2024 Seed Grants for Climate, Health & Sustainable Care – PLUS

Applications due August 30, 2024, at 5:00 pm Eastern Time

Background

The Collaborative Centre for Climate, Health & Sustainable Care is an extra-departmental unit type C, established in November 2023 by its four founding faculties: the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, the Lawrence Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing, and the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy.

The mission of the Collaborative Centre is to catalyze research, education, practice & partnerships for positive environmental and social change for health and in health systems, at local and global scales. See our temporary website here, for more information.

The Collaborative Centre is fortunate to be able to partner on this Seed Grant competition with several UofT and TAHSN centres of excellence with interests in health, health systems, climate, environment, sustainability, and sustainable development. Accordingly, some of the available funds will be contingent on relevance to their mandates.

Our partners:

The Institute for Inclusive Health & Wellbeing

The Institute for Inclusive Health & Wellbeing is one of the institutes within iRISE, the institutes for Resilient and Inclusive Societies and Ecosystems at UTSC, which aims to produce inclusive and integrative health research programs, focusing on the health challenges that arise from living in the Anthropocene.

The Institute for Inclusive Health & Wellbeing has provided unconditional support for partnership on two (2) seed grants, enabling the Collaborative Centre to catalyze additional partnerships.

The SDGs@UofT

The SDGs@UofT is an Institutional Strategic Initiative of the University of Toronto, which is also part of iRISE. Launched in May 2023, its vision is to position U of T as leaders in convergence research that empowers positive actions on the SDGs and informs future global goals for an equitable and sustainable future. The SDGs were ratified in 2015 by 193 member countries. They provide a global framework for action for people, planet, prosperity, peace, and partnership. These goals include over 169 targets and over 230 indicators. SDGs are relevant to all countries.

SDGs@UofT will partner to support one (1) seed grant that addresses at least one research theme of the SDGs ISI (see the 4 themes here: https://sdg.utoronto.ca/research-themes/) and where at least one team member is affiliated to the SDGs ISI

TRANSFORM HF

TRANSFORM HF is an Institutional Strategic Initiative of the University of Toronto and the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research focussed on digital health innovation for heart failure care. TRANSFORM HF builds, supports, and funds a community of engineers, scientists and clinicians who work in tandem with Indigenous health experts and patients to develop point-of-care diagnostics, wearables, and AI technologies to monitor and proactively treat people with heart failure – and empower them to be more active in their own care.

TRANSFORM HF will partner to support one (1) seed grant on the climate and environmental impacts of digital transformation in health; at least one PA must be a member of TRANSFORM HF.

The Centre for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety (CQuIPS)

The Centre for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety (CQuIPS) is a joint partnership between the University of Toronto’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine and three of its major teaching hospitals, the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and Women’s College Hospital (WCH). CQuIPS works to accelerate and deepen the work of people and organizations that are passionate about improving quality and patient safety.

CQuIPS will partner to support one (1) seed grant that mobilizes quality improvement in addressing healthcare’s climate and environmental impacts.

Climate Positive Energy (CPE)

Climate Positive Energy (CPE) is an Institutional Strategic Initiative of the University of Toronto that supports interdisciplinary clean energy research – linking science, social science, engineering, economics and policy researchers to transform our energy systems.

CPE will support a maximum of three (3) seed grants at the intersection of health and climate where at least one of the team members (preferably, one of the PAs) is a CPE member from one of 43 non-health science CPE departments.

President’s Advisory Committee on the Environment, Climate Change, and Sustainability (CECCS)

President’s Advisory Committee on the Environment, Climate Change, and Sustainability (CECCS) was created in early 2017 to advance coordination of the University’s contributions and objectives on climate change and sustainability pertaining to research and innovation, academic programs, community engagement, and sustainability initiatives related to our operations.

CECCS will partner to support up to two (2) seed grants on projects that advance regenerative sustainability, community resilience and/or sustainable practice change (e.g. in the health sector or city region).
Interdisciplinary teams and projects that involve practitioner or non-academic participation will be given preference.

Call for Applications

Call for Applications – 2024 Seed Grants for Climate, Health & Sustainable Care – PLUS

The Collaborative Centre for Climate, Health & Sustainable Care, in collaboration with partners, is offering Seed Grants to encourage, foster, and support members of our community working collaboratively on research that advances our mission, expands our network, and – as appropriate – intersects with missions of our partners.

The 2024 competition will award 4-11 seed grants valued at a maximum of $10,000 each.

All of the seed grants must meet the minimum set of requirements. Up to seven seed grants are conditional on meeting the additional criteria of one or more of our partners.

The number of grants and funding amount for each award to be supported depends on the mix and quality of applications received.

Funds may be used to support activities such as data collection, systematic scoping reviews/ environmental scans, workshops/ consensus development processes, engagement processes, research proposal or resource development.
Research may include but is not limited to policy analysis, quality improvement, health education/ pedagogical development, environmental assessment, clinical epidemiology, community engagement.
Projects should have the potential to lead to full proposals for Tri-Council or other competitive grants.

Funding will begin October 2024. Funds must be spent by October 2025.

