Dear WHRI Community,

With Summer winding down, many of you may be planning for a busy Fall, and with that brings inevitable change. One change that we are excited about in September is the long-awaited Women+ and Children’s Health Sciences (WACH) graduate program at UBC, which will welcome its first cohort of trainees. With this inaugural program, the WHRI will see several new trainees in women’s health join our community. To find out more about the WACH program, which is the only interdisciplinary graduate training program in Canada focused on women+ and children’s health, visit the WACH website.

Another change that the WHRI is facing is saying farewell to our Scientific Advisor and Executive member, Dr. Liisa Galea, a beloved longstanding member of our WHRI community. Dr. Galea has been named the inaugural Treliving Chair for Women's Mental Health at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and will be relocating to Toronto this Fall. Beyond being a world-renowned neuroscientist who has mentored countless trainees, Dr. Galea has been a fierce advocate for equitable funding in women’s health research (read BCWHF-The-Research-Divide-2020.pdf). She has contributed to many WHRI initiatives and co-directed our annual Catalyst Grant competition. Dr. Galea has also brought laughter, authenticity, and always good stories to share to our meetings. We will miss her dearly, but are excited to maintain and strengthen our collaborations in women’s health research at CAMH through Liisa’s leadership.

Sincerely,

Lori Brotto, PhD, R Psych

Executive Director | Women's Health Research Institute
Professor | Department of OBGYN, UBC
Canada Research Chair | Women's Sexual Health

CIHR announces the results of the 2022 Planning and Dissemination Grants competition

Please join us in congratulating the recipients of CIHR's 2022 Planning and Dissemination Grants! We were thrilled to see eight WHRI and BCCHR/WHRI members among this year's recipients.

Celebrate World Sexual Health Day with the WHRI and our friends from Options for Sexual Health!

This will be a fun and informative event featuring presentations by students, trainees, fellows, and other researchers in training. Registration is open for this free and virtual event!

New episode of @WomensResearch

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Thinking of applying for one of this year's Graduate and Fellowship Research Awards? Give this episode a listen! 

Dive into the projects and experiences of last year's recipients, Dr. Nikki Salmond and Dwayne Tucker, with host Dr. Angela Kaida. 

Grants + KT Focused
Research Services Office Hour

This month, in lieu of our regular Research Services Office Hour, Eric (Research Development Facilitator) and Nicole (Knowledge Translation Manager) will be hosting an extended drop-in office hour to offer guidance on the upcoming CIHR Fall Project Grants competition.

If you'd like to set up a time to meet, you can connect with Eric at eric.lussier@bcchr.ca or Nicole at nicole.prestley@cw.bc.ca. 

WHRI Reading List

Earlier this month, we announced the launch of a new section of our website where we highlight member publications. To launch this page, we compiled a list of publications authored by WHRI members in the month of July, and since then we've continued to add your submissions.

We invite you to share your new publications with our KT and Communications team at whri.communications@cw.bc.ca for inclusion on this page.

New app to support quality of life in bipolar disorder

Dr. Erin Michalak, Women’s Health Research Institute member and Network Co-Lead of CREST.BD (Collaborative RESearch Team to study psychosocial issues in Bipolar Disorder), is working with a team of researchers, people with lived experience, and healthcare providers on an innovative app called PolarUs. 

Check out our latest web story where we spoke with Dr. Michalak about updates on this project, her team's experience, and their next steps to evaluate the app.

Bonus: the team at CREST.BD has launched a blog series featuring WHRI members, responding to questions about bipolar disorder and women's health! Check out the first two instalments on menstruation and pregnancy.

Calling all trainees!

Earlier this summer, we launched our Trainee Spotlight Series on LinkedIn. This series showcases your current research and interests - and we'd like you to participate!

Email us at whri.communications@cw.bc.ca to join in and connect with our network of women's health researchers.

Digital Health Grant Opportunity

The BCCHR has recently launched a digital health accelerator grant to support researchers working on innovations that can benefit children and families. Learn more about the grant and your eligibility.  

New WHRI/BCCHR Digital Health Virtual Seminar

Thank you to those who have joined us throughout our digital health research innovation series, co-hosted by WHRI and BCCHR! You can access the recordings of our previous sessions in the digital health hub. Stay tuned to learn about our next session in October on applying behaviour change theories to design digital health intervention which optimally support patients and care providers.