Funding

You’re a seasoned innovator - you know you have an idea that can be protected as intellectual property, or moved to commercialization but you need financial support to move to the next stage. We can help.

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Funding streams & opportunities for PHC staff & medical staff

There are many different resources available to PHC staff and medical staff who are looking for funding to support their research, innovation or quality improvement initiative. The list below is not meant to be an exhaustive list of all sources. Refer to the websites noted below for the most up-to-date information. Funding amounts can vary depending on the specific project, location and funding organization.

PHC Internal Opportunities

Innovarium Launchpad

Frequency: Annual

Amount: Up to $25,000 for 2 projects ($50k/year)

Who: PHC Staff & Medical Staff

Focus: To provide seed funding to support PHC moonshot thinkers in developing and testing innovative ideas.

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Research Challenge

Frequency: Annual

Amount: $5,000

Who: Teams of point-of-care nursing & allied PHC staff

Focus: Designed to support point-of-care staff who do not have research experience. Teams compete with other teams for funding; learn about research and conduct their own clinical practice project.

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Knowledge Translation Challenge

Frequency: Annual

Amount: $5,000

Who: Teams of PHC, VCH, BC Cancer clinicians; inter-professional

Focus: Designed to support teams of PHC, VCH and BC Cancer clinicians who may not have much KT expertise but are responsible for moving evidence into practice. Teams receive training, mentorship; design their own KT project.

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Quality Improvement Challenge

Frequency: Annual

Amount: No funds awarded, costs funded by department/program

Who: PHC staff and care providers

Focus: Designed to support teams to gain introductory knowledge and practical skills in QI theory, methods and tools. Teams receive training and mentorship so they can apply learnings to their own QI project

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Planetary Health Funding Awards

Frequency: Annual

Amount: up to $5,000 for 3 projects ($15k/year)

Who: PHC staff and medical staff

Focus: Projects that will advance planetary health (reduce PHC’s impact, build our capacity, and/or develop our resilience); mentorship available.

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Innovative & Translational Research Awards

Frequency: Annual

Amount: Up to $75,000 for 8 projects ($600k/year)

Who: Teams of VCH and PHC health care professionals, clinicians, and researchers. Teams must have both a VCH and PHC Principal Investigator to qualify.

Focus: Innovative research that will have an impact on patient care at VCH and/or PHC, provide savings for the health system at VCH and/or PHC, or create medical device and/or commercial opportunities from pre-existing research outcomes.

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Team Grant

Frequency: Annual

Amount: Up to $30,000

Who: Teams of VCH/PHC staff and medical staff

Focus: Support VCH/PHC staff and clinicians to conduct applied health research, community based and/or patient oriented research projects to improve practice at VCH and PHC. VCH/PHC health care providers partner with experienced researchers who will mentor them through the entire research process, from proposal to project completion.

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Skunkworks

Frequency: Annual

Amount: Up to $22,500 for 2 projects (~$45k/year)

Who: Multisectoral teams

Focus: Brings together loosely structured groups to identify health care issues and pilor creative solutions in 1.5 days; each intake has a different focus (e.g. Hacking Chronic Illness).

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PHC Internal Opportunities: Medical Staff-Specific

VCH/PHC Physician Quality Improve (PQI) Initiative

Frequency: Varies

Amount: Sessional funding

Who: VCH/PHC medical staff

Focus: Partnership between VCH, PHC and Specialist Services Committee (SSC); opportunity for in-depth learning about QI theory and tools as well as to conduct own QI project; mentorship provided for Level 3; opportunity for PQI alumni to apply for project funding

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VCH/PHC Spreading Quality Improvement (SQI) Initiative

Frequency: Annual

Amount: Sessional funding

Who: VCH/PHC medical staff

Focus: spread successful QI projects for the purpose of accelerating impact and transformation for our healthcare system within the Quadruple Aim framework

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Department of Medicine Innovation Platform

Frequency: Ongoing

Amount: Variable funding dependent on project

Who: PHC medical staff within the Department of Medicine

Focus: Provides mentorship, project management and financial support to funded projects

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PHC Physicians and Surgeons Society (PHC PASS) Facility Engagement Funding (Pillar Focused Projects)

Frequency: Variable; call of interest usually announced early each calendar year if funding will occur for that fiscal year

Amount: Variable funding dependent on project

Who: PHC medical staff

Focus: Engagement projects and initiatives focused on one of the four pillars: Exceptional Quality, Safety and Value; Inspiring People & Teams; Discover, Learn, & Innovate for Impacts; or Partnerships.

