The Foundation for the Advancement of Family Medicine (FAFM) and the Section of Researchers (SOR), at the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC), are currently recruiting a senior career researcher and a mid-career researcher for the Honours and Awards Research Committee (HARC).
Participation in the HARC is a unique and rewarding volunteer opportunity for CFPC members. The HARC manages the selection of recipients for grants and awards offered through the FAFM’s Honours and Awards program. It also provides oversight, advice, recommendations, and decisions to help steward the relevance, sustainability, and impact of the awards it helps select. The HARC aims to reflect a diverse cross-section of CFPC members who are knowledgeable of, and passionate about, family medicine/primary care research.
The HARC’s core function is to engage in peer review, evaluation, and adjudication processes for identifying and recommending recipients for the FAFM’s annual Honours and Awards offerings in family medicine/primary care research. In addition, HARC members contribute to the development of research program requirements that support the Foundation’s mandate and activities, and inform the selection of applicants and nominees for research-based Honours and Awards programs’ offerings. This role includes, but is not limited to, advising on research program aims, defining eligibility criteria, and developing rigorous evaluation tools and processes.
The HARC activities support the following FAFM Honours and Awards offerings:
- Janus Research Grants, including the D.M. Robb Community-Based Research Grant award
- CFPC Outstanding Family Medicine Research Article
- Research Awards for Family Medicine Residents
- Janus training grant selection (Grant Generating Project)
- CFPC Lifetime Achievement Awards in Family Medicine Research
The HARC is comprised of 10 volunteer members:
- One Chair
- Three early career researchers (participation in family medicine/primary care research for less than five years)
- Three mid-career researchers (participation in family medicine/primary care research for five to 14 years)
- Three senior researchers (participation in family medicine/primary care research for 15 or more years)
All HARC members are keenly interested in family medicine/primary care research and must have a strong level of research knowledge, experience, and expertise. Strong critical appraisal/peer review skills are also required. Recognizing their variable career stages, HARC members will have some level of experience with family medicine/primary care research studies, participation in practice-based research networks, authorship of scientific manuscripts, and/or contribution to the development of evidence-based guidelines. HARC members may have undertaken graduate level research training at a masters and/or a PhD level or be a graduate of a clinical scholar program at a department of family medicine in Canada. All HARC appointments are for a term of two years, renewable once; committee members may serve a maximum of four consecutive years (i.e., two terms).
If you are interested in applying to serve as a HARC member, please send your cover letter and a current CV to [email protected] by June 7, 2024. In your cover letter, please highlight your relevant experience and motivation for serving on the HARC. Please also indicate if you are a mid-career or senior researcher. We warmly welcome applications from Indigenous peoples and/or those with experience in Indigenous communities.
The HARC plays an important role in advancing the discipline of family medicine through research and in offering exciting career opportunities exclusively to CFPC members. We thank all applicants for their interest in contributing to this goal and we look forward to hearing from you.