Background:
The Informed Investment in Health Innovation (IIHI) Scholars – Undergraduate Program is a special program initiated within the McGill Global Health Scholars - Undergraduate program. While costs and cost-effectiveness are key considerations in the adoption, implementation, and sustainability of health interventions, they remain under-studied. This special program provides opportunities for McGill undergraduate students to learn about and gain experience in cost assessment, economic evaluation, and/or modeling through research projects. To investigators, this program provides an opportunity to be paired with a McGill faculty member with methodological expertise in the general area of health economics and modeling to assist with executing a project which would benefit from incorporating these methodologies.
Over the summer, each IIHI Scholar will be involved in a project initiated by an investigator from the Centre for Outcomes Research and Evaluation (CORE) and taking place onsite in Montreal. The project is conducted under the mentorship of the CORE investigator and a second supporting investigator with methodological expertise. Before their summer project and during the academic year following their summer project, IIHI scholars will benefit from being part of the 2024 Global Health Scholars cohort. This will include participation in a variety of education, training and networking opportunities organized by McGill Global Health Programs (GHP), including the Insight Nights seminar series custom-designed for Global Health Scholars, GHP's annual Global Health Night event, free access to the McGill Summer Institutes in Global Health, and other activities.
The current call is for faculty submissions of projects part of the IIHI special program and is restricted to McGill Faculty members who are part of the CORE research center within the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC). This program is intended to benefit undergraduate students by involving them in research projects, as well as intended to benefit CORE members by partnering them with a co-investigator with methodologic expertise that may be beneficial to their ongoing research project and providing them with the support of an undergraduate student in summer 2024. Selected projects will be included in the projects offered to the 2024 Global Health Scholars - Undergraduate Program cohort.
Faculty members whose projects are selected will be paired with a co-investigator to support them in methodologic development, will serve as the faculty supervisor for the Scholar who is selected for your project, and will be expected to provide supervision and mentorship and support to the student (with some support provided by the co-investigator) throughout the duration of the project.
Key dates:
- Call for Faculty Project Submissions: October 12, 2023
- New Submission Deadline: November 29, 2023, at 11:59 PM
- Announcement of Faculty Project Submission Results: December 12, 2023
- Launch of Call for Student Applications: January 9, 2024
- Deadline for Student Applications: February 11, 2024
- Faculty members evaluate and interview applicants: March 2024
- Announcement of Results to all student applicants: March 22, 2024
Objective:
- IIHI is embedded within the Global Health Scholars program, which provides opportunities for McGill undergraduate students to learn about and gain experience in global health through participating in research projects.
- IIHI pairs undergraduate students with McGill faculty who are CORE members to assist with research projects focused on cost assessment, economic evaluation, and/or modeling in Montreal.
Project eligibility:
- The project must address a critical global health challenge or priority with an explicit connection to population health outcomes and health economics.
- The faculty member must be prepared to provide hands-on mentorship and supervision to the Scholar.
- The Principal Investigator of the project must be a McGill faculty member who is associated with the RI-MUHC and a member of CORE.
- The project site location must be in Montreal. No travel outside of Montreal is expected of the Scholar.
- Research projects involving human subjects must have the approval of all appropriate ethics boards by May 2024 to be eligible to receive support via the program.
- Priority will be given to projects that are led by early career investigators, involve investigators from more than one RI-MUHC research program (eg, RESP and IDIGH; MeDiC and CRP), or have direct relevance and applicability to populations and health systems in low- and middle-income countries.
- At least one project will be selected that has direct relevance and applicability to populations and health systems in low- and middle-income countries.
Funding and hours:
- Students will complete their project on-site locally (in Montreal or Gatineau) and will receive a stipend of $2,500.
- The first disbursement of funds to students will be in May 2024. A 10% holdback amount will be disbursed to students in March 2025 upon completion of all deliverables of the IIHI and Global Health Scholars program.
- Costs relating to travel, data usage, graphic design software, and carrying out research are not eligible. Faculty supervisors are expected to cover all such costs and all research-related costs.
- Selected students must complete 240 hours of work (equivalent of 6 weeks full-time) between May 1 – August 31, 2024. The student and their faculty supervisor will determine the student’s schedule together.
- Any work on the project that exceeds 240 hours is not covered by GHP. In such instances, the student and their faculty supervisor must mutually agree on compensation before extending the project.
