Our understanding of the determinants and experience of health and wellbeing is changing. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated some existing trends and put a spotlight on others. We are now facing the challenge of responding to the broad effects of the pandemic. But there is also an opportunity to think differently about how we define and value health, understand the complex systems that produce health, and rise to the challenge of supporting equity in health across individuals, communities, and societies.
In response to this opportunity, UBC Health created Health After 2020, a program designed to support researchers to engage in interdisciplinary and cross-institutional collaborations and build a community of UBC Health Scholars. A total of $77,000 was granted to eight interdisciplinary teams to build partnerships with external collaborators and disseminate their collaborative research. The funded projects are diverse and demonstrate a commitment to the principles of equity, diversity, and inclusion. They cover a broad range of topics from substance use among international students to more effective methods to recruit hard-to-reach and marginalized populations to participate in research.
Collaborative research teams have been leading dialogue sessions to convene university and community partners and engage them in meaningful conversations about important issues related to the health and wellbeing of society. Primary investigators from each funded collaborative have been coming together as a group of UBC Health Scholars to share and develop ideas and inform a broader research agenda. To date, 150 individuals have learned from Health After 2020 teams through the dialogue series, including faculty, staff, students, and community members.
Strategic Objectives
Health After 2020 advances the following UBC Health strategic objectives:
- New research collaborations: Stimulate and support health research collaborations
- Community of practice: Foster an active community of health research practice and mentorship, supporting and connecting health scholars and students
- Evidence for new approaches: Help align university and sector activities to establish evidence for new approaches to health
- Coordinated responses: Coalesce experts and efforts to further collaborative health education and interdisciplinary research in response to pressing health challenges