Announcing the CIHR Research Excellence, Diversity, and Independence (REDI) Early Career Transition Award
Message from the CIHR President and Scientific Director of the CIHR-Institute of Infection and Immunity

November 25, 2022

Canada is a diverse country, but there is a clear gap between Canada's diverse pool of trainees and its faculty members. While we know that diverse teams are more innovative and productive than homogenous ones, systemic barriers and other forms of discrimination are limiting our ability to make use of everyone's talents to contribute to health research. As outlined in our Strategic Plan, CIHR is committed to advancing research excellence in all its diversity and fostering an equitable, diverse, and inclusive health research ecosystem.

This December, we will be introducing the CIHR Research Excellence, Diversity, and Independence (REDI) Early Career Transition Award. This funding opportunity is a new, transformative program that uses a cohort-building approach to provide mentorship and early career support to specific underrepresented groups of researchers. The aim of the award is to increase the diversity of highly qualified health researchers who have independent research careers in Canada.

The CIHR REDI Early Career Transition Award aligns with Government of Canada and tri-agency priorities to address systemic racism, sexism, and discrimination in Canadian institutions, and our shared commitment to continue closing systemic inequities faced by Black Canadian communities. When race and gender intersect, it can result in cumulative barriers and further discrimination that make it harder to start a successful career. That is why, for this first round of the REDI Award, we are focusing on providing support to Black people and racialized women. These populations are among the most underrepresented in Canadian faculties and they face discrimination, inequity, and intersecting barriers to employment in academia. Future launches of the REDI award will aim to support additional underrepresented populations (e.g., Indigenous Peoples, people with disabilities) and will continue to promote the growth of diverse research communities.

By creating this funding opportunity, CIHR is taking a concrete step toward meeting our strategic commitment to supporting equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in the research system and enhancing training and career support. We encourage eligible researchers to apply, and we hope that current faculty will spread the word within their institutions and scientific communities and act as mentors to the next generation of researchers. We are confident that this program will help us make the most of Canada's tremendous, diverse, scientific talent.

Please visit our website to learn more about CIHR's EDI initiatives such as our work toward developing an anti-racism action plan that aims to address systemic racism across all aspects of the CIHR funding system.

Sincerely,

Michael J. Strong, MD, FRCP, FCAHS, FAAN
President, CIHR

Charu Kaushic, MSc, PhD, FCAHS
Scientific Director, CIHR-Institute of Infection and Immunity

Date modified:

2022-12-08