OSSU EMPOWER Projects

Ontario is home to a wealth of high quality patient oriented research, with research teams meaningfully partnering with patients, families, caregivers and communities to deliver rigor, relevance and results from their patient oriented research projects. For these findings to change health policy, practice and health outcomes, there is often a need to support end-of-grant knowledge translation activities to build the relationships and push the results to those who can use them to effect real impact and change for Ontario.

EMPOWERING Ontario’s Patient Oriented Research

OSSU’s EMPOWER (Engaging Multi-stakeholders for Patient Oriented-research Wider Effects and Reach) Projects (recently renamed from ‘Awards’) are designed to support research teams who can demonstrate patient-oriented research undertaken with patient partners in the last 2 years that would benefit from an injection of end-of-grant funding to empower the research to have impact in Ontario.

Having an EMPOWER Project

OSSU’s EMPOWER Projects are expected to complete the following through their funding period:

• At the outset of the funded period, OSSU’s Research Centre at the McMaster Health Forum will run a mandatory training session for all awardees that covers:
  • Writing policy briefs;
  • Engaging with citizens and plain language outputs;
  • Integrating knowledge users in knowledge translation activities to increase impact; and,
  • Utilizing multiple information and activity streams to support knowledge translation activities.
• All awardees will be required to produce a policy brief around the findings of their POR project.
• Awardees will be expected to produce a diverse set of approaches to knowledge translation designed to meet the needs of stakeholders who can have the most impact.

The OSSU EMPOWER Projects are NOT to supplement research activity funding or to conduct further research based on the initial patient-oriented research project.

EMPOWER Projects provide up to $25,000 for successful proposals.

Applying for EMPOWER Projects

OSSU has run seven EMPOWER Project competitions, and when the next competition is launched, will publicize it through OSSU’s website, social media, and health research networks. If you have any questions about applying for any future EMPOWER Project competition, email us at OSSU@OSSU.ca.

Eligibility for EMPOWER Projects

In order to be eligible for a project, EMPOWER proposals must clearly identify:

• That the initial research to be translated can demonstrate meaningful patient partnership;
• That the initial research to be translated was NOT funded by the Ontario SPOR SUPPORT Unit as part of its IMPACT Award demonstration projects;
• That the proposed research and knowledge translation team incorporates patient partnership in the proposed activities; and,
• That the nominated principal applicant (NPI) is associated with a CIHR-eligible institution to whom OSSU funds can be flowed.

Review process and evaluation of EMPOWER Project proposals

OSSU’s approach to reviewing and evaluating EMPOWER Project proposals is two-stage and shows OSSU’s commitment to true patient partnership in our approach to funding patient-oriented research in Ontario.

In the first stage of the review process, proposals are assessed for their eligibility for funding by a peer review panel that features stakeholders from research, patient partners, policy and practice.  This review assesses:

• The quality of the initial patient-oriented research project that the proposed EMPOWER Project builds on;
• The relevance of the stakeholders implicated in the EMPOWER Project;
• The appropriateness of the activities in the EMPOWER Project;
• Other eligibility factors such as ensuring the EMPOWER Project is not funding further research, that the project is an Ontario-based project, and that the project is not linked to an existing OSSU IMPACT Award.

The shortlist generated by this first review will then be reviewed by a second review panel that is comprised of Patient Partners. This group assesses the proposals for:

• Their capacity to create impacts for patients, policy or practice, and the potential benefits to patients, families, caregivers and communities;
• The appropriateness and meaningfulness of the proposed patient partnership in the initial patient-oriented research and the proposed EMPOWER Project;
• Whether the proposed project budget includes meaningful patient partnership support.

Funded EMPOWER Projects

EMPOWER Phase I

In the first EMPOWER Project competition, OSSU provided four Awards that started on April 1^st 2019.

EMPOWER Retinoblastoma: Engaging Patient Partners in Solving the Top 10 Priorities for Eye Cancer Research in Canada
Helen Dimaras, SickKids Hospital

#PartneringForPain: Taking Action Together on Family-Identified Priorities in Pediatric Chronic Pain
Jennifer Stinson, SickKids Hospital

Partner Early, Partner Often: Building a platform for meaningful patient partnership to accelerate “bench-to-bedside” translation of promising new therapies
Manoj Lalu, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute

Participatory ALC: Co‐Designing Strategies to Address Alternate Level of Care (ALC) Challenges – Building Capacity across Ontario
Kerry Kuluski, Sinai Health System

EMPOWER Phase II

In the second EMPOWER Project competition, OSSU provided four Awards that started on October 1^st 2019.

Putting shared decision-making into practice -barriers and facilitators to scaling up MyDiabetesPlan into primary care

Catherine Yu, Unity Health

Building Capacity for Patient-Oriented Research (POR) in Clinical Trials, TranSlaTing the Evidence into Practice, Policy and Outcomes: The POR STEPP Digital Health Project in Ontario

Monica Parry, University of Toronto

Implementing sustainable collection of core patient-oriented health outcomes for pediatric inherited metabolic diseases –a multi-stakeholder workshop

Beth Potter, University of Ottawa

”This is about my health”: Digital tools to improve healthcare communication for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD)

Yona Lunsky, Centre for Addictions and Mental Health

EMPOWER Phase III

In the third EMPOWER Project competition, OSSU provided four Awards related to COVID-19 implications in Ontario that started in Autumn 2020.

“Wellness Quest: A health literacy and self-advocacy tool developed by youth for youth mental health“

Joanna Henderson, Centre for Addictions and Mental Health

“Ontario First Nations Aging Study: from data to impact”

Jennifer Walker, Laurentian University

“Understanding COVID-19 among children and families”

Jonathon Maguire, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael’s Hospital, Unity Health Toronto

“Ensuring equity and inclusion in virtual care best practices to support vulnerable populations of youth with chronic pain”

Jennifer Stinson, SickKids Hospital

EMPOWER Phase IV

In the fourth EMPOWER Project competition, OSSU provided three Awards that started on March 1st, 2021.

“The RB Research Booklet: A Catalyst for Patient Involvement in Retinoblastoma Research”

Helen Dimaras

“Transplant Ambassador Program: Patients helping patients access kidney transplants”

Kyla Naylor

“Co-building Equity-Mobilizing Partnerships in Community (EMPaCT) to increase impact through equitable patient-oriented partnerships in research, policy and practice”

Ambreen Sayani

EMPOWER Phase V

In the fifth EMPOWER Project competition, OSSU provided five Awards that started on January 1st, 2022.

“Partnering with communities for children’s COVID-19 vaccination”

Shelley Vanderhout and Jonathon Maguire

“Empowering patient ambassadors to champion research outcomes that are a priority for people who have lived experience with venous thromboembolism”

Carol West and Lisa Duffett

“Taking action on the top 10 patient-oriented priorities in pediatric hospital care in Canada”

Peter Gill and Sanjay Mahant

“Enhancing patient engagement in economic evaluation of health care interventions”

Kednapa Thavron and Justin Presseau