Health Workforce

Overarching goal

Canada is facing substantial health workforce challenges that threaten the ability of the system to provide timely, equitable, accessible, quality services and care to Canadians. Generating evidence on how to organize, finance, manage, train and support an equitable health workforce was identified as a priority area in the CIHR Institute of Health Services and Policy Research’s (IHSPR) 2021-26 strategic planFootnote 1, and strongly aligns with CIHR's strategic plan – reflecting a shared commitment to supporting the people who drive research innovations and the people who plan and deliver health services. IHSPR is collaborating with partners to fund solutions-focused research, build capacity, foster knowledge mobilization and support evidence-informed action that will help to create a strengthened, healthy, resilient, diverse, and equitable, health workforce. Our collective goal is to strengthen the workforce as an essential component of advancing the Quadruple aim and health equity for health system transformation.

Since the launch of IHSPR's strategic plan, the health workforce has garnered further national and international attention, and IHSPR is continuously engaging with the research and health ecosystems (researchers, knowledge users, federal/provincial/territorial partners, and pan-Canadian organizationsFootnote 2) to partner, and collaborate to support the creation, implementation and knowledge mobilization of evidence-informed health workforce solutions. This includes partnered engagements and funding programs dedicated to supporting and strengthening the health workforce, as described below.

Funding Programs

All workforce projects were asked to align with one or more of the six workforce themes identified in the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences' Assessment on Health Human Resources (exception: Quadruple Aim & Equity catalyst grants, which were launched prior to the assessment).

  • Quadruple Aim & Equity Catalyst Grants

    Aim: To support one-year research projects focused on macro/meso-level innovations in how health care systems and services are organized, delivered, governed, held accountable, financed, and/or funded and the impact of those innovations on advancing the Quadruple Aim goals and health equity. Health workforce was an identified priority area, alongside integration of care, primary, home and community-based care, long-term care, and integrating upstream prevention within health care delivery settings.

    Research investments: Within the competition, 8 of the 50 funded projects focused on the health workforce, totaling an $800K investment in health workforce research (out of $5M invested in the overall competition).

    Projects funded in the competition: Funding Decisions Database

    Funding partners: CIHR (Institute of Aging (IA), Institute of Musculoskeletal Health and Arthritis (IMHA), Institute of Population and Public Health (IPPH), Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction (INMHA), Strategy for Patient Oriented Research (SPOR)) and the CMA Foundation.

    Learn more

  • Policy Research for Health System Transformation Catalyst Grants

    Aim: To support one-year policy research projects that generate evidence to inform macro-level policies to support high-performing health care and public health systems in Canada with the aim of advancing the Quadruple Aim and equity. A research funding pool was dedicated to support projects focused on the Canadian health workforce.

    Research investment: Within the competition, 30 of the 60 funded policy projects focused on health workforce, equaling an investment of $4.6M on health workforce research out of $9M invested in the overall competition.

    Projects funded in the competition: Funding Decisions Database

    Funding partners: CIHR (Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), Institute of Population and Public Health (IPPH), Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health (ICRH), Institute of Gender and Health (IGH), Institute of Infection and Immunity (III), the Centre for Research on Pandemic Preparedness and Health Emergencies (CRPPHE), the Strategy for Patient-Oriented Research (SPOR)),  the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Santé (FRQS), the Ontario Ministry of Health (MOH), the New Brunswick Health Research Foundation (NBHRF), and the Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation (SHRF).

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  • Strengthening and Supporting the Health Workforce (Planning Grants)

    Aim: To stimulate research planning activities related to Canada's health workforce, and to help prepare the research community for a forthcoming team grant funding opportunity in the area of health workforce for system transformation.

    Funded projects: 12 planning grants dedicated to strengthening and supporting the health workforce.

    Research investment: Over $493K to fund health workforce research planning grants

    Projects funded in the competition: Funding Decisions Database

    Funding partners: Michael Smith Health Research BC.

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  • Strengthening the Health Workforce for System Transformation – Implementation Science Team Grants

    Aim: Implementation Science Teams (ISTs) will inform the implementation, evaluation and/or spread/scale (share) of an evidence-informed workforce solution(s) that addresses system level challenges (e.g., system organization, governance, accountability, remuneration, capacity building), and aim to strengthen the health workforce, as an essential component of advancing the Quadruple Aim and health equity.

    Funding partners: CIHR (Institute of Aging (IA), Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), Institute of Human Development, Child and Youth Health (IHDCYH), Institute of Population and Public Health (IPPH), the Centre for Research on Pandemic Preparedness and Health Emergencies (CRPPHE)), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), Michael Smith Health Research BC and the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer (The Partnership).

    Research investment: $11.25M available to support 15 ISTs.

    Projects funded in the competition: Notice of Funding Decision is anticipated to be released in spring 2024

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  • Strengthening the Health Workforce for System Transformation – Evidence Support and Knowledge Mobilization (ESKM) Hub

    Aim: Nested in the same funding opportunity as the Implementation Science Team (IST) Grants listed above, the ESKM Hub would support and amplify the knowledge mobilization strategies of the funded ISTs, ensure knowledge users' rapid access to evidence, and support knowledge exchange among funded ISTs (including the teams' researchers, decision-makers, and providers), and other relevant knowledge user communities.

    Research investment: $375,000 to fund one ESKM Hub.

    Projects funded in the competition: Notice of Funding Decision is anticipated to be released in spring 2024.

    Learn more

Partnered Engagements
  • Best Brains Exchange (BBE): Improving Canada’s Retention & Recruitment of Healthcare Professionals: Barriers and Best Practices.

    Description: This in-camera session convened partners (policymakers, researchers, providers, public health stakeholders and those with lived experience) to examine the current evidence and to discuss Canada's health workforce challenges and strategies to improve retention, recruitment and wellness of workforce.

    Moderator: Rick Glazier, Scientific Director of CIHR-IHSPR

    Funding partners: Health Canada

    Learn more: Best Brains Exchanges 2022

  • Canadian Health Workforce Network - Research Priorities Dialogue

    Description: The Canadian Health Workforce Network (CHWN) organized two virtual fora to discuss priority health workforce research and knowledge gaps in Canada. The fora involved pan-Canadian stakeholder organizations, the health workforce research community and interested participants and built on the extensive work undertaken by the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, and other health workforce research reports.

    Speakers: Rick Glazier, Scientific Director of CIHR-IHSPR, among others

    Date : June 23 and 28, 2023.

  • Healthcare Excellence Canada’s Health Workforce Innovation Challenge

    Description: IHSPR is a Supporting Organization on Healthcare Excellence Canada's Health Workforce Innovation Challenge, which aims to help healthcare organizations and their teams generate innovative ideas and new solutions to promote the retention and support of their current workforces.

    Learn more: Health Workforce Innovation Challenge

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