Brochure: Partnerships for Health System Improvement

Decision makers. Researchers. Evidence. Action.

The PHSI Approach to Research

Relevant, timely evidence is essential medicine for a high-performing health system. Partnerships for Health System Improvement (PHSI) offers Canada's health system decision makers evidence-informed answers to their most pressing questions. As a funding program founded on partnerships, every PHSI project involves collaboration between decision makers and researchers interested in working together to address health system challenges. Any applied health services and policy research topic can be addressed so long as it responds to the information needs of the participating decision makers.

Decision Makers

The relevance and utility of the research is assured by including decision makers as members of the project team. They can even lead projects, with funds administered at their organization. Decision makers from any level of the health system can participate, but there should be a match between the research topic and a decision maker's area of expertise and authority.

The Investment

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) funds PHSI projects in partnership with other health research funding agencies and decision-making organizations. CIHR provides most of the funding (up to a maximum of $600,000 over three years) and applicants find the remainder – 20% of the amount requested from CIHR – from other partners. There is no limit on partner contributions, and support can be financial or in-kind.

Knowledge Translation

To ensure that the research findings are useful and get used – both by the decision makers participating on the project and others across the country – all projects are required to include comprehensive knowledge translation strategies.

Building Partnerships

In collaborative research, as much work needs to go into the partnerships as the research itself. To help teams build meaningful and productive partnerships in preparation for PHSI, CIHR offers PHSI Partnership Development Funds of up to $25,000 per team available through a separate competition – Planning Grants – launched three times per year.

Have Questions?

For more information, including partnership opportunities, key dates and application guidelines, visit the Partnerships for Health System Improvement website or contact PHSI-PASS@cihr-irsc.gc.ca