KNOWLEDGE TRANSLATION & TRAINING
PCIRN SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM 2012
Description
In addition to the CIHR Salary Awards Programs and Training Awards Programs, PCIRN will run a scholarship competition for master's , doctoral (PhD) students, and postdoctoral fellows who propose an influenza research project related to one of the five research themes (rapid trials, rapid implementation, vaccine coverage, vaccine safety, and vaccine effectiveness) or one of the three support themes (information technology, laboratory, and training & knowledge translation).
Eligibility
The scholarship will be open to full-time master’s , and doctoral (PhD) students, and postdoctoral fellows who are nominated by a PCIRN theme leader or co-investigator. In exceptional situations, consideration may be given to a bachelor student, first or second year medical student, or law student (summer only). An exception may also be made for a salaried research associate, research assistant, technician, or trainee who is enrolled in an undergraduate, graduate, or post-graduate program as a major component of their time (Appendix I and Appendix II). Every attempt will be made to ensure that awardees are equally distributed across the themes and geographic areas of Canada.
Funding
The scholarship is for a lump sum payment of up to a maximum of $10 000 for the next academic year from the training & knowledge translation support theme budget. The PCIRN theme leader that nominated the student, is expected to match or top up the award from his or her own budget to the CIHR minimum scholarship level (Appendix I and II). Exemptions to this requirement may be considered on a case by case basis.
Deadline for applications is November 30, 2011.
KNOWLEDGE TRANSLATION AND TRAINING
The KT Support Group is developing a PCIRN core curriculum that will enhance interdisciplinary interaction and prepare them for real life career challenges while allowing trainees the time needed to develop specialized research skills. In addition, the group works to ensure that Knowledge translation (KT), defined by CIHR as "a dynamic and iterative process that includes the synthesis, dissemination, exchange and ethically sound application of knowledge", is facilitated across the network into every day practice.
The PCIRN core curriculum will be conducted in an interdisciplinary problem-based learning (PBL) environment, with an emphasis on acquiring familiarity with issues that are often overlooked in specialized research programs.
- Enhance collaborative team research: The core curriculum will educate trainees in the practice of team research (as compared to individually-led research) and foster interdisciplinary interactions among trainees, mentors and institutional leaders.
- Develop core competencies in immunization, research ethics/integrity, knowledge translation and professional skills: We will introduce a core curriculum to include core skills on immunization competency, ethics, integrity, management, commercialization, technology transfer, communication, and knowledge translation into practice and health policy.
The PCIRN KT and KAB initiative has several objectives:
- Establish a PCIRN Training/KT Support Group, to advise and provide leadership for KT and KAB opportunities.
- Test the effectiveness of our KT/KAB process, by engaging pandemic planners, PCIRN researchers, trainees and public interest groups in a review of the H1N1 pandemic. This exercise will assess how data generated by PCIRN was applied in the pandemic. Participants will evaluate the value of the information to satisfy their needs during the pandemic setting.
Bob Bortolussi MD, FRCPC
Principal Investigator
Robert Bortolussi is Professor of Pediatrics and Microbiology and Immunology at Dalhousie University. Bob is a Paediatric Infectious Diseases specialist and consultant at the IWK Health Centre in Halifax. Bob joined Dalhousie University in 1978 after clinical and research training in Montreal, Toronto and Minnesota. He received research grants from the Medical Research Council of Canada, and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) continuously from 1979 until 2001 and was awarded the Sanofi Pasteur Research Award of the Canadian Paediatric Society in 2005 for his research on the development of innate immunity in the newborn. Bob has published over 100 original articles and book chapters on infection and newborn host defence. Bob was Chief of Research and Vice President of Research at the IWK Health Centre from 1992 until 2007 where he helped to develop this Centre's research program to national prominence leading to construction of the $20 million "Goldbloom Research Pavilion" which doubled the research space at the IWK.
Bob's main academic interest now focuses on nurturing clinician scientists to a successful career. To aid in this process, Bob developed the interdisciplinary problem based curriculum for the CIHR training program, the Canadian Child Health Clinician Scientists Program (CCHCSP). The curriculum is now used in 17 Universities across Canada and by clinician scientist groups in Europe, Africa and China. In 2008, he edited a book, "The Handbook for Clinician Scientists" as a reference source for clinician scientists and supplement to the CCHCSP curriculum. Bob also directs Dalhousie's Clinical Investigator program (CIP) for the Faculty of Medicine.
