Timely, Robust, and Equity-Driven Evidence Syntheses

Funding opportunity

Researchers are invited to apply for a new grant funding opportunity sponsored by Canadian Forces Health Services (CFHS) Women and Diversity Health program (WDH) to produce timely, demand-driven and contextualized evidence syntheses in relation to women and diverse population health needs within the military.

Anticipated timeline and budget

Background

Women and diverse populations have been historically under-researched in medicine, and this has limited our knowledge of their unique health needs, including health risks, prevention, and treatment options. For these reasons, CFHS established the WDH program. The program aims to optimize prevention and care for women and members with diversity factors, using an intersectional lens, to improve their physical, mental and psychosocial wellbeing. This is aligned with governmental priorities and current shifts in research.

Since its inception in 2022, the WDH program has focused on establishing relationships with stakeholders and partners to identify collaborative opportunities and minimize duplication of effort, as well as to begin to identify opportunities for high-priority research.

Policy and program decisions affecting these populations increasingly require an evidence base that is timely, inclusive, and sensitive to intersectional factors such as gender, race, sexuality, disability, and rank. However, existing evidence is frequently fragmented, outdated, or not disaggregated in ways that adequately capture these experiences, resulting in important knowledge gaps. Rapid evidence syntheses are therefore essential to inform decision-making by providing timely, policy-relevant summaries of the best available evidence while identifying areas where data are lacking. Applying this approach enables leaders and policymakers to make informed decisions, prioritize research needs, and design responsive policies that better support equity, health, and operational readiness across the CAF and CFHS.

Research objectives

This funding opportunity is seeking submissions from research groups who have the ability to provide timely demand-driven evidence syntheses in the military and Veteran research field.

This involves producing innovative rapid evidence syntheses that combine several forms of evidence by drawing on behavioural and implementation science, qualitative insights, and jurisdictional scans that capture experiences from Canadian provinces, territories, and other countries (e.g., Five-Eyes Nations, NATO), as well as producing plain-language summaries to support informed decisions by citizens or service members.

Evidence synthesis products may include

1. Ultra-rapid evidence syntheses produced within 1–5 days that provide a high-level profile of the most relevant and highest quality evidence organized by a decision-relevant framework.
2. Rapid evidence syntheses conducted within 2–10 weeks that provide a more fulsome synthesis of findings from all relevant evidence syntheses and primary studies.
3. Comprehensive evidence syntheses that provide more in-depth findings and can incorporate enhancements to scope and methods including risk of bias assessment, GRADE assessment, and in-depth statistical, interpretive or qualitative analysis.

Desired outputs

10 evidence syntheses in the format of a report, including an Executive Summary, Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, References, Appendices, and the other specifications as described above.

Include a knowledge translation or knowledge transfer component, in particular policy briefs or plain-language summaries.

SAGER guidelines followed, with a detailed description of GBA+ considerations.

Virtual presentation of findings to project the sponsor (presentation may take place after the project's end date).

Quarterly progress reports provided to the WDH Section.

Applicant qualifications and requirements

Principal investigator (PI) must have a PhD or MD in a relevant field, with experience in research within the health system context for military personnel.

Research team should have a network of Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to consult regarding specific topics of interest, and to support an equity-driven approach to evidence synthesis.

All reports, publications, and presentations from this funding opportunity are required to acknowledge that the research was carried out in response to a funding opportunity developed and funded by the CFHS WDH.

Application deadline

As stated above. Please download and submit the Funding Opportunities link.

Applicants are advised to include eight weeks of administrative lead time in their timelines. This will allow for ethics board submission and approval (if required), and the drafting and signing of the funding agreement.

Enquiries

Questions about this funding opportunity can be sent to the VAC Research Office at research-recherche@veterans.gc.ca.