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Note: for any Quality-related funding streams and opportunities, connect with PHC’s Quality Improvement teams to discuss how to partner and access data. – Liz Flores, Director, Quality Improvement, Patient Safety & Accreditation at lflores@providencehealth.bc.ca or Beena Parappilly, Senior Manager, Quality Improvement & Accreditation at bparappilly@providencehealth.bc.ca.

St. Paul’s Foundation

St. Paul’s Foundation Enhanced Patient Care Grant

Frequency: Annual

Amount: up to $5,000 for individual grants; up to $40,000 for Broad Impact Grant

Who: PHC staff and medical staff

Focus: initiatives, programs, items and equipment that will directly enhance patient and resident care.

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External Opportunities: Staff & Medical Staff

Ministry of Health Innovation Pathway

Frequency: Twice a year

Amount: Approximately $50,000 to $100,000 per project

Who: Staff and medical staff

Focus: Supports innovative projects that can be spread and scaled across BC. There are general stream and climate stream pathways.

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Canada Foundation for Innovation

Frequency: Every 24-30 months

Amount: Total project cost must be greater than $1M

Who: PHC qualifies as an eligible institution

Focus: Enable internationally competitive research or technology development, enhance and optimize the capacity of institutions to conduct the research or technology development program over the useful life of the infrastructure; and generate benefits to Canadians

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Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Idea to Innovation (I2I)

Frequency: Quarterly

Amount: Four distinct funding options, characterized by the maturity of the technology or the involvement of an early stage investment entity or industrial partner.

Who: university/college faculty who hold (or have a firm offer of) a faculty appointment

Focus: Accelerate the pre-competitive development of promising technology originating from the university/college sector; promote its transfer to a new or established Canadian company

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UBC Health Innovation Funding Investment (HIFI) Awards

Frequency: Annual

Amount: $10,000 - $25,000

Who: Led by UBC faculty member/trainee/staff and include faculty/trainees from at least two different UBC faculties

Focus: Catalyze interdisciplinary and cross-faculty collaborations to develop new teams, pursue new ideas or translate findings from innovative health-related research

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UBC School of Biomedical Engineering (SBME): Engineers in Scrubs

Frequency: Annual

Amount: No funding; partnered with a SBME student

Who: Project partners have included physicians, clinical researchers, nurses, clinical engineers and Allied health professionals

Focus: Design projects in clinical engineering; design teams expected to engage closely with clinical partners and work under the mentorship and guidance of experienced professors, entrepreneurs, med-tech innovators

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Innovate BC

Visit the site to review a list of programs to address the biggest pain points of BC businesses.

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Genome BC: Sector Innovation Program (SIP)

Frequency: Annual

Amount: $75,000 to $250,000

Who: Staff and medical staff; project budgets must be between $250,000 to $500,000; project terms must be 24-36 months.

Focus: Support strategically important genomics research with long-term potential to address the needs and challenges of key sectors in BC's economy and society. Each intake has a specific strategic focus (E.g. impact of climate change on human health).

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Genome BC: Genomics Innovation Fund

Frequency: Annual

Amount: Up to $250,000

Who: Staff and medical staff

Focus: Support the development of transformative innovation genomics projects with commercial potential. For example, from the proof-to-concept level to the innovation phase, or from the innovation phase into the business development phase.

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TD Ready Challenge

Frequency: Annual

Amount: Up to $1M

Who: Non-profit organizations (PHC)

Focus: Provide financial support to organizations that have designed innovative, scalable, and/or replicable solutions focused on addressing the annual Problem Statement. Each intake has a specific focus (E.g. innovative approaches to supporting small business owners grow)

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Health Quality BC (HQBC) Low-Carbon, High Quality Collaborative

Frequency: Annual

Amount: Unfunded; one year commitement with learning and coaching sessions

Who: Staff and medical staff

Focus: Spread and scale up efforts and share knowledge of low-carbon practices that improve the quality of care.

