Overview
Michael Smith Health Research BC invites BC-based researchers and eligible health system staff from across BC to apply for the Engage Award, part of our new Impact Pathways Program.
The Engage Award provides small-scale, short-term funding for activities that bring together researchers and research users.
Designed for early-stage activities, the award enables teams to come together and explore shared challenges outlined within Health Research BC’s priority themes, as well as identify opportunities to work together on solutions.
Award details
The Engage Award supports activities that:
- Form new connections or relationships between researchers and research users;
- Strengthen existing connections or relationships between researchers and research users; and
- Support researchers and research users to explore the potential for collaborative production of research and mobilizing research evidence into practice, policy and the public sphere.
The Engage Award does not support:
- Operating funds for research (e.g., data gathering, data analysis);
- Dissemination knowledge mobilization (KM) activities (e.g., presentation at a conference, preparation and distribution of a report); or
- Activities intended for outreach or the broad engagement of audiences such as conferences, workshops, annual series, and public engagement events. Small “satellite” meetings that are focused on relationship development but leverage larger events such as conferences may be eligible.
Applications must align with at least one Health Research BC priority theme and be collaboratively developed between researchers and research users.
Applications require a primary applicant and co-lead representing a researcher and research user partnership.
Primary applicants may include researchers or eligible health system staff at approved host institutions.
Applications may include health system staff, representatives from not-for-profit, private or public sector organizations, community members and people with lived and living experience, where appropriate.
Representatives from Indigenous communities and organizations (ICOs) may participate as research users, co-leads, or as primary applicants, if they hold an eligible position at an approved host institution.
Elders, Knowledge Keepers, and researchers affiliated with ICOs may serve as researcher co-leads.
Applications will be organized into regional funding pools based on the location of the primary applicant’s host institution.
Funding decisions will use a modified lottery approach following eligibility and relevance review.
Eligibility
Applications must include a primary applicant and a co-lead.
Primary applicants:
- Must be a BC-based researcher or eligible health system staff affiliated with Health Research BC–eligible institution
- Must have institutional approval to hold funds.
Co-lead:
- Researcher (if primary applicant is health system staff)
- Research user (if primary applicant is a researcher), including PWLE, community members, health system staff, policy makers, and others outside academic research roles.
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About the Impact Pathways Program
The Impact Pathways Program supports collaborative, community-connected health research across British Columbia. It includes two awards — Engage and Mobilize — that support engagement and knowledge mobilization activities at different stages.
How to apply
Applications to our funding competitions are coordinated through Health Research BC’s ApplyNet, our online grants management system that allows users to manage their entire award lifecycle, from application submission to post-award monitoring.
Log in to ApplyNetApplication resources
Webinar
The information session will take place on May 6, 2026. Register to attend