Call for Proposals

Goals

The Center for Innovation in Medical Education (CiMED) is pleased to announce a call for proposals for the CiMED Medical Education Research Grants for the Spring of 2025. The goal of this research grant is to support University of Ottawa faculty-led projects that involve scholarship in health professions education. The project may involve any aspect relevant to health professions education including, but not limited to undergraduate, postgraduate, continuing professional development, simulation, and assessment. Projects focused solely on program evaluation or quality improvement may be considered but the proposal must have an explicit plan for dissemination.

There will be four categories of grants offered. Applicants must indicate which category their proposal is targeting.

1. Early Career Educator Grants. The PI or co-PI must be an MD  or PhD in the first 5 years of their appointment to a sponsoring clinical Department in the Faculty of Medicine. 

2. Simulation-related Education Research Grants. The research must include simulation in its focus or methodology. The PI or co-PI must be an MD and have a primary appointment in a sponsoring clinical department.

3. General category - Medical Education Scholarship Grants. The PI or co-PI must have an MD and a primary appointment in a sponsoring clinical department. Most grants will fall under this category unless they qualify for 1,2 or 4.

4. Basic Science Educator Grants. The PI or co-PI PhD must have a primary appointment in a basic science department within the Faculty of Medicine.

Note that funding may be reallocated between grant categories based on the merit of the applications received.

Eligibility

1. Categories 1, 2, 3: The primary investigator (PI) or co-PI must be an MD faculty member with a primary appointment in a clinical department within the Faculty of Medicine. Applications may be individual or joint, involving one or more departments, disciplines, or faculties. Collaborative research teams are encouraged. Students, residents, and fellows may apply, but a faculty member from a clinical department must be identified as a senior co-investigator or co-PI.
2. Categories 1, 2 3: The PI or co-PI on this submission must have a primary appointment in one of the clinical departments that is currently funding CiMED (Anesthesiology, Emergency Medicine, Family Medicine, Medicine, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, Pediatrics, Radiology, and Surgery). PI departmental affiliation must be indicated clearly in the proposal.
3. Category 4: All Basic Science PhDs with an academic appointment in the Faculty of Medicine are eligible to apply as PIs. They may also apply as co-PI in any of the other categories.
4. If the PI is a CiMED fellow from a non-sponsoring clinical department, he/she is eligible to apply but their submission will require 75% matching funds from their department. A letter from the Department Chair will be required to confirm matching funds would be made available if the grant were selected for funding.
5. If a PI has received funding from DIME or CiMED in the past and their grant is still active, he/she will not be eligible for funding this year.  He/she may still supervise a trainee or student and can be a co-investigator on proposals submitted by other PIs.
6. We strongly encourage research teams to have a co-investigator or senior investigator on the team with recognized expertise in medical education research.  A list of potential experts are listed at the end of this document. If you are not sure who to contact, reach out to Drs Jason Frank ([email protected]), Claire Touchie ([email protected]), or Susan Humphrey-Murto ([email protected]) for advice on who to contact.  
7. Early Career Educator grants: The PI on this submission must have had an academic appointment for five or less years. This will not exclude the grant from being considered in the general grants section.
8. Please note if you would like your submission to be considered for a simulation grant, this will not exclude the grant from also being considered in the general grants section. PhD basic science led grants will only be eligible for category 4 grants, unless they have a co-PI from a sponsoring clinical department.
9. For projects involving medical students as research subjects, prior approval must be obtained from the Vice-Dean, Undergraduate Medical Education (UGME). Please submit a summary of your project to the Vice-Dean, UGME in advance of submitting it to CiMED. Your summary should include the research question, your methodology, how you plan on recruiting students, and a tentative timeline for recruitment. Note that this summary should be approximately two paragraphs in length and/or no more than one page.
10. All submissions must have a plan for must have a plan for dissemination included in their proposal.

Value

The maximum amount that will be provided per project is $7,500.00.  We also encourage those requiring smaller amounts to apply. The grants committee reserves the right to make adjustments to proposed budgets.

Duration

Projects must not extend beyond a two-year period (i.e., January 2027).

Submission Process

All submissions must be e-mailed to [email protected] with the subject line “CiMED grant submission” no later than 11:59 pm, May 4, 2025. Confirmation of submission will be acknowledged within two business days; please contact the office if you do not receive confirmation within this time period.  Late applications, paper submissions and incomplete applications will not be considered. Submissions may be made in either French or English.