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CASCADES Innovation RFP

Frequency: Varies

Amount: $5,000 to $25,000

Who: Staff and medical staff

Focus: Service delivery or system design innovations that reduce the climate impact of health care or the health care system of that increase climate resilience in care settings.

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StrongerBC Future Skills Grant

Frequency: Annual

Amount: Up to $3,500 in short-term skills training

Who: Staff and medical staff

Focus: Empowers British Columbians to shape their futures; supports eligible short-term skills training at post-secondary institutions.

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New Frontiers in Research Fund

Frequency: Annual

Amount: $2M to $4M

Who: Interdisciplinary researchers

Focus: Interdisciplinary, high-risk / high-reward, transformative research led by Canadian researchers working with Canadian and international partners; support world-leading innovation and enhance Canada's competitiveness and expertise in the global, knowledge-based economy.

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External Opportunities: Medical Staff-Specific

Shared Care Partners in Care (PiC) and Transitions in Care (TiC)

Frequency: Ongoing, reviewed monthly

Amount: Not specified

Who: Family Physicians and Specialists

Focus: Co-led projects to improve the coordination of care for patients among providers (PiC) and between care settings (TiC); improvements at community level with strong potential for spread regionally or provincially

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Shared Care Spread Networks

Frequency: Ongoing, reviewed monthly

Amount: Not specified

Who: Family Physicians and Specialists

Focus: Adult Mental Health and Substance Use, Chronic Pain, Coordinating Complex Care for Older Adults (including Palliative Care), Maternity

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Specialist Services Committee (SSC)

Frequency: Ongoing

Amount: Not specified

Who: Physician Specialists

Focus: Improves patient care by engaging physicians to collaborate, lead quality improvement, and deliver quality services with SSC supports and incentives.

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Physician Leadership Training (SSC)

Frequency: Ongoing

Amount: Maximum funding of up to $10,000 per physician per fiscal year to cover tuition fees, accommodation and travel costs

Who: Physicians

Focus: Leadership and/or QI training through accredited training organizations

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UBC Sauder Physician Leadership Program (SSC)

Frequency: Twice a year

Amount: Tuition funded; time/compensation for attendance not funded

Who: Specialists

Focus: 6-month long program; development of leadership skills, apply training by leading a project or change initiative

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Facility Engagement (SSC)

Work is underway to determine a new process to reactivate physician-led projects, aligned with strategic priorities. A call for expressions of interest and funding amounts will be announced once the new process is complete.
Enhancing Access Initiative (SSC)

Frequency: Ongoing

Amount: If a specialist(s) demonstrates successful implementation of their improvement initiative, then they may be eligible to receive one-time funding to support additional changes to their program

Who: Specialists

Focus: Designed to support interested specialists to engage with their colleagues and external partners, assess their practice and referral process, and implement strategies to improve patient access to consult and care.

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Perioperative Clinical Action Network (PCAN) (SSC)

Frequency: Ongoing

Amount: $25 to $100k+

Who: Perioperative surgical team members

Focus: To enable PCAN members to explore, share and develop strategies and ideas to support provincial surgical priorities; to facilitate the spread of QI and innovation ideas to improve surgical care in BC; to leverage network data to guide QI opportunities provincially.

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Health System Redesign (SSC)

Frequency: Ongoing

Amount: Intended to cover physician participation beyond hospital administrative duties for which physicians are already responsible and compensated; sessional rate; refer to site for funding criteria

Who: Physicians

Focus: To facilitate physician engagement and collaboration in the redesign and/or QI of health services provided by the health authorities.

