Social Determinants of Health in Neuroscience Team Grants: Interdisciplinary Teams Pool

Overview

Program Objectives

This grant will fund projects with the goal of researching and developing guidance on integrating the Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) into specific areas of neuroscience research primarily carried out in human participants.

Teams will receive support to:

• Develop specific advice on how to appropriately integrate the SDoH into one particular area of neuroscience per team;
• Develop guidance that is multi-tiered, providing users with a sliding scale of options for SDoH integration to facilitate uptake (e.g., bronze, silver and gold levels of SDoH integration); and

Work collaboratively with other funded teams and the Umbrella Team to share knowledge and ensure complementarity across guidance materials being produced. Guidance could include, but is not limited to:

• Promising practices for SDoH integration in specific areas such as neuroinformatics, computational neuroscience, clinical neuroscience, behavioural neuroscience, and neuropsychology, or in specific methodologies such as computer simulations, mathematical modelling, electrophysiology, or neuroimaging
• Promising practices for data analysis
• Guidance on use of existing clinical data to add social variables to studies
• Guidance on collection of new SDoH data
• Example protocols
• Survey templates
• Case studies
• Checklists
• Standardized data collection and sharing methods
• Ethical considerations for collecting and sharing data

Guidance for SDoH integration should be modular so that neuroscientists have entry-level guidance to start integrating the SDoH, but also have higher-level guidance that could require more complex or time-intensive research methods. For example, this could be done through creating bronze, silver and gold standards for SDoH integration.

Given the one-year grant time period, teams are encouraged to do a review of existing research to develop guidance. In addition, teams may choose to test promising practices from the literature on a specific use case to facilitate the creation of the most practical advice.

Additional Information

Throughout the one-year grant, HBHL will organize regular coordination workshops, particularly aimed at trainees (though PIs are also welcome to attend) across both pools. The goal of these workshops will be to share information and knowledge across teams, provide support to trainees, promote complementarity and reduce overlap across projects. At least one team member must attend each workshop.

Eligibility Requirements

Teams must include:

• A minimum of one faculty member (Co-Applicant) from neuroscience*;
• A minimum of one faculty member (Co-Applicant) who is an expert in the SDoH*;
• A minimum of one trainee from neuroscience; and
• A minimum of one trainee working under a supervisor who is an expert in the SDoH.

* Note: Faculty members and trainees are not required to be members of a particular faculty, department or program. This requirement is meant to ensure teams are interdisciplinary and include two individuals whose primary research area is in either neuroscience or related to the SDoH. The team must include a minimum of two supervisors with different expertise. One with a focus on neuroscience and one who is an expert in the SDoH (i.e., one individual cannot fulfil both roles on the team.)

Additional Eligibility Requirements

Co-Applicants must be either a McGill faculty member or a faculty member at one of HBHL’s CFREF partner institutions (i.e., Western University, Université de Montréal, University of British Columbia or Polytechnique Montréal);

At least one Co-Applicant must be a faculty member at McGill;

• Trainees must be enrolled full-time at McGill University or at one of HBHL’s CFREF partner institutions (Western University, Université de Montréal, University of British Columbia or Polytechnique Montréal); and
• At least one trainee on the team must be at the Master’s, PhD or Post-doc level.

Support for Team Development

Faculty members seeking a collaborator may consult this online database (and please add your contact information).

Project Relevance

The project must:

• Propose activities with the potential to create multi-tiered or modular guidance to facilitate the integration of the SDoH into neuroscience research;
• Aim to develop guidance on the integration of the SDoH into an area of neuroscience that involves human participants and fits into one or more of HBHL’s four research themes

Eligible Expenses

All expenses must adhere to CFREF guidelines. See the Direct Costs “Eligible expenses” and “Ineligible expenses” in the CFREF Administration Guide.

General Application Guidelines

• The application must be submitted by a Co-applicant through the HBHL online form.
• All named team members (including faculty and trainees) must complete the HBHL equity self-identification form at the time of submission.
• Submissions must be received by the deadline. Late submissions will not be accepted. Access to the online form will be blocked at the time of the deadline.
• Incomplete submissions will not be reviewed.
• Submissions that do not meet the eligibility criteria will not be reviewed.

Submission Instructions

Complete HBHL’s online submission form to apply for the Social Determinants of Health in Neuroscience Team Grants by May 6, 2024, at 11:59 p.m.

Submit one application per team. In the online submission form, the Co-Applicants refer to the lead faculty members for the project. Both Co-Applicants must be faculty members.

Please use the templates provided for the budget and biosketches.

Evaluation

Eligibility Review

All applications will first be reviewed internally at HBHL for relevance, completeness, eligibility and on-time submission. Eligibility will be determined based on the following criteria:

The team must include:

• At least two faculty members (Co-Applicants): one from neuroscience and one who is an expert in the SDoH;
• At least two trainees: one from neuroscience and one working under a supervisor who is an expert in the SDoH;
• Co-Applicants that are either McGill faculty members or faculty members at one of HBHL’s CFREF partner institutions (i.e., Western University, Université de Montréal, University of British Columbia or Polytechnique Montréal);
• At least one Co-Applicant who holds a faculty position at McGill; and
• At least one trainee at the Master’s, PhD or Post-doc level.

A complete application must include:

• A lay summary
• A completed budget template
• A project proposal of not more than four pages (plus references)
• A Sex- and Gender-based Analysis Plus certificate from all named team members (minimum four)
• Biosketches of all the named faculty members (minimum two)
• Letters of interest from all the named trainees (minimum two)
• Up to a ½ page per team member, detailing their contribution to the team

Peer Review

All complete applications will be evaluated by external reviewers under the direction of HBHL based on the following criteria:

Results and Post-Award

All applicants will be notified by email of the results of the competition. Successful Co-applicants will be sent a Notice of Award. It is the applicant’s responsibility to complete the Acceptance of Award form and other required documents including the McGill’s Office of Sponsored Research (OSR) checklist by the indicated date.

For any questions, please contact HBHL [at] mcgill.ca.