving a related degree), they should contact DIME at [email protected] to confirm eligibility.

  3. All applicants musthave one the following:

  • A primary appointment at one of the departments that provide funding to the DIME Research Support Unit: Medicine or Emergency medicine; OR

  • Have a primary appointment at DIME; OR

  • Be a DIME fellow in a department that does not provide funding to the DIME Research Support Unit, in which case their submission will require 75% matching funds from their department.

  1. If a PI has received funding from DIME in the past and their grant is still active, he/she will not be eligible for funding this year.  He/she may still supervise a trainee or student and can be a co-investigator on proposals submitted by other PIs.

  2. For projects involving medical students as participants, prior approval must be obtained from the Vice-Dean, Undergraduate Medical Education (UGME). Please submit a summary of your project to the Vice-Dean, UGME in advance of submitting to DIME. Your summary should include the research question, your methodology, how you plan on recruiting students, and a tentative timeline for recruitment.  Note that this summary should be approximately two paragraphs in length and/or no more than one page. 

Value

The maximum amount that will be provided per project is $7,500.00.

Duration

Projects must not extend beyond a three-year period (i.e., December 2026).

Submission Process

All submissions must be e-mailed to DIME at [email protected] with the subject line “DIME grant submission” no later than 11:59 pm, Sunday, October 15, 2023. Confirmation of submission will be acknowledged within two business days; please contact the office if you do not receive confirmation within this time period.  Late applications, paper submissions and incomplete applications will not be considered. Submissions may be made in either French or English.

The application must be submitted in the order and content as follows:

  1. Front page: Title of project; applicant names with affiliations and role in the project; and budgetary request.
  2. 250-word structured abstract providing a description of the project
  3. Proposal

The proposal should be no more than five (5) pages in length, single-spaced, in 12-point type with 1" margins. Number the pages in the bottom right corner. Attachments such as a budget, references, rating tools, and models are allowed and are not counted in the five-page proposal limit.

The proposal must include the following sections:

a. Background

This section should contain a literature review and a problem statement or research question. Eligible topics may include faculty development, course development and/or medical education research across the educational continuum.  Innovative pilot research projects are welcomed. Proposals to develop educational courses, programs or projects must include reference to a specific evaluation framework to determine the impact of the intervention.

b. Methods

For research projects, this section should contain information about the experimental design, the participants, the procedure, and the analyses.

For innovations or educational programs, this section should contain information about the need being addressed, learning objectives, the participants, the procedure and the analyses.

c. Timeline

This section should contain a listing of important tasks within the project along with the completion dates. If planning to attend a research meeting to present, please factor that into the timeline.

d. Budget

Amounts and justification of budget line items must be provided in a one-page outline.  Up to $1500 may be requested to defray the costs for travel, accommodation, meals or conference registration for investigators to disseminate the project findings in a peer reviewed venue.

Note that the following items will not be funded:

  • The purchase of equipment.
  • Activities which are an integral part of course planning (e.g. annotated bibliographies, course outlines, student manuals and copying costs)
  • Salary or honoraria for investigators.
  • Travel, accommodation or meals for external investigators to visit Ottawa
  • Publication fees
  • Medical writers

e. Dissemination strategy

The dissemination of educational innovations and research findings is required. This section should contain a description of how the project will inform future work and how the results will be disseminated to the research community.

f. Curriculum vitae

A curriculum vitae must be submitted for each investigator. Limit to three pages; Include any previous educational innovations, education administrative roles, publications, and grants received for the last three years.

Selection Process

The DIME Educational Innovations and Research Committee will assess proposals and name successful applicants by early January 2024.

Selection will be based on the overall merit of the application. The criteria for this assessment are:

  • Relevance to the field of health professions education
  • Potential benefits for the advancement of health professions education
  • Quality of the methodology, evaluation and/or research design
  • Applicants’ ability to successfully complete the project (i.e. past experience or involvement of co-investigators with relevant experience or skills)
  • Clearly justified statement of costs
  • Realistic time frame for the project
  • A plan for the continuation of the project (or benefits) beyond the initial period

Completion of the grant

Funds will be available to investigators starting January 2024 once all requirements have been met by the researcher(s). These requirements include but are not limited to confirmation of approval by (i) the Ottawa Health Science Network REB, and (ii) a financial officer and an account number. For projects involving medical students, prior approval must be obtained from the Vice-Dean, Undergraduate Medical Education (UGME).

The financial support of the Faculty of Medicine, DIME must be acknowledged in all publications and presentations resulting from this grant. Successful applicants will be required to present their findings as a paper or poster at the DIME Medical Education Day and to submit for presentation at a Canadian and/or international medical education meeting.  

On the completion of the project grantees are required to:

  1. Submit a final report (two pages in length) on the project within six weeks following the termination date.  This report should include a summary of the research question and relevant findings.
  2. Enclose a financial statement (to be matched against original budget); unused funds must be returned along with a description of any variance greater than 25%.
  3. A list of all publications and presentations that were funded by this grant. This final report must be submitted to the Chair (via Doris Peixoto at [email protected]), DIME Health Professions Education Grants. Those who fail to submit a final report will not be eligible for future DIME funding.

**If you are from the Department of Pediatrics or Anesthesia contact Dr. Humphrey-Murto prior to submission.

DIME Health Professions Education Grant 2023/24

In 2023/24, the competition attracted 9 applications. A rigorous peer-review process resulted in the selection of 2 projects for funding, for a total of $14,973 to support research and innovation in medical education. Congratulations to the following individuals, who were successful in the 2023/2024 competition for the DIME Health Professions Education Grants:

PI

Department

Title

Amount Awarded

Dr. Geneviève Gauthier

DIME

Architecting a New Pharmacy Program: Exploring Curriculum Design Mechanisms and Processes

$7,473

Dr. Stella Yiu

Emergency Medicine

Exploring interphysician transition of care communications

$7,500

Examples