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Happy October everyone!
Academic Conference Networking Tip: Do Less
In the research and healthcare world, we are heading into conference season. One tip that I think everyone could benefit from is that you don't have to be everywhere.
When you first start out attending conferences, there can sometimes be a desire to attend absolutely everything. However, I'd like to introduce you to a very valuable concept:
Strategic Visibility.
Strategic visibility refers to the intentional and thoughtful effort to be seen, heard, and recognized in ways that advance meaningful goals; whether personal, organizational, or community-based.
It means making deliberate choices about:
- Where to show up: selecting sessions, networking events, or poster presentations that align with your expertise, message, or advocacy focus.
- How to contribute: asking questions, joining discussions, or presenting in ways that demonstrate insight and build credibility.
- Who to connect with: identifying and engaging with people or groups whose work or influence aligns with your mission or values.
- What to share: communicating stories, data, or lived experiences that amplify your role and highlight the importance of inclusive, patient-informed, or community-engaged approaches in healthcare and research.
- Recognizing that you are a human being with limited energy.
- Even attending events that you might just find fun is strategic.
- Planning who you might like to meet with or who you might like to introduce yourself to. Making those connections easier by bringing either a business card with your information or using a phone app like HiHello that carries your information.
Strategic visibility not only offers you opportunity for a plan, but takes care of your physical and mental health as well.
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Warmest regards,
Rae Martens
FER Knowledge Broker
Research Engagement Strategist
| | 👀 Looking for lived experience opportunities in this newsletter? Look for 🌟 to find highlighted opportunities! | | FER Community News and Updates | | See what our FER graduates are accomplishing! Want to be featured? | |
Bringing Inclusion to the Gaming Space 🌟
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Since the FER Course, I’ve been working as a Development Director at EA Sports, where I recently shared the story of how our team began making FC26 more accessible. What started as a small spark after a learning session on accessibility grew into a grassroots effort — organizing workshops and bringing together designers, producers, QA, and engineers to rethink how we design for inclusion. From there, we piloted new accessibility practices, such as introducing a High Contrast Mode and other features to better support players with diverse needs. By creating space for experimentation, we turned curiosity and care into concrete practices that are beginning to shape the player experience.
Beyond my role at EA Sports, I also serve on the Board of Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital and recently attended the Solutions for Patient Safety Conference, continuing to engage in work that advances accessibility, inclusion, and safety across different sectors.
| | Ivona Novak
(FER Course, Fall 2023) | Example of High Contrast Mode | |
Side by Side: Siblings, Disability & Peer Support🌟
| | Kristy Wolfe
(FER Course, Winter 2021) | Linda Nguyen (middle)
(FER Course, Winter 2019) | Samantha Bellefeuille
(FER Course, Winter 2019) | | |
Sibling life is never just one role. It’s caretaker, advocate, friend, guardian—and it shifts with every season. We sit down with Linda Nguyen and sibling-advocate Samantha Bellefeuille to explore how those fluid roles come into focus when siblings lead the narrative and how digital storytelling can turn lived experience into lasting change in health care, research, and community programs.
Linda shares the roots of the Sibling Youth Advisory Council (SibYAC) and why bringing siblings into research as true partners transforms what gets asked, measured, and taught. Samantha walks us through crafting a digital story about growing up with her brother Sean and how that journey led her to found Fostering Forever Friendships, a day program for adults with special needs. We talk plainly about ethics and impact; story ownership, consent that respects boundaries, fair compensation for emotional labor, and the choice to keep first screenings intimate before sharing stories in classrooms, conferences, and clinician training.
| | Amanda Doherty-Kirby Awarded Sepsis Canada Trainee Grant 🌟 | | | | Congratulations to Amanda Doherty-Kirby, recipient of the Sepsis CanadaTrainee Grant competition. These awards help support the next generation of researchers dedicated to advancing knowledge and improving outcomes for people affected by sepsis. | Amanda Doherty-Kirby
(FER Course, Fall 2020) | | Agreeing to a tracheostomy for your sick baby is traumatic — but it’s not the hardest decision families have to make 🌟 | | Pam Thomson-Kai’s son Sawyer was just 7-months old when he stopped breathing. He was rushed to hospital, where he was revived and put on a breathing machine. Then the doctors asked his parents whether they could give him a tracheostomy — a surgical procedure to create an opening in the windpipe and allow air to flow to his lungs. | | |
It was a scary decision, but Thomson-Kai and her then husband felt they had no choice because Sawyer’s life was at stake.
Now, a team at the University of Alberta, including Thomson-Kai and three other parent partners, are working to better understand and create tools to support other parents facing that decision — and all of the challenges that come with it.
| Pam Thomson-Kai
(FER Course, Winter 2024) | | What We're Excited About This Month 🌟 | |
🎤 📢 Conference Season!
It’s officially conference season - time to submit, share, and connect! A few abstract deadlines are fast approaching:
✨ Children's HealthCare Canada May 31 - June 2, 2026 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada - Abstracts due Oct 20
✨ European Academy of Childhood-onset Disability (EACD) June 3 - 6, 2026 in Galway, Ireland - Abstracts due Nov 7
We hope to see you there!
| | Call for Self-Nominations: DORA International Steering Committee | | The Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) is seeking committed individuals from around the world—particularly from Africa, Asia, and Latin America & the Caribbean—to help lead efforts to improve how research and researchers are evaluated globally. | |
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Steering Committee members:
✔ Participate in quarterly meetings
✔ Contribute to task forces advancing DORA’s mission
✔ Represent and promote DORA’s work in their region
If you’re passionate about research culture and equity in assessment, this is your chance to make an impact on a global stage.
