Objectives:
The objectives of the University of Toronto, Faculty of Medicine, Continuing Professional Development COVID-19 Response Fund are as follows:
- Contribute to the local, national and global response to COVID-19;
- Enhance local, national and/or international collaborative efforts to upskill and/or redeploy individuals and/or teams to respond to COVID-19
- Strengthen the understanding of team-based and/or virtual learning approaches to CPD during and after COVID-19
- Contribute to programs that enable wellness, resilience, and leadership across the University of Toronto, Faculty of Medicine community and its affiliated partners.
Proposed scholarly projects can include innovations (including but not limited to new programs, modules, practice enablers, online resources), research (the development of new knowledge), or the evaluation of programs in the context of COVID-19 (the evaluation of COVID related programs/modules or the evaluation of the response of existing programs/modules in relation to the COVID pandemic).
Proposed Topic Areas:
- CPD knowledge mobilization related to COVID-19
- Approaches to upskilling and redeployment of staff to critical areas
- Team-Based approaches to CPD and COVID-19
- Patient-oriented approaches to CPD and COVID-19
- Digital Technologies, Virtual Care, and CPD
- Wellness, Resilience, and Leadership in CPD
Eligibility:
Continuing professional development (CPD) encompasses varied educational and developmental activities which licensed, practicing healthcare professionals undertake to maintain and enhance their knowledge, skills, performance and relationships in the provision of health care.
Activities aimed at undergraduate, graduate, postgraduate or fellowship programs or learners are not eligible for funding through this fund unless the purpose of the activity is to upskill or redeploy an individual or team into a temporary role/position that would typically be carried out by a fully licensed health professional.
Projects that are collaborative in nature and can produce knowledge, content or approaches that can be used outside of a single academic department is encouraged and will be considered in making funding decisions.
The Principal Investigator must:
- Hold a primary faculty appointment as a full-time or part-time faculty member of a department within the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Medicine. Members of any academic rank (lecturer, assistant professor, associate professor or full professor) are eligible to apply. Status-only faculty can act as a PI on a grant. Adjunct clinical faculty members can act as a collaborator on a grant held by a full-time or part-time faculty member.
- Be a faculty member engaged (or engaging) in educational activities related to the mission of the CPD at the University of Toronto.
- Agree to take responsibility for the overall project design, development, budgetary oversight and completion.
- Agree to provide a project-end report and in future, seek opportunities for further dissemination
Who is Not Eligible?
- Individuals who sit on the CPD COVID-19 Response Fund Adjudication Committee cannot be listed as a PI, co-PI or collaborator on a grant.
Funding Available:
- Grants up to a total of $10,000 CAD are eligible for funding.
- Matched funding is not required but confirmed matched funding can be used to develop projects that are more than $10,000 CAD. All sources of funding must be detailed in the application.
- Applications should include a plan for rapid completion. Projects are for 6 months with a potential for a 6-month extension under mitigating circumstances.
Application details:
Proposals will be a maximum of 6 typed pages (10 pt font, 1” margins) and should include a detailed project description containing a clear articulation of the problem or gap in knowledge, the goals and objectives of the project, methods including the framework and/or theoretical approach to a research, innovation or evaluation project, methodology for developing the project and the plans for project assessment/analysis.
Proposals must address the following evaluation criteria:
- Quality of project:
- Extent to which the application responds to the objectives;
- Appropriateness of the proposed approach; and
- Appropriateness of budget and justification for amount requested.
- Quality of Applicants:
- Track record of team members in fields related to proposed project;
- Ability of the project team to carry out the project
- Impact of the Research:
- Potential to contribute to the COVID19 local, national or international response
Proposals will be assessed on all of these requirements and how well they meet the evaluation criteria.
Proposal must include:
- Project Title
- PI, Co-I, Co-Applicant and Collaborator Information (names, departments, affiliations, and contact information of PI and primary contact)
- Project Proposal that provides a clear and concise description of your proposed project and that addresses the listed evaluation criteria
- Detailed budget including any matching funds (not included in the 6-page limit)
- (Optional) Supplementary Material (references, tables, charts, figures, screenshots, interview guides) – (not included in the 6-page limit, up to a maximum of 10 pages)
The call for applications is now closed. We would like to thank all of the applicants for their thoughtfulness and effort in quickly assembling teams and ideas to support their projects related to COVID-19 and Continuing Professional Development. We are happy to announce that 7 projects have received funding from the CPD COVID-19 Response Fund. Click here to read more.
Ethical considerations:
If appropriate, projects must seek to have formal ethics approval and/or formal ethics exemption from either a Hospital or the University of Toronto Ethics Board (REB).
Timeline:
Application Deadline: noon, April 27, 2020
Peer Review Begins: week of April 27, 2020
Decision Communications: week of May 4, 2020
Funding Begins: May 11, 2020
Budget Guidelines:
These budget guidelines, including allowable expenses, will follow the same guidelines as the CPD Research and Development Grant: PDF
Questions:
Please direct any questions about the application or the grant to CPD’s Education Research Coordinator, Morag Paton at morag.paton@utoronto.ca.