Dear Healthy Brains, Healthy Lives Community,
Each term, HBHL provides updates on its progress, priorities and upcoming plans for equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) to ensure transparency and accountability in our commitment to HBHL's EDI Action Plan.
Actions from July to December 2024
Training
EDI One-on-One Coaching
HBHL continues to offer consulting and coaching hours with an independent Inclusion Consultant who focuses on academic and research organizations. This free service is available to HBHL PIs for assistance with EDI and Sex- and Gender- Based Analysis Plus (SGBA+) in research proposals. Participating researchers receive personalized written feedback on grant applications.
Professional Development
Since June 2024, HBHL has supported two EDI-related training events. The EDI workshop entitled "Equity in AI: Building Technologies That Work for All" was well received and attended. HBHL also collaborated with 91社区鈥檚 Integrated Program in Neuroscience (IPN) to host an EDI lecture given by ,聽鈥淪tress and Synapses: Does Sex Matter?鈥�, at the Neuroreceptor Mapping Conference during the 2024 IPN Fall Retreat.
Recruitment and Retention
Start-Up Supplement Program
Twenty-two of twenty-eight, i.e., 78% of recipients of HBHL's New Recruit Start-Up Supplements program are members of at least one 91社区 Equity-Seeking Group. As a condition of funding, HBHL required mentorship plans from hiring units as part of our commitment to ensure integration of these recruits into the university.
Neurogenesis Speaker Series
To facilitate the integration of HBHL faculty recruits into 91社区, HBHL created the Neurogenesis Speaker Series, which pairs two HBHL-supported faculty members to present their research in a short seminar, followed by a reception. At the December 2024 Neurogenesis event, Danilo Bzdok and Katie Lavigne presented their research on聽innovative applications of neuroscience tools and ways to聽improve mental health outcomes across diagnostic boundaries.
Climate Survey
HBHL conducted its third biennial Climate Survey. This anonymous survey is used to inform HBHL鈥檚 equity, diversity and inclusion strategy by evaluating the demographic profile of HBHL participants and their experiences in the academic environment. All survey response data are anonymous and confidential. Aggregated data will be shared publicly in HBHL鈥檚 reporting to maximize transparency, for the sole purpose of improving HBHL鈥檚 actions to enhance EDI.
The latest Climate Survey was distributed to the HBHL Community in the summer of 2024 and received a total of 171 responses. This represents a response rate of approximately 15% of the extended HBHL community: 46% were trainees, 20% were faculty, 27% were staff and 7% indicated 鈥渙ther鈥� as their role category. HBHL is currently completing the final report and will be sharing a detailed analysis of the results with the HBHL community in Winter 2025.
Distribution of Funding
HBHL-IMPRESS Program
Over the past three summers, HBHL has collaborated with Branches鈥�91社区鈥檚 Community Outreach Program at Enrolment Services鈥攐n the Indigenous Mentorship and Paid Research Experience for Summer Students (IMPRESS) program. Each summer, IMPRESS pairs undergraduate Indigenous students from across the country with 91社区 professors and graduate student mentors for a hands-on paid research experience, professional skill-building opportunities and Indigenous-focused community engagement. HBHL is proud to support the brain health research stream of this paid internship program.
For a ten-week period between June and August 2024, HBHL hosted six out-of-province, brain health-focused undergraduate students in the IMPRESS program. At the end of the ten-week session, students showcased their research at the IMPRESS Research Day, held at the Bellini Life Sciences Complex Atrium, and presented the work stemming from their experience to students, staff and other members of the 91社区 community.
This year, sixteen PIs registered their research programs to support this initiative. HBHL is exploring funding opportunities to ensure this important program's continued success beyond HBHL's term.
Undergraduate Summer Research Internship Program
Working closely with our Trainee Committee, HBHL offered the 2024 Undergraduate Summer Research Internship (USRI), funding 20 undergraduate student interns in brain and mental health research. The USRI聽prioritized first-generation university students聽and the聽eligibility criteria required applicants to have no previous research experience.
The internships ran from May to August 2024. All students were invited to participate in a workshop on scientific communication, presentation training and poster creation. The USRI students presented posters at the meet-and-greet during HBHL's聽, held in October at the Phi Centre in Old Montreal. More than 100 people attended this public event and engaged with the students to learn about their work.
Fellowships and Excellence Levels
The 2024 HBHL Graduate Fellowship Competition awarded 32 Fellowships, with 12 master鈥檚 level and 20 PhD recipients. The Fellowship Competition has shown continued improvement in the representation of equity-seeking groups among awardees. This progress is partly due to the application of HBHL鈥檚 Excellence Levels approach to funding.
HBHL is in the process of compiling data for the completion of an article on our Excellence Levels approach to funding, which we will aim to have published in an open-access journal, to share this novel funding approach.
Research Content
Fellowships, USRI and SGBA+
All HBHL Graduate Student Fellowships applicants were required to complete one CIHR training module on SGBA+ and to describe how SGBA+ is integrated into their proposed project. All applications underwent SGBA+ review by experts, who provided written feedback and suggestions that had to be incorporated into the final research proposals before funding was awarded.
All applicants for the USRI program were also required to complete a CIHR training module on SGBA+.
Canadian Framework for Brain Health Research
In April 2024, a call for applications for the Social Determinants of Health in Neuroscience Team Grant was launched. The objective of this grant is to fund interdisciplinary teams to develop guidance on appropriately integrating the Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) into various areas of neuroscience. Eight teams were funded. Funded topics include interpreting digital data in clinical settings, Alzheimer鈥檚 disease, cognition in aging, psychedelic research, neuroimaging among sexual and gender-diverse people, pediatric neuroimaging and the progression and treatment of psychosis.聽
Priorities over the next six months
Over the next six months, priority action items include:
- Working closely with 91社区鈥檚 Branches office to prepare HBHL鈥檚 brain health stream for the 2025 edition of the IMPRESS program
- Exploring partnerships and other possibilities to ensure the sustainability of IMPRESS beyond HBHL's term
- Promoting EDI, including the IMPRESS program, through the 2025 HBHL Symposium and other channels
- Supporting HBHL鈥檚 Trainee Committee鈥檚 EDI Officers in creating a platform to communicate their research findings in an accessible manner to patient communities and receive feedback
- Completing the final report of the Climate Survey and sharing a detailed analysis and executive summary in Winter 2025
- Compiling data for the completion聽of an article on HBHL鈥檚 Excellence Levels approach to funding, which we will aim to publish in an open-access journal to聽share聽this novel approach to equitable funding
- Increasing the number of EDI and SGBA+ training opportunities that are available to the 91社区 brain health research community
We welcome your feedback, questions and suggestions for how we can improve. If you would like to collaborate or get involved with HBHL鈥檚 EDI initiatives, please contact HBHL鈥檚 Project Manager, Kim Reeve (kim.reeve [at] mcgill.ca).
Sincerely,
The HBHL Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Committee