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Health Care Quality BC Clinician Fellowship in Health Care Quality

Frequency: Annual

Amount: Physician fellows compensated at sessional rate for 2 sessions/week and other clinicians funded at an hourly rate for up to 7.5 hrs/week (equivalent of 1 day/week); expenses such as conference attendance, travel related to fellowship activities and professional development activities are funded

Who: Physicians and nurse practitioners (early-career)

Focus: Fellows bring forward an improvement project related to one of the HQBC priority areas and will take part in activities to advance their project aims; receive mentorship; embedded in the HQBC team for a full year

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Royal College/ Associated Medical Services CanMEDS Research Grant

Frequency: Annual; grants are up to a maximum of 24 months in duration

Amount: Up to $25,000

Who: Physicians

Focus: Projects that leverage the 2015 CanMEDS framework to advance the fields of residency education, continuing professional development and other health system-related areas of focus in Canada

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Royal College Medical Education Research Grant

Frequency: Annual grants are up to a maximum of 24 months in duration

Amount: $5,000 - $50,000

Who: Physicians

Focus: Research that will advance the field of postgraduate medical education or continuing professional development

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Small Steps, Big Idea (Vancouver Physician Staff Association – funding from SSC)

Frequency: 6 times/year

Amount: $1,000 - $5,000

Who: Physicians who are members of VPSA

Focus: Develop concepts that engage physicians and their colleagues, improve patient care, develop better communication, and/or build relationships across specialties, departments, health authority leadership, and community members; current priority areas are wellness, engagement, patient and provider experience of care, Indigenous health, planetary health and EDI

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External Research Grants

Michael Smith Health Research BC: Health Professional – Investigator (HP-I) Program

Frequency: Annual

Amount: Up to $90,000/yr for salary support; 5 years

Who: Staff and medical staff

Focus: Individual-based; supports health professionals to develop and advance research with the goal of bringing research evidence into practice within the health system; must be in a clinical position and ability to commit to 20+ hours/week research activities by award start date

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Michael Smith Health Research BC: Scholar Program

Frequency: Annual

Amount: Up to $90,000/yr for salary support; 5 years

Who: Early-career health researchers who hold a PhD, commit a minimum of 75% of their time conducting research and are within 6 years of the start of their first university appointment

Focus: Helps researchers start and develop new programs of research

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Michael Smith Health Research BC: Convening & Collaborating (C2) Program

Frequency: Annual

Amount: Up to $20,000; 18 months

Who: Novice researchers

Focus: Supports researchers, trainees and research users in co-developing research that can have a direct impact on people, including patients, health practitioners and policy makers.

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Michael Smith Health Research BC: Reach Program

Frequency: Annual

Amount: Up to $20,000; 18 months

Who: Researchers who need support to disseminate their research through projects like a social media initiative, patient forum, or a learning curriculum

Focus: Supports researchers and research users in disseminating research evidence through co-developing events, activities, and/or tools to “extend the reach” of their work.

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Michael Smith Health Research BC: Co-Fund Opportunities

Visit the site to see a list of organizations seeking opportunities to co-fund researchers in Health Research BC’s competitions – e.g. Alzheimer Society of BC, BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute, BC Nurses’ Union, BC Schizophrenia Society Foundation, Canadian Celiac Association British Columbia, Canadians for Leading Edge Alzheimer Research, Centre for Heart Lung Innovation, CHÉOS, Cystic Fibrosis Canada, ICORD, Lotte & John Hecht Memorial Foundation, Mental Health Research Canada, Parkinson Society of British Columbia, Praxis, Tai Hung Fai Charitable Foundation and Edwin S.H. Leong Healthy Aging Program, Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute, VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation

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Vancouver Foundation

Visit the site to review a list of grants that focus on the community working in collaboration with practice partners such as PHC clinicians.

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Canadian Institutes of Health Research

Visit the site to review a list of grants; mainly Doctoral Research, non- government agency research.

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Lung Health Research Grants (BC Lung Foundation)

Frequency: Annual

Amount: Up to $30,000 over 1yr or up to $60,000 over 2yrs

Who: Principal investigator must hold a faculty appointment at a Canadian university

Focus: Supports pulmonary research or development projects

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Bluma Tischler Postdoctoral Fellowship (UBC)

Frequency: Annual

Amount: $25,000 for 1yr

Who: Must hold a postdoctoral appointment at a Canadian university

Focus: Supports pulmonary research or development projects

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WorkSafeBC Innovation Funding Stream: Applied Innovation

Frequency: Annual

Amount: Up to $50,000 for 1 yr

Who: Any Canadian resident, including workers, employers, and academic researchers.

Focus: Supports small-scale, shop-floor occupational health and safety research projects that lead to innovative and practical solutions that can be implemented in workplaces.