- For all projects, the student must spend the majority of their time on-site, working in a hands-on learning environment and integrated within a team. Projects that primarily entail “working from home” or remote work are ineligible.
Student application process:
- Students will apply via the Global Health Scholars program application portal, to be posted on the GHP website in January 2024. Applicants cannot apply via faculty members.
- GHP will shortlist the most competitive student applications and share them with faculty members in late February 2024. Faculty members will refrain from contacting or interviewing students before receiving the shortlisted applications from GHP.
- Faculty members conduct interviews as needed in the first half of March 2024 and identify their preferred candidates to GHP. GHP will subsequently notify selected students of their program acceptance.
- Faculty members are encouraged to include their on-site partners or supervisors in the selection process and interviews.
- The faculty member will make the final decision on which student(s) are selected for their project.
Program expectations for faculty supervisor:
- CORE members submitting a project must have the project aims sufficiently developed such that they can benefit from methodological input from a faculty member with methodologic expertise in cost assessment, economic evaluation, and/or modeling. While it is not expected that the entire methodology will be developed, there should be a clear aim for which the methodology could be applied.
- The paired co-investigator will provide ~16 hours of their time for methodological input and support. At this level of involvement, there is no expectation of academic recognition for paired co-investigators and their time is provided as part of “service.” Any additional time committed to the project must be agreed upon by both parties, with agreed upon recognition.
- A preliminary suggestion to split the time is to use 8 hours to further refine the project methodology in advance of the student beginning their project in summer 2024, and the remaining 8 hours while the student works on the project throughout the summer.
- Establish either a verbal or a written agreement with the student outlining the role and responsibilities of both the faculty supervisor and the student so that expectations are clear while working on the project.
- Note: It is NOT the responsibility of the paired co-investigator to lead the project or be responsible for the student’s progress.
- Introduce the student to other staff working on the project and communicate the student’s role and responsibilities to other team members, involve the student in team meetings, meetings or calls with project
- Introduce the student to project staff, communicate the student’s role and responsibilities to the team, involve the student in team meetings or calls with project partners, and provide any reading materials and training necessary for their assigned tasks.
- Offer constructive feedback to students to support their professional growth.
- Notify GHP in a timely manner if the student is not meeting project expectations as outlined in the agreement between the faculty supervisor and the student.
- Contact GHP immediately in case of any incident or safety concerns encountered by the student during their project work.
- Complete a mid-point check-in survey in July 2024 and the final survey in October 2024, providing feedback to GHP on your experience with the Global Health Scholars program.
Program expectations for scholars:
All students selected as undergraduate Global Health Scholars, including IIHI Scholars, must:
- Attend a two-part training and orientation on research ethics in April 2024.
- Attend a project debrief workshop in September 2024.
- Complete a mid-point check-in survey in July 2024 and a final report in October 2024. These reports serve as reflections on the Global Health Scholars program and facilitate feedback. Report content is used by GHP for communications materials and donor stewardship reports. A comprehensive review paper or journal article is not expected. A template will be provided for both reports.
- Attend at least three events in the Insight Nights Seminar Series tailored exclusively towards Global Health Scholar undergraduates (held once per month between October 2024 and March 2025).
- Present a poster on their Global Health Scholars project at GHP’s annual Global Health Night event in November 2024. The poster is not required to present final research results.
Additional training opportunities:
- Global Health Scholars have the opportunity to participate (free of charge) in a maximum of two courses offered by the McGill Summer Institutes in Global Health in Summer 2024 or Summer 2025. Participation in Summer 2024 should not disrupt the pre-established work plan between the faculty supervisor and student.
- Scholars are strongly encouraged to take either PPHS 511 - Fundamentals of Global Health (3 credits) or the Interprofessional Global Health Course during the 2024-2025 academic year.
- Faculty supervisors are encouraged to discuss with their Scholar regarding any recommended training in preparation for the Scholar’s upcoming research project.
How to apply:
All faculty project submissions must be submitted through the Global Health Programs online portal by the deadline.
Additional information:
To learn more about the Global Health Scholars Undergraduate Program please visit the main program page.
Global health programs contacts:
Please direct all inquiries to studentaffairsghp.med [at] mcgill.ca with jonathon.campbell [at] mcgill.ca in copy.
