Catalyzing interdisciplinary research to create change

The Health Innovation Funding Investment (HIFI) Awards enable health researchers to pursue interdisciplinary and cross-faculty initiatives that have the potential to create change. With nearly 100 applications received from across both the Vancouver and Okanagan campuses in 2021/22, the positive response to HIFI demonstrates how integral interdisciplinary collaboration is to research at UBC. UBC Health is proud to support and amplify these efforts. In 2021/22, UBC Health awarded $475,793 to UBC faculty members collaborating across faculties, disciplines, and campuses to develop new teams, pursue new ideas, and translate findings from innovative health-related innovations research.

The funded initiatives are diverse and unique—from assessing data for equity-informed artificial intelligence for interdisciplinary wound care to exploring a tri-partnership model for drug-checking services to developing an interdisciplinary nutrition intervention for patients with diabetes. The addition of a team-based care funding stream in 2022 supported several new projects that are contributing to provincial efforts to establish and enhance team-based care.

Through the HIFI Awards, UBC Health fosters collaborations that bring together diverse perspectives to research impacting the health and wellbeing of individuals, communities, and societies.

Strategic Objectives

The HIFI Awards advance the following UBC Health strategic objectives:

• New research collaborations: Stimulate and support health research collaborations
• Evidence for new approaches: Help align university and sector activities to establish evidence for new approaches to health

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