Dear Nova Scotia Health Research Community,

The newsletter is the primary method for dissemination of new information, reminders, and updates for the research community. We hope you find our newsletter both helpful and informative. We welcome your comments, suggestions, and content for future editions.

Do you have a friend or colleague working within Nova Scotia Health research who is not receiving our newsletter? They can sign up here to be added to the mailing list!



We’d like to help celebrate your team's wins and successes! Please forward the information to ResearchQuality@nshealth.ca, and we’ll include it in the next research bulletin.

Welcome to Jennifer Aiken Please join us in welcoming Jennifer Aiken to the role of Research Quality Program Manager. Jennifer holds a degree in Chemistry from Western University (London, ON) and brings over 20 years of professional experience in laboratory and quality assurance roles within the international GMP pharmaceutical industry, regulated by both Health Canada and the FDA.

Her background spans pre-clinical, clinical, and licensed drug manufacturing environments, including expertise in analytical R&D, technology transfers, quality control, and quality assurance for both investigational and marketed drug products. In previous QA management roles across both private and public sectors, Jennifer has developed extensive experience in GMP and GCP-regulated settings.

Most recently, she served as the QA Lead for Nova Scotia Health’s Cyclotron facility, which operates under a GMP license to manufacture the radiopharmaceutical drug AtlantiScan for daily PET imaging at Nova Scotia Health.

 You can reach her at Jennifer.aiken@nshealth.ca.

Compass:

Our SOPs have moved with the migration to Compass. You can now find all the HRPP SOPs here.

Upcoming HRPP SOP Coffee Break



Join us virtually on Teams to learn more about our institutional research processes. We are changing the time slot to give you back your lunch break. Please join us from 10:00-10:45 on the fourth Thursday of every month. Share the link below with your teams.  

June 26: HRPP-SOP-008 Addressing Research Participants' Inquiries and Concerns Teams link 

Meeting ID: 238 800 021 687  

Passcode: J8k9XP  

Cantrain Annual Conference Lessons Learned Education Session



Please join Research Education for a review of the topics covered at the 2025 Cantrain Annual conference on Tuesday June 17 from 12:00-1:00pm. Topics include a review of Cantrain’s initiatives and other training/funding options through Clinical Trial Training Platforms (CTTPs) of Can-Tap-Talent, Strok-Cog and Canadian Behavioral Interventions and Trials Network (CBIN). To join the session, click HERE. 

Diving into Clinical Trials: Sink or Swim

It’s that time again! We are running Diving into Clinical Trials Sink or Swim on Wednesday, June 11 and Thursday, June 12 from 9:00-4:00 pm both days. Contact andrea.dean@nshealth.ca to register or click below to join!

Diving into Clinical Trial: Sink or Swim Day 1

Diving into Clinical Trial: Sink or Swim Day 2

CV Library

We have created a CV library within our Research Managers Channel to help highlight talent and support retention within Nova Scotia Health Research. Feel free to upload a CV or view existing CVs of potential candidates for your hiring needs!

You can find the folder by clicking on the Files tab at the top of the Research Managers Channel. If you're considering hiring or know of upcoming opportunities, please look here first, as there may be someone who’s a great fit for your team!

REDCap Training Tracker

We are circling back on interest level in the REDCap Training Tracker that has been presented at various sessions. This is an online tool for teams to track training, specifically for HRPP SOPs, however, groups can modify it for specific needs. Please contact andrea.dean@nshealth.ca to arrange a meeting to discuss your team’s interest in using this tool.

REB Tips and Tricks: Industry-Sponsored Study Advertisements



Did you know that the REB requires the ROMEO number to be added to all advertisements? This is to ensure that participants and staff have a reference to the file when there are questions or concerns. The challenge is that industry sponsors often don't permit changes to the ads they provide.

A good solution is to print stickers with the ROMEO# and the NS Health logo to stick on the ads. We recommend submitting your sticker template to the REB to confirm it's completed.

To avoid delays in approvals, the Research Ethics Office recommends that:

• For new submissions, you either indicate in the shared comments or in the "Participant Identification and Informed Consent" tab where you describe your recruitment procedures that stickers will be used on the ads or,
• For continuing review, if submitted as an amendment, you can enter that information in Q1.17 in the Amendment Event form.  

Project Team Log changing to Project Team Contact Log

Following the discussions during last week’s Coffee Break session (formerly HRPP Lunch and Learn) regarding HRPP-SOP-007 – Changes to Personnel, Principal Investigator, and Principal Investigator Absences – the HRPP Core Team has updated the title of the log from Project Team Log to Project Team Contact Log.

Our Research Administration team requires an up-to-date contact list for every research team member involved in each study within ROMEO. If the contact information is not fully captured within the Delegation Log, please ensure you complete and submit the Project Team Contact Log for all new submissions. Additionally, please update the log for any currently active studies when necessary.



If your entire team is already listed in ROMEO and no changes are needed, no further action is required. However, if you wish to remove any team members from ROMEO, please submit the Project Team Contact Log along with a Request for Acknowledgement Event and a Change in Personnel Event. Your Research Ethics Coordinator will then make the necessary updates.

NovaStudies Connect Training

June 11, 2025, 10 AM-11 AM via Teams

Please reach out to researchoperations@nshealth.ca to register.

Invitation to join NovaStudies Connect Feedback Sessions

We invite current users of NovaStudies Connect to participate in 30-minute feedback sessions with Sciteline, the vendor behind NovaStudies Connect. These sessions occur every three weeks (Thursdays at 2 PM) and are designed to:

• Review current NovaStudies Connect workflows
• Review product design demos
• Provide feedback in an open forum
• Ask questions and share suggestions for platform improvements

Your contributions influence how we enhance the platform to support your work in research and recruitment.

For more information or to sign up for these sessions, please contact ResearchOperations@nshealth.ca



Helpful tip: All of the NovaStudies Connect research platform reference guides can be found here

The Wound Innovation Collaborative

The Wound Innovation Collaborative is a Nova Scotia Health Innovation Hub initiative with the overarching vision to advance wound care by improving patient outcomes, producing meaningful data insights, and testing & trying innovative solutions. Through this initiative, there has been engagement with global wound care and biomedical companies interested in developing impactful research opportunities within Nova Scotia.

If wound care research is something of interest to you, please contact ResearchOperations@nshealth.ca, and we will connect you with the WIC team.

Upcoming Workshops and Consultations with NSