Team Grant: Intervention Trial in Inflammation for Chronic Conditions 2023

Eligibility

Research Team Grants:

For an application to be eligible at the LOI stage:

1. The Nominated Principal Applicant (NPA) must be:
   1. an independent researcher or a knowledge user affiliated with a Canadian postsecondary institution and/or its affiliated institutions (including hospitals, research institutes and other non-profit organizations with a mandate for health research and/or knowledge translation) at the time of funding.
      • If the NPA is a knowledge user, there must be at least one Principal Applicant who is an independent researcher.
      
      OR
   2. an individual affiliated with an Indigenous non-governmental organization in Canada with a research and/or knowledge translation mandate.
      OR
   3. an Indigenous non-governmental organization in Canada with a research and/or knowledge translation mandate.
2. The NPA (individual) must have their substantive role in Canada for the duration of the requested grant term.
3. The Institution Paid must be authorized to administer CIHR funds before the funding can be released (for more information see Administration of Funds).
4. The NPA* must have successfully completed all four modules for Patient Engagement available online through the CIHR Institute of Musculoskeletal Health and Arthritis and have submitted their Certificates of Completions (see How to Apply section) by the LOI stage.
   *Organizations as NPAs: For organizations applying as the NPA, a representative of the organization must complete the training modules on the organization’s behalf.
5. The Research Team must include each of the following roles. Note that an individual can fulfill multiple roles.
   1. An Early Career Researcher (ECR) as NPA, PA or Co-Applicant. The ECR must be eligible at the time of the full application deadline date.
   2. A Sex and Gender Champion as NPA, PA or Co-Applicant. The Champion will be a researcher who possesses or acquires, and provides evidence of, expertise in the study of sex as a biological variable and/or gender as a social determinant of health in relation to inflammation (see How to Apply section for more details).
   3. A knowledge user (KU) as NPA or PA.
   4. A client/patient/family/caregiver/person with lived or living experience (PWLE) as NPA, PA or Co-Applicant.
   5. A Knowledge Mobilization Liaison (KML) as NPA, PA or Co-Applicant (see Additional Information). This person can be (but is not limited to) an investigator, clinician, policy maker, knowledge user, etc.
6. Any research applications involving Indigenous Peoples must include at least one applicant who self-identifies as Indigenous (First Nations, Inuit or Métis) and/or provides evidence of having meaningful and culturally safe involvement with Indigenous Peoples (see How to Apply section for more details).
7. Only applications that are successful at the Letter of Intent (LOI) stage will be invited to apply to the Full application stage, and the KM Hub.

In addition to the requirements listed above, for an application to be eligible for the full application stage:

1. The NPA* and the Sex and Gender Champion must have successfully completed one of the sex- and gender-based analysis training modules available online through the CIHR Institute of Gender and Health and have submitted a Certificate of Completion (see How to Apply WSC Note: #howtoapply section).
   *Organizations as NPAs: For organizations applying as the NPA, a representative of the organization must complete the training module on the organization’s behalf.

KM Hub

For an application to be eligible at the full application stage: (Updated: 2023-10-31)

1. The NPA of the KM Hub must meet criteria 1-3 for Research Team Grants. In addition, the NPA of the KM Hub must also be a member of at least one Research Team. If the NPA of a Research Team is also the NPA for the KM Hub, this applicant will be required to submit two applications at the full application stage (one for the Research Team Grant and one for the KM Hub). (Updated: 2023-10-31)
2. The NPA* must have successfully completed all four modules for Patient Engagement available online through the CIHR Institute of Musculoskeletal Health and Arthritis and have submitted a Certificate of Completion (see How to Apply section).
   *Organizations as NPAs: For organizations applying as the NPA, a representative of the organization must complete the training modules on the organization’s behalf.
3. The KM Hub team must include an ECR, a Sex and Gender Champion, a knowledge user, and a PWLE as detailed in criterion 5a-d. of Research Team Grants. The participants fulfilling these roles may be the same or different than those of the Research Team.
4. The NPA* and the Sex and Gender Champion must have successfully completed one of the sex- and gender-based analysis training modules available online through the CIHR Institute of Gender and Health and have submitted a Certificate of Completion (see How to Apply section).
5. All applicant teams successful at the LOI stage, are eligible to apply for the KM Hub at the Full Application stage as long as they meet the requirements for the KM Hub listed above (1-4). (Updated: 2023-10-31)

Note:

• Participation in the 2020 Team Grant: Preparation to Trial in Inflammation for Chronic Conditions competition is not a prerequisite for an application to be eligible to this competition.

Summary

Building on the shared framework for inflammation research initiated through prior CIHR investments ( Health Challenge in Chronic Inflammation Phase 1 [HCCI1]), the second phase of HCCI (HCCI2) comprises two distinct funding opportunities that together will accelerate the clinical translation of solutions that target shared pathways of inflammation in chronic conditions. The first component of the HCCI2 initiative, Preparation to Trial (funded in 2021), is supporting the advancement of preclinical research towards the human intervention trial stage and a better understanding of the implementation context to enable the scale up of existing interventions. The current funding opportunity represents the second component, which will support intervention trials (see Additional Information) in humans with clinical impact on inflammation in chronic conditions and knowledge mobilization.

The overall vision of this funding opportunity is to improve the health outcomes of people living with, or at risk of developing, chronic conditions by advancing the repurposing, development, and optimization of innovative interventions. Interventions are to target biological (e.g., genetic, epigenetic), environmental (e.g., exposure to chemical products, air pollution), social (e.g., socioeconomic status, education) and behavioral (e.g., tobacco or cannabis smoking, vaping, diet) triggers of shared pathways of inflammation across two or more chronic conditions.

