Grant Writing Workshop

Dr. Golnaz Farhat is the Strategic Research Development Officer in the Office of the Vice Dean, Research and Health Science Education at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, where she provides editorial and grant development support to faculty members.  She earned her PhD in 2016 from the Department of Medical Biophysics in Medicine at U of T; her research focused on using optical coherence tomography to detect cancer cell death. She has been writing and editing grant proposals for the past seven years. 

Title: “How to Write a Persuasive Grant Proposal”

Dr. Anna Gagliardi is a Senior Scientist at the Toronto General Hospital Research Institute and Professor at the University of Toronto (Department of Surgery; Institute of Health Policy, Management & Evaluation; Institute of Medical Science). Her research employs qualitative, quantitative and multiple-/mixed-methods, and focuses on optimizing the implementation of guidelines, organizational and individual patient and family engagement, and person-centered care for diverse women across the lifespan. She has administered over $5.5 million in research funding as PI/co-PI and published over 135 peer-reviewed articles as principal/senior author. Her leadership roles include Chair of the Implementation Working Group for the Guidelines International Network (2012-2017, 2020-current), and advisor to national and international governments and professional societies on guideline implementation and person-centered care. Dr. Gagliardi developed and taught Tools for Implementation of Best Evidence for 13 years (2009-2021) to graduate students at the University of Toronto, and guest lectures on implementation science and synthesis methods. She also supervises Health Services Research MSc and PhD students, and serves as member on thesis committees. Dr. Gagliardi was a CIHR New Investigator in Knowledge Translation (2013-2018). She completed a PhD in Health Services Research at the University of Toronto, and her background includes a Masters in Biochemistry, a Master of Library Science, and a Bachelor of Education.  

Title: “Reflections on Preparing Grants from a Late-Career PhD Health Services Researcher” 

Dr. Laureen Hachem completed medical school (early entry program) at the University of Toronto in 2017.  She joined the Toronto Neurosurgery Residency Program in 2017.  She will pursue her PhD under the co-supervision of Dr. Michael Fehlings and Dr. Charles Tator (Toronto Western Hospital) within the University of Toronto Surgeon-Scientist Training Program.

Title: “Grant Writing – A Resident’s Perspective”

Dr. Kathryn Howe completed her PhD at McMaster University in the Molecular Immunology, Virology and Inflammation program. Her thesis focused on determining the mechanism behind the beneficial role of TGF-beta on enhancing intestinal epithelial barrier function and protection from EHEC O157:H7 infection. Kathryn went to medical school at the University of Toronto and completed a Post-Doctoral fellowship at Sick Kids, publishing in several fields during this time, including infection and immunity in HIV, ethics and sustainability in global surgery, and ischemia-reperfusion. She has been awarded competitive Canadian Institutes of Health Research Fellowships and National scholarships throughout her research career. As part of her Vascular Surgery residency (McMaster), Kathryn completed a 3-month clinical and research fellowship at Stanford University and established her own bench research program investigating the role of endothelial microRNA in vascular disease. Kathryn was awarded FRCSC status in 2018. Her clinical initiative is carotid revascularization and stroke prevention with multi-disciplinary team engagement to triage at-risk patients for early intervention, work that dovetails with Kathryn’s bench research program (see below). Kathryn is a Surgeon-Scientist at the Toronto General Hospital Research Institute. She collaborates extensively with Dr. Jason Fish. Her CIHR-funded research program is looking at the role of endothelial activation on microRNA regulation in atherosclerosis and uses cell culture and animal models, as well as human tissue from the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre Biobank. Her ultimate goal is to find regulators of atherosclerosis for development of innovative strategies for improved screening tools, risk assessment, and intervention in advance of devastating clinical events such as stroke and myocardial infarction.

Title: “Flushing out the first idea for the bench - Perspective from an Early Career Surgeon-Scientist”

Dr. Paul Karanicolas is a surgical oncologist and scientist at the Odette Cancer Centre at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and holds a Professor title at both the Department of Surgery and the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto.  Dr. Karanicolas leads several clinical trials with the goal of improving the experience, outcomes and quality of life of patients undergoing surgery with a focus on patients with hepatopancreatobiliary cancers. He is the head of the HepatoPancreaticoBiliary Community of Surgical Oncologists: Clinical, Evaluative, and Prospective Trials Team (HPB CONCEPT Team), a Canada-wide consensus-based framework for liver and pancreatic cancer research. Further, Dr. Karanicolas holds several leadership roles including serving as the medical and scientific director for the Centre for Clinical Trial Support (CCTS) at Sunnybrook Research Institute to facilitate the development and design of clinical trials and research projects as well as to ensure regulatory compliance of investigator-initiated studies and is the Canadian Cancer Trials Group (CCTG) HPB Disease Site Co-Chair.

Title: “Building a Snowman: Working your way up to Big grant”

SSTP Grant Writing Workshop 2022