The application must be submitted in the order and content as follows:

1. Front page: Title page: Title of project; Name of PI, Department of PI, contact info for PI; appropriate category (Early career, Simulation, Medical Education, Basic Science); name of medical education methodologist if you have one; collaborators names/department/affiliations and role in the project; and budgetary request.
2. 250-word structured abstract providing a description of the project (Background, methods, potential implications)
3. Proposal

The proposal should be no more than five (5) pages in length, single-spaced, in 12-point type with 1" margins. Number the pages in the bottom right corner. Attachments such as a timeline, budget, references, rating tools, and models are allowed and are not counted in the five-page proposal limit.

The proposal must include the following sections (note sections a, b and c are included in the 5-page limit):

a. Background

This section should contain a literature review and a problem statement or research question. Eligible topics may include faculty development, course development and/or medical education research across the educational continuum.  Innovative pilot research projects are welcomed. Proposals to develop educational courses, programs or projects must include reference to a specific evaluation framework to determine the impact of the intervention.

b. Methods

For research projects, this section should contain information about the experimental design, the participants, the procedure, and the analyses.

For innovations or educational programs, this section should contain information about the need being addressed, learning objectives, the participants, the procedure, and the analyses.

c. Implications

What are the implications or potential outcomes of this project?

d. Timeline (sections d,e, f are not included in the 5-page limit)

This section should contain a listing of important tasks within the project along with the completion dates. If planning to attend a research meeting to present, please factor that into the timeline.

e. Budget

Amounts and justification of budget line items must be provided in a one-page outline.  Up to $1500 may be requested to defray the costs for travel, accommodation, meals, or conference registration for investigators to disseminate the project findings in a peer reviewed venue.

Note that the following items will not be funded:

• The purchase of equipment.
• Activities which are an integral part of course planning (e.g., annotated bibliographies, course outlines, student manuals and copying costs)
• Salary or honoraria for investigators.
• Travel, accommodation or meals for external investigators to visit Ottawa.
• Publication fees
• Medical writers

f. Dissemination strategy

The dissemination of educational innovations and research findings is required. This section should contain a description of how the project will inform future work and how the results will be disseminated to the research community. Funded projects are expected to be presented at Meridith Marks Days the year following completion. We also encourage national and/or international presentation of projects.

g. Curriculum vitae

A 4-page curriculum vitae must be submitted for each investigator. Include any previous educational innovations, education administrative roles, publications, and grants received for the last three years.

Selection Process

The CiMED Research Committee will assess proposals and name successful applicants by July 1, 2025.

Selection will be based on the overall merit of the application. The criteria for this assessment are:

• Relevance to the field of health professions education
• Potential benefits for the advancement of health professions education
• Quality of the methodology, evaluation and/or research design
• Applicants’ ability to successfully complete the project (i.e., past experience or involvement of co-investigators with relevant experience or skills)
• Clearly justified statement of costs
• Realistic time frame for the project
• A plan for the continuation of the project (or benefits) beyond the initial period

Completion of the grant

Funds will be available to investigators starting July 2025 once all requirements have been met by the researcher(s). These requirements include but are not limited to confirmation of approval by (i) the Ottawa Health Science Network REB, and (ii) a financial officer and an account number. For projects involving medical students, prior approval must be obtained from the Vice-Dean, Undergraduate Medical Education (UGME). An amount equivalent to 90 per cent of the grant will be disbursed upon project commencement, and 10 per cent upon project completion and receipt of a final report.

The financial support of the Faculty of Medicine, CiMED must be acknowledged in all publications and presentations resulting from this grant. Successful applicants will be required to present their findings as a paper or poster at the Meridith Marks Medical Education Days and strongly encouraged to submit for presentation at a Canadian and/or international medical education meeting. Projects that are funded through the simulation-based education stream by the University of Ottawa Skills & Simulation Centre are required to be presented at the Ottawa Regional SIMposium by June of 2027.  

On the completion of the project grantees are required to:

1. Submit a final report which lists all presentations and publications that were funded by the grant. If under review list the journal and date submitted. This final report must be submitted to the Chair ([email protected]), CiMED Medical Education Research Grants. Those who fail to submit a final report will not be eligible for future CiMED funding.
2. Enclose a financial statement (to be matched against original budget); unused funds must be returned along with a description of any variance greater than 25%.