Online Dialogue on Systemic Racism and Canada's Health Research Funding System: What we heard

Introduction

CIHR's Strategic Plan 2021- 2031 and Action Plan for Year 1 commit to engaging with organizations and members of the research community with lived experience and expertise to co-develop an action plan to address systemic racism in the CIHR funding system. As part of this commitment, CIHR hosted an Online Dialogue on Systemic Racism in the health research funding enterprise from February 4 to April 9, 2021. The launch of the online dialogue was announced to the research community through various established CIHR communications channels and networks, such as the CIHR Access Newsletter and CIHR's Twitter account, as well as with help from our partners.

The objectives of the dialogue were to:

The online dialogue is one input of many, including environmental scanning and planned virtual small group listening sessions, as well as feedback and advice from CIHR's External Anti-Racism Advisory Committee that will inform the development of our action plan on anti-racism.

The following summary provides observations based on thematic analysis of participant comments.

Summary of Results

Overall, of the 183 people who registered, 51 participated by providing comments and/or voting on comments (agreeing/disagreeing). There was a total of 124 comments.

Within the online dialogue, participant comments ranged from program and process solutions to broader system-level and cultural shifts that are necessary in order to address barriers and racism in the health research funding system. Many comments fell into the following themes: research design, research funding, peer review, capacity development, research culture, and lived experiences and barriers. The summary below represents alignment in commentary across participants, and may not fully represent the diverse views of individual participants.

Most comments revolved around integrating considerations of race and racism in research.

Examples of proposed solutions include:

  • Requiring applicants to CIHR funding opportunities to collect race-based data, in addition to other identity factors such as sex and gender in research
  • Implementing an anti-racism approach throughout the entire research process, and
  • Ensuring that communities marginalized by racism identify their own research priorities.

CIHR would like to thank the members of the community, including researchers, trainees, people with lived/living experience and other members of the public, who dedicated time and effort to the online dialogue. Employees with organizations such as the Black Health Alliance and Michael Smith Foundation in Health Research, helped CIHR develop the forum questions and spread the word that the online dialogue was live, and CIHR is deeply appreciative to all those who supported and participated. Thank you for joining the conversation!

What's Next

CIHR is in the process of synthesizing evidence and findings to date, including consultations with partners and community members, internal environmental scans, and the results of this online dialogue.

This synthesis of information will feed into the development of further targeted engagements with racialized communities, trainees and researchers, as well as with Indigenous communities, trainees and researchers. Please visit our Equity, Diversity and Inclusion webpage or CIHR's Twitter account for updates.

Questions?

If you have any questions about the development of CIHR's anti-racism action plan and/or related engagement activities, please write to us at edi@cihr-irsc.gc.ca.

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