Objectives

The Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Center/Thunder Bay Regional Health Research Institute (TBRHSC/TBRHRI) research seed funding competition aims to support promising health research in order to advance research outcomes and capacity and preferably also facilitate applications for external funding.

Scope

This seed funding competition applies to basic science, clinical research, social inquiry, humanities scholarship, or other health research that addresses patient needs at TBRHSC/TBRHRI and/or in Northwestern Ontario.

Eligibility

Teams of at least two applicants can apply. The principal applicant must be a physician, scientist or staff (frontline or managerial) of TBRHSC/TBRHRI; if she or he has a current academic appointment, it cannot be of higher rank than Assistant Professor. At least one co-applicant must be a patient or learner at TBRHSC/TBRHRI or a resident of Northwestern Ontario.

Format

The application will consist of a maximum of five pages (single space, 12 Times New Roman font) in WORD software. The structure of the application must include these sections:

• Cover page (with title of application and the names of the applicants with contact information – including email address – of the principal applicant);

• Abstract and lay summary page (no more than 200 words in the Abstract, sectioned thus: Background, Questions/Hypotheses, Methods; and no more than 100 words in the lay summary, unstructured);
  • Background (with a referenced literature review and clarification of the need for the proposed research as well as its alignment with the research strategic plan of TBRHSC/RI);
  • Questions/Hypotheses (one or more);
  • Method (study design, ethics procedures, data collection [including sampling and more], data analysis, and knowledge translation/exchange); Budget (total cash asked for with a maximum of $10,000, and line-by-line budgeting such as for personnel, equipment and other needs such as for external funding application resourcing if relevant, as well as in-kind contributions if any). If the applicants plan to use the results of this research to apply for external funding, an additional section should be added at the end, titled External Funding Plan (including how this research’s expected results may be used in such an application and what resources will be used for this application). Language used in the application should be respectful and grammatically correct.

Process

The submission shall include the application, the principal applicant’s curriculum vitae (CV) and the co-applicants’ CVs/Biographies attached in an email sent no later than February 14, 2025 by end of day to Dr. C. Mushquash, Vice President Research (VPR) and Chief Scientist at TBRHSC/TBRHRI (chris.mushquash@tbh.net).

Submissions that successfully pass screening for scope, eligibility, format and CVs/Biographies inclusion will be independently rated by two reviewers for background, questions/hypotheses, methods, budget and external funding plan (see evaluation form).

Funding decisions will be communicated with ratings and feedback to the principal applicants by March 21, 2025. Funding will then be provided after processing by TBRHSC/TBRHRI’s Clinical Research Services Department and approval by the VPR. A research report in publishable format should be emailed to the VPR by September 18, 2026. General queries can be sent to Daniel Horne at daniel.horne@tbh.net.