This funding opportunity supports the partnership with people with lived/living experience (PWLE), which involves meaningful collaboration between researchers and PWLE. In the context of this funding opportunity, PWLE are individuals with chronic conditions who are representative of the population engaged in the study project. People with chronic conditions can become partners in the proposed research by contributing to identifying research questions and priority-setting, and governance of the research and even performing certain parts of the research itself. This type of meaningful engagement helps to ensure that the research being conducted is relevant and valuable to the people that it affects. PWLE engaged in research proposals can also collaborate with the research team to analyze and interpret research results, summarize or share the results with target audiences and policymakers or other decision-makers who may apply the results in a health or community setting. For more information about the full scope of patient engagement, please see the SPOR Patient Engagement Framework.

This funding opportunity is composed of two main types of grants:

• Research Team Grants
• Knowledge Mobilization Hub (KM Hub)

Research Team Grants

The overall goal of Research Team Grants is to support clinical, behavioral, socio-structural and/or environmental interventions related to inflammation in chronic conditions in humans to ultimately support the optimization of healthcare delivery. Specifically, it is anticipated that they will investigate the repurposing or development of interventions for prevention, diagnosis, prediction of treatment response, and management of inflammation in chronic conditions, and/or the optimization of such interventions across the lifecycle and for different life stages and considering intersecting factors, such as sex, gender, age and other identity dimensions as well as co-morbidities. It is expected that this targeted research investment will lead to greater availability of solutions for inflammation in chronic diseases and catalyze changes in clinical practice and policy.

To be relevant for Research Team Grants, proposals must be in line with the mandate of a minimum of two (2) of the CIHR Institutes collaborating on this funding opportunity (full list and additional details can be found in the Sponsor Description section).

All proposals are required to address interventions which may include but are not limited to therapeutics, diagnostics, predictive analytic models, use of traditional medicine or natural products, socio-structural and behavioral strategies for change in lifestyle (e.g., diet/weight loss, exercise habits, sleep).

Given the overarching objective of this funding opportunity to accelerate the translation of solutions for inflammation in chronic conditions, all applications must establish detailed knowledge mobilization (KM) plans to support the broader dissemination, uptake, and integration of their research into proven and effective solutions for inflammation in chronic conditions.

Each Research Team must identify at least one Knowledge Mobilization Liaison (KML) that will work in close and regular collaboration with the KM Hub (see details below) to achieve their team’s respective KM goals. The KML will lead KM activities appropriate to the type of science proposed in the grant (see Eligibility for more details).

Knowledge Mobilization Hub (KM Hub)

To help facilitate knowledge mobilization for all successful Research Teams, this competition will provide additional funds to a successful team to establish and lead a dedicated Knowledge Mobilization Hub (KM Hub). The KM Hub will be responsible for supporting the knowledge mobilization activities of all the Research Teams by establishing an overarching structure to support the coordination and collaboration of the Teams to leverage interdisciplinary activities, optimize the research impact through clearly defined knowledge mobilization and engagement efforts, and achieve the overall funding opportunity objectives. See figure for a visual explanation of the KM Hub.

The KM Hub will be committed to transforming existing knowledge and co-creating new knowledge to improve the design of the intervention and relevance of results for knowledge users (i.e., PWLE, clinicians, industry, policymakers) and accelerate the path to translation of intervention trials for better prevention and care policies, practices, procedures, products and services to address inflammation across Canada. The KM Hub is expected to provide coordination mechanisms for achieving the KM objectives by facilitating interactions among the Research Teams, the inflammation research community, PWLE, and knowledge users (KUs), and maintaining clear communication channels amongst the different stakeholders. KM Hub activities will be coordinated by a KM Manager. A variety of mechanisms may be considered including, but not limited to:

• KM and dissemination plans for the KM Hub (including a list of key stakeholders for KM relevant to inflammation research)
• Digital presence (such as websites and/or newsletters) that represents the work of all funded teams and ensures that the communication channels created as a result of the grant are maintained and accessible to the public
• Dissemination of publications, conference presentations, briefings, and media engagements
• Description of how key results will be shared with target audiences or how community engagement will take place
• Organization of meetings of all Research Teams including KUs and relevant partners and stakeholders through authentic and meaningful engagement from the start and throughout the lifecycle of the research projects
• Organization of and participation in a mid-term meeting to interact with Research Teams, KUs, translational experts and stakeholders to:
  • Build and support partnerships
  • Facilitate dialogue amongst the inflammation research, policy and practice communities
  • Provide learning opportunities (i.e., capacity development)
  • Discuss a collective approach toward continuous knowledge exchange
• Participation in end-of-grant KM activities, including a CIHR-organized End-of-Grant meeting
• Coordination between all HCCI2 Intervention Trial Research Teams to deliver the final KM products anticipated as a result of the research as outlined in the Teams’ KM plans (e.g., papers, toolkits, checklists, meetings, webinars, policy briefs, lessons learned, etc.)

Objectives

The objectives of this funding opportunity are to:

• Utilize knowledge on shared inflammation pathways in intervention trials in humans with the objective of improving prevention or management of inflammation in people living with or at risk of developing chronic conditions.
• Equitably improve health outcomes for population subgroups that have been underrepresented in research (e.g., women, LGBTQIA/2S populations, racialized Canadians, Indigenous Peoples, pregnant people) and those across life stages (e.g., children, older adults) through proven effective evidence-based interventions to address the health effects of inflammation.
• Accelerate the mobilization of knowledge and translation of research outcomes into proven and effective solutions and interventions to benefit multiple chronic conditions through early engagement, sustained and meaningful collaboration with PWLE, KUs, inflammation researchers and researchers from other disciplines.
• Foster a high-quality, interdisciplinary training and mentoring environment to increase capacity and prepare a diverse next generation of leaders to address inflammation in chronic conditions.