A significant portion of CIHR-IAPH funds goes towards capacity building by supporting and nurturing graduate students pursuing careers in aboriginal health research. As part of the direct efforts to attract researchers to aboriginal health, CIHR-IAPH has held two national graduate student conferences - one at the University of British Columbia in March 2001 and the second in Ottawa in March 2002. These conferences were designed to provide networking opportunities and to assess graduate students' needs in aboriginal health research.
The inaugural national gathering of graduate students at the University of British Columbia in March 2001 attracted twenty-four students from across the country. Discussions ranged from capacity building and support, peer review and ethics, to knowledge translation and communications. Within one year, many more graduate students in aboriginal health identified themselves to CIHR-IAPH. As a result, some 60 participated in the second national gathering of graduate students. Summary reports from these gatherings can be read on our website.
CIHR-IAPH is laying the groundwork to create a recognized specialty of aboriginal health research that aims to facilitate the advanced study of aboriginal health. Currently, there is no single defined specialty addressing the unique and complex range of aboriginal health.
We encourage you as a potential researcher with CIHR-IAPH, to make yourself known to an ACADRE centre. You can also contact CIHR-IAPH at (416) 946-8057.