🗓 Submit your self-nomination by October 31
| | Kids Brain Health Network (KBHN), in partnership with Brain Canada, is excited to launch an Indigenous funding opportunity to support impactful projects that improve outcomes for Indigenous children and youth with neurodevelopmental disabilities and their families. | | New Funding Opportunity: CIHR Planning & Dissemination Grants (Winter 2026) | | The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) invites proposals for its Planning and Dissemination Grants. This program funds activities (not primary research) that build partnerships, shape research direction, and disseminate findings to key audiences — all to help bridge the “knowledge-to-action” gap. | | |
Deadline: November 13, 2025
Focus: Planning, partnership development, stakeholder consultation, knowledge mobilization, workshops, plain-language tools, and more — especially those that engage diverse groups and underrepresented communities
Eligibility: Canadian researchers, knowledge users, trainees, NGOs, etc. (see full eligibility criteria)
| | Upcoming Event: Alberta SPOR Patient Engagement Journal Club - October Session 🌟 | | |
Join the Alberta SPOR Patient Engagement Journal Club on Wednesday, October 29, 2025 (10–11 a.m. MT / 12–1 p.m. ET) for their next discussion on patient engagement in research.
This monthly journal club is open to everyone—including researchers, trainees, and patient partners—interested in exploring current topics and new perspectives in patient-oriented research.
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Learning Opportunity: Arts-based Methods for Collective Action 🌟 | | |
This online, interactive course guide will guide participants in ethically designing, implementing, and sharing arts-based research for meaningful collaboration and knowledge sharing.
Ideal for students, artists, community organizers, researchers, and social service professionals, this course equips you to harness the potential of the arts for meaningful community engagement and knowledge sharing.
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Instructors:
Sarah Switzer, Janna Martin
Course Length: 14 hours
Dates:
- November 19, 2025, from 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM
- November 28, 2025, from 09:30 AM to 04:30 PM
- November 29, 2025, from 09:30 AM to 04:30 PM
Language: English
Format: Online (via Zoom)
Cost: $695
| | Upcoming Event: Virtual Journal Club for Parents of Children with Medical Complexity🌟 | | |
The Siden Research Team at BC Children’s Hospital Research (BCCHR) invites parents across Canada to join their bi-annual virtual Journal Club. This session provides an opportunity to explore research on topics that matter to families of children with medical complexity.
November’s focus: The Labour of Caregiving
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📅 Date: Friday, November 7, 2025
🕒 Time: 10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. PST | 1:00–3:00 p.m. EST
💻 Format: Online
Participants will discuss research exploring the unpaid work of caregiving and how this role shapes families’ experiences and journeys.
| | Upcoming Event: Media Training | | |
This 60-minute bilingual media training session (hosted by CIHR Institute of Human Development, Child and Youth Health) provides practical tools and advice to help researchers communicate effectively with journalists.
Tuesday, October 28
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM EDT
Online event
Free!
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Participants will learn how the media works and what journalists are looking for, as well as how to:
- Prepare for different types of interviews (radio, TV, print, or phone)
- Craft clear, compelling messages about their research
- Stay on message using bridging techniques and avoid common pitfalls
- Handle challenging questions with confidence
- Manage nerves and maintain control in interviews
- Make the most of media opportunities to promote their work and CIHR funding
| | Participate: Clinical Trial Design Study 🌟 | | |
The RareKids-CAN Sex and Gender Sub-Platform is recruiting participants! We are studying the experiences of children with rare conditions, their caregivers, and researchers in pediatric rare disease clinical trials—especially around sex, gender, and SGBA+. (Sex and Gender-Based Analysis Plus) The goal is to improve support for more inclusive and equitable clinical trial design in Canada.
Participants can complete a 30-minute online survey or a 60–90-minute virtual interview and will be compensated for their time.
To join the study, fill out the survey or check your interview eligibility below:
Questions? Contact madeleine.matthews@camh.ca.
| | Participate: Youth and Family Involvement in Paediatric Education 🌟 | | |
You may be qualified to participate in a research study to help advance the field of medical education. Dr. Elif Bilgic and colleagues are planning to recruit patients (former or current) and families for a project exploring experiences interacting with pediatric residents in clinical settings. The aim of this project is to identify gaps in these interactions and develop innovative educational interventions to enhance resident training.
We are recruiting members of the Family and Youth Advisory Councils and individuals with lived experience at the McMaster Children's Hospital as pediatric patients, caregivers and siblings. Participants will provide insights into their interactions with pediatric residents, helping to inform improvements in training.
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Your participation will include the completion of a brief demographic questionnaire and an interview that will take around 1 hour. Your contribution will significantly contribute to the depth and richness of their findings. Additionally, if you choose to participate, we will thank you by giving you a $30 gift card at the end of the study.
A part of the interview will include using a simple drawing technique, which requires no need for any artistic abilities. The drawing exercise is meant to facilitate some of our conversations, and we will ask you to show and describe your drawing.
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This study has been reviewed by the Hamilton Integrated Research Ethics Board under Project # 17235.
Please contact bilgice@mcmaster.ca if you are interested in participating or finding out more information about this study.
| | Resources and Learning Opportunities | | |
Research Article 🌟
Facilitating non-tokenistic user involvement in research
Romsland, G.I., Milosavljevic, K.L. & Andreassen, T.A. Facilitating non-tokenistic user involvement in research. Res Involv Engagem 5, 18 (2019).
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Blog Post 🌟
The Invisible Search Engine Shaping Public Trust: Is AI Recommending Your Work?
Consider how to ensure your work is seen on Google.
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Resource 🌟
Canada's First Accessibility Standard
This Standard will help organizations to create accessible, clear, and efficient communication. It shows how to identify, prevent, or remove barriers to communication that their audiences, including persons with disabilities, may face.
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Have questions or content to share in the next FER Newsletter?
Email us at fer@mcmaster.ca
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