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Canadian Public Health Association

IPPH Trailblazer Award 2025

OVERVIEW

The Institute of Population and Public Health (IPPH) Trailblazer Award in Population and Public Health Research is a career achievement award that recognizes exceptional contributions in the area of population and public health research.

Objectives

The IPPH Trailblazer Award is designed to recognize the exemplary efforts and activities of exceptional Canadian researchers at different career stages who have created a highly influential body of work that has had a substantial impact on the field of population and public health research. The award also recognizes the leadership, mentorship, and innovative contributions of the recipients.

The IPPH will consider applications for this award that are determined to be relevant to the Institute mandate, to the definition of CIHR Pillar 4 Research (social, cultural, environmental and population health), and in keeping with the Institute values of:

  • Coherent intersectoral action for population health improvements;
  • Scalable population health solutions;
  • Community engagement, co-design and knowledge sharing;
  • Equitable population health impacts.

Applicants will also be expected to demonstrate how the concept of health equity is incorporated and integrated throughout the applicant’s body of work.

Up to three awards will be given, for exceptional researchers at different career stages.

Anticipated dates 

Application deadline 15 January 2025
Anticipated Notice of Decision 28 February 2025
Award Start Date 1 April 2025

Funds Available

The total amount available for this award is $7,500, enough to fund three awards. The maximum amount per award is $2,500 (TBD).

  • Of this $7,500:
    • $2,500 is available to fund up to one early career population and public health researcher.
      • An early career researcher is a researcher within five years of the date of their first independent research-related appointment.
    • $2,500 is available to fund up to one mid-career population and public health researcher.
      • A mid-career researcher is a researcher who, at the time of application, has assumed his/her independent research position 5-15 years ago.
    • $2,500 is available to fund up to one senior career population and public health researcher.
      • A senior career researcher is a researcher who, at the time of application, has assumed his/her first independent research position more than 15 years ago.

Conditions of Funding

In 2024-25, the IPPH Trailblazer award is being administered and run by the Canadian Public Health Association (CPHA). The IPPH Trailblazer awardees and their work will be featured in IPPH and CPHA communication channels (e.g., newsletters, social media), and will be celebrated at Public Health 2025 (either in-person or virtually through an acceptance video). The awardee is responsible for covering their travel and costs to attend this conference.

Eligibility to Apply

For an application to be eligible:

The Nominated Principal Applicant must:

  • be an independent researcher;
  • be appointed at an eligible institution at the time of application; and
  • hold their primary academic appointment at a Canadian institution.

The Nominated Principal Applicant must be a population and public health researcher with an active research program in population and public health and:

  • be an early career researcher for the early career award;
  • be a mid-career researcher for the mid-career award;
  • be a senior researcher for the senior award.

The Nominated Principal Applicant must be nominated by a member of the Canadian health research community. (see Nomination Package in How to Apply section below). Nominators may have previously worked or be currently working with an individual they nominate.

The Nominated Principal Applicant must be endorsed by the executive head of the institution where they hold their primary academic appointment (i.e. from the President, Provost, Rector, Dean of the Faculty, Research Director or similar appropriate authority from the applicant’s faculty) through a letter of support (see Nomination Package in How to Apply section).

Current and past members of the CIHR Governing Council, current and past CIHR Scientific Directors and current CIHR-IPPH staff are not eligible for these awards.

Review Process and Evaluation

Relevance Review Process

The Institute of Population and Public Health will perform relevance review to identify applications that are in alignment with the objectives of this award.

Applications that are not deemed to be relevant will be withdrawn from the competition.

Review Process

An appointed peer review committee will evaluate the full applications. The committee may be drawn from pre-existing Trailblazer award recipients or may be created specifically for this award. Committee members are selected based on suggestions from many sources including the institute(s)/branch(es) and partner(s).

Evaluation Criteria

To support the strategic objectives of this award, the following evaluation criteria will be used.

  1. Level of impact and experience in Canada and/or internationally in population and public health research and/or communities, aligned with the IPPH mandate.
  2. Level of influence on policy and/or practice in Canada and/or internationally in population and public health research and/or communities, and aligned with the IPPH mandate.
  3. Extent of achievements in Canada and/or internationally in the areas of leadership, mentorship, and capacity building at the individual, institutional or community level in the area of population and public health research.
  4. Extent of commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) and/or health equity in Canada and/or internationally at the individual, institutional or community level in the area of population and public health research.

Applications will be reviewed in comparison to other applications within the same career-stage category.

Funding Decision

The top-ranked application relevant to each career pool that follows the eligibility criteria will be awarded.

How to Apply

Nomination Package

Nomination Packages must be compiled into a single PDF and emailed to awards@cpha.ca.

The nomination package must include:

Impact statement outlining accomplishments and impacts (maximum 5 pages for English applications, 6 pages for French applications).

  • The nominee must outline the extent to which they have created an influential body of work that has had a substantial impact on the field of population health research and its use in policy and/or practice in Canada and/or internationally, relative to their career stage. For example, contributions to the scientific literature, potential to inform decision making in health and/or outside of the health sector, and development and/or advancement of methods or theories in population and public health research and/or community-based research.
  • The statement by the nominee should outline how they have advanced health equity and must provide evidence, relative to their career stage, of their leadership, mentorship and capacity building at the individual or institutional level –including commitments to equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI), and innovative contributions to the field of population and public health research relative to stage of career.
  • The letter should clearly indicate to which career-stage award the nominee is applying to (early-/mid-career or senior researcher). 
  • Note: Pages that exceed the limits above will be removed with no further notification to the Nominated Principal Applicant.

A signed letter of nomination (maximum 2 pages)

Each application must include a letter of nomination from a peer in the field or a community member who has a working relationship with the nominee. Self-nominations will not be accepted.

  • A signed letter from a peer nominator providing the principal reasons for which the nominee merits consideration for the award. It should provide detailed evidence as to how the applicant has made an outstanding contribution to the field of population and public health research and/or community-based research and its use in policy and/or practice in Canada and/or internationally, relative to the applicant’s career stage. The letter should emphasize the achievements of the applicant in alignment with the evaluation criteria for the award. The nomination letter should be from a person who is in a position to provide an assessment of the impact of the applicant’s career achievements.
  • For research projects involving First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples, a letter from a relevant community member is encouraged.

Institution letter of support (maximum 2 pages)

Each application must include a single letter of support from the Faculty Dean, Research Director, or similar role from the applicant’s institution.

  • A signed letter from the head of your institution (i.e. from the President, Provost, Rector, Dean of the Faculty, Research Director or similar appropriate authority from the applicant’s faculty) confirming the applicant has an active research program and endorsing the application. Applicants with an active research program are defined as having an on-going program of research, routinely engaged in scholarly dissemination activities, actively seeking external research funding, who meaningfully engages students in their work.
  • Additional letters of support will not be considered.

Nominated Principal Applicant must complete and include the Academic Canadian Common CV (CCV).

The following documents must also be included:

  • Nominator contact information: Contact information of the nominator, including name, title, organization, address, phone number and email.
  • Consent: By submitting their application for the Trailblazer award, the applicant consents to the use and disclosure of their personal information for the purposes of relevance and peer review.

The Nomination Package should be forwarded to the Nominee who will submit it with their application.

PREVIOUS RECIPIENTS

Information about the previous recipients can be found at https://cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/51432.html.

Contact information

For all inquiries, please contact awards@cpha.ca.