Application timeline

June 20, 2024 – Call for applications posted
August 30, 2024, 5pm ET – Deadline for applications
October 2024 – Notification of funding decision
- Public announcement of successful applicants at Inaugural Symposium, October 22, 2024
Funds must be used within 12 months of notification

Application Requirements

Minimum requirements for all seed grant applications

All seed grant applications must align with the Mission of the Collaborative Centre.

Team

The Nominated Principal Applicant must be a University of Toronto faculty member (including teaching stream, tenure stream, CLTA and clinical faculty) who is eligible to hold Tri-Council Funds.

Funds will be transferred to the Fund Centre of the Nominated Principal Applicant.
Only one application per Principal Applicant is permitted.

A core goal of the seed grant competition is to catalyze capacity and collaboration across the Collaborative Centre’s four founding faculties, and beyond. Thus:

The Nominated Principal Applicant, or one of the Principal Applicants, must be faculty in one of the Collaborative Centre’s four founding faculties.
The Nominated Principal Applicant must be a member of the Collaborative Centre for Climate, Health & Sustainable Care or eligible to become a member (other applicants are encouraged to become members). If you are not a Collaborative Centre member, please complete this membership form in advance of submission.
Teams must include faculty from at least two of the Collaborative Centre’s founding faculties (one of whom is a Principal Applicant).
Teams are encouraged to include faculty from across the faculties and divisions of the University of Toronto, as appropriate.
Teams are encouraged to include University of Toronto graduate students and research fellows as well as Toronto academic health science network and community members, as appropriate.

Additional requirements for partnered seed grants

With the support of The Institute for Inclusive Health & Wellbeing @iRISE, UTSC, the Collaborative Centre is able to provide additional seed grant opportunities. For applicants wishing to be considered for these partnered seed grants, additional requirements apply. Please specify which, if any, of these partnered seed grants you wish to be considered for, and please address these requirements in your proposal:

The SDG@UofT will support one (1) seed grant that (i) addresses at least one research theme of the SDGs ISI; see the 4 themes here: https://sdg.utoronto.ca/research-themes/, and (ii) where at least one team member is affiliated to the SDG ISI

TRANSFORM HF will support one (1) seed grant on the climate and environmental impacts of digital transformation in health; at least one PA must be a member of TRANSFORM HF.

The Centre for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety (CQuIPS) will support one (1) seed grant that mobilizes quality improvement in addressing healthcare’s climate and environmental impacts.

Climate Positive Energy (CPE) will support up to three (3) seed grants at the intersection of health and climate where the at least one of the team members (preferably, one of the PAs) is a CPE member from one of 43 non-health science CPE departments.

President’s Advisory Committee on the Environment, Climate Change, and Sustainability will support up to two (2) seed grants on projects that advance regenerative sustainability, community resilience and/or sustainable practice change (e.g., in the health sector or city region). Interdisciplinary teams and projects that involve practitioner or non-academic participation will be given preference

Application process

How to apply

Submit using the Application Form by August 30, 2024 at 5:00 pm Eastern

Please use your UofT email address to access the application form (if this is an issue, please reach out to climate.health@utoronto.ca).

Receipt of complete/on-time submissions will be acknowledged. Incomplete or late applications will not be accepted.

Evaluation of applications

Applications will be evaluated according to their alignment with the Collaborative Centre’s mission, ability to expand the network, and justification of funding utilization. Applications that are to be considered for partner-supported funding will also be evaluated for their alignment with the requirements specified by each partner.

Note 1: The Principal Applicant is responsible for obtaining the necessary ethics approvals as appropriate prior to starting this research project.

Note 2: All standard University of Toronto Policies on the conduct of research and use of research funds apply. Signing confirmation of this award will be deemed to agree that financial records, ethics approvals will be made available in the event of an audit.

Note 3: All applications will be reviewed by an independent committee. Make your proposal as clear as possible for an informed reader who may not know your field.

Expectations of successful applicants

Sponsorship & Industry engagement Policy: Please note, the Collaborative Centre has adopted a sponsorship and industry engagement policy to maintain the credibility of our work and a high degree of public assurance in our mission. Where members of the Collaborative Centre engage in activities that are publicly-associated with the Collaborative Centre – as is the case for Collaborative Centre Seed Grants – engagements with commercial entities, including their foundations or the third-parties that act on their behalf, must yield greater benefits than risks (i.e., to credibility, governance, etc.), using established risk assessment frameworks. Applicants will be asked to indicate whether their proposal involves engagement and/or sponsorship with such entities, so that benefits and risks can be clearly identified and assessed.

Reporting

You will be required to complete a written Progress Report and Financial Report.

Knowledge Sharing

Successful applicants will be featured in Collaborative Centre communications and reporting.
Successful applicants of partnered seed grants may also be featured in relevant partner communications and reporting.

We will ask each project team to present their work at the next annual symposium of the Collaborative Centre held in fall 2025. Acknowledgement of the support of the Collaborative Centre for Climate, Health & Sustainable Care is required for all reports and publications. Seed grants that are co-funded by partners must also acknowledge the support of the partner organizations, and teams may also be invited to present their work at partner-relevant events.

Questions

Please contact climate.health@utoronto.ca