Deadline: 05-Aug-2025
The Vancouver Foundation is now accepting applications for its Participatory Action Research Grant Program. This initiative supports collaborative research that is co-led by community members and academic or research-based institutions to explore the root causes of critical community health issues. The goal is to produce meaningful knowledge that leads to real-world, evidence-based change driven by the communities most affected.
To be eligible, projects must involve a partnership between a community service organization and an institution with access to a research ethics board, such as a university, health authority, or similar research-based body. Additionally, the research must primarily take place in British Columbia and use a participatory action research approach rooted in questions and concerns arising from the community.
The program offers two types of funding. Convene grants provide up to $25,000 for a period of up to one year. These grants support early-stage activities like building partnerships, engaging stakeholders, and identifying research questions or issues that could become the focus of a larger study. They help teams assess the viability of a collaborative research project and foster trust and understanding among partners.
Investigate grants offer up to $100,000 per year for up to three years. These grants support teams with well-defined participatory research plans that focus on understanding complex population health issues. Investigate projects aim to build deep partnerships and generate findings that communities can use to inform action, policy change, and long-term impact.
Eligible activities for Convene grants include planning meetings, relationship-building, early project scoping, and community engagement. Investigate grants fund the actual research process, including data collection, analysis, and knowledge sharing between community and institutional partners. Both types of grants emphasize the importance of equitable collaboration and knowledge exchange to address health-related challenges in British Columbia.
All applicants must demonstrate how their project will bring together diverse voices and perspectives to shape the research process. The foundation prioritizes projects that value lived experience and ensure community leadership throughout.
For more information, visit Vancouver Foundation.
