Indigenous Wellness Core Scientific Office - Graduate Studentship Program

The Indigenous Wellness Core (IWC) aims to better integrate, coordinate and advance Indigenous health within Alberta Health Services (AHS). The IWC is committed to innovation, quality improvement, and research, managed from a collective standpoint, therefore establishing joint accountability for advancing health equity in an integrated and aligned approach. Through the Scientific Office (SO), the IWC supports research and innovation in alignment with AHS’ Indigenous Health Commitments by working in partnership with academic institutions, Indigenous communities and organizations, and other key stakeholders located in Alberta towards reaching health equity with Indigenous peoples in Alberta. The Strategic Directions identified in the Indigenous Health Commitments: Roadmap to Wellness are to:

• Build a workforce of people equipped with the tools to listen, understand, act, and be to support Indigenous health and wellness, and move us towards reconciliation (People);
• Identify and develop clear processes to establish roles, responsibilities and accountabilities for our work on Indigenous health and wellness (Process);
• Support wise practices in Indigenous health in full partnerships with Indigenous communities (Wise Practices); and
• Generate quality outcomes through sustainable investments in culturally competent programs and services across AHS; support capacity within Indigenous organizations and communities (Quality Outcomes).

**Note: Our studentship is NOT designed to directly support graduate students’ current thesis research. Rather, our studentship is designed for graduate students to contribute to existing IWC SO projects and thereby develop and strengthen research skills that they can apply to their own work in the future.

Purpose: The IWC SO’s Seed Grant Competition will support funding two (2), 1-year health system research projects ($30,000 each) to allow researchers and community organizations to work towards improving the health and wellbeing of Indigenous Albertans.

Competition Objectives: Two (2) research projects will support novel initiatives and innovation in Indigenous health, and lay the groundwork in Alberta (and Canada) for respectful and ongoing collaborations between academic researchers and Indigenous communities that prioritize reconciliation, community strengths and the voices of Indigenous Peoples. Successful projects will allow researchers to conduct projects in collaboration with Indigenous communities and partners (that would potentially strengthen the rationale for larger funding proposals) in a good way, and foster new partnerships based on trusting relationships.

Through the implementation of their research, Primary Applicants will be required to produce the following outputs:

• Present research to the IWC Core Committee (or similar AHS level Group/Committee).
• Produce final written research report and financial report to the IWC.
• Provide indication of subsequent grant submissions related to their project as well as any publications, presentations, and other knowledge translation outputs, and will be advised to acknowledge the IWC funding in all materials.

Funding Details: A total of two (2) stipends will be awarded, $30,000 each for up to eighteen (18) months (January 2025 - June 2026). Successful applicants will be provided twelve (12) months for research study development and implementation, and six (6) months for follow-up activities, data collection, analysis and results reporting, amendable to Primary Applicants needs and capacity.

Application Deadline: September 13th, 2024 by 4pm MST