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WorkSafeBC Innovation Funding Stream: Proof of Principle and Prototyping

Frequency: Annual

Amount: Up to $100,000 for 2 yrs

Who: Any Canadian resident, including workers, employers, and academic researchers.

Focus: Supports early-stage prototypes, tools, and technology that can be used in the workplace to solve occupational health and safety problems.

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WorkSafeBC Innovation Funding Stream: Exploratory Research

Frequency: Annual

Amount: Up to $125,000 for 2 yrs

Who: Academic researchers.

Focus: Supports high-risk/high-reward projects that explore novel occupational health and safety ideas and solutions with transformational and lasting effects across workplaces in Canada.

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National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP)

Call 1-877-994-4727 or visit the site to learn more about NRC IRAP.

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Unions and Associations

BCNU

Visit the site to review available bursaries and funds.

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CSMLS

Visit the site to review available bursaries and funds.

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Doctors of BC

Visit the site to review available awards and scholarships.

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HSA

Visit the site to review available bursaries and funds.

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HEU

Visit the site to review available bursaries and funds.

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RNFBC

Visit the site to review available bursaries and funds.

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Funding

Funding streams & opportunities for PHC staff & medical staff Copy link to this section

PHC Internal Opportunities Copy link to this section

Innovarium Launchpad

Research Challenge

Knowledge Translation Challenge

Quality Improvement Challenge

Planetary Health Funding Awards

Innovative & Translational Research Awards

Team Grant

Skunkworks

PHC Internal Opportunities: Medical Staff-Specific Copy link to this section

VCH/PHC Physician Quality Improve (PQI) Initiative

VCH/PHC Spreading Quality Improvement (SQI) Initiative

Department of Medicine Innovation Platform

PHC Physicians and Surgeons Society (PHC PASS) Facility Engagement Funding (Pillar Focused Projects)

St. Paul’s Foundation Copy link to this section

St. Paul’s Foundation Enhanced Patient Care Grant

External Opportunities: Staff & Medical Staff Copy link to this section

Ministry of Health Innovation Pathway

Canada Foundation for Innovation

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Idea to Innovation (I2I)

UBC Health Innovation Funding Investment (HIFI) Awards

UBC School of Biomedical Engineering (SBME): Engineers in Scrubs

Innovate BC

Genome BC: Sector Innovation Program (SIP)

Genome BC: Genomics Innovation Fund

TD Ready Challenge

Health Quality BC (HQBC) Low-Carbon, High Quality Collaborative

CASCADES Innovation RFP

StrongerBC Future Skills Grant

New Frontiers in Research Fund

External Opportunities: Medical Staff-Specific Copy link to this section

Shared Care Partners in Care (PiC) and Transitions in Care (TiC)

Shared Care Spread Networks

Specialist Services Committee (SSC)

Physician Leadership Training (SSC)

UBC Sauder Physician Leadership Program (SSC)

Facility Engagement (SSC)

Enhancing Access Initiative (SSC)

Perioperative Clinical Action Network (PCAN) (SSC)

Health System Redesign (SSC)

Health Care Quality BC Clinician Fellowship in Health Care Quality

Royal College/ Associated Medical Services CanMEDS Research Grant

Royal College Medical Education Research Grant

Small Steps, Big Idea (Vancouver Physician Staff Association – funding from SSC)

External Research Grants Copy link to this section

Michael Smith Health Research BC: Health Professional – Investigator (HP-I) Program

Michael Smith Health Research BC: Scholar Program

Michael Smith Health Research BC: Convening & Collaborating (C2) Program

Michael Smith Health Research BC: Reach Program

Michael Smith Health Research BC: Co-Fund Opportunities

Vancouver Foundation

Canadian Institutes of Health Research

Lung Health Research Grants (BC Lung Foundation)

Bluma Tischler Postdoctoral Fellowship (UBC)

WorkSafeBC Innovation Funding Stream: Applied Innovation

WorkSafeBC Innovation Funding Stream: Proof of Principle and Prototyping

WorkSafeBC Innovation Funding Stream: Exploratory Research

National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP)

Unions and Associations Copy link to this section

BCNU

CSMLS

Doctors of BC

HSA

HEU

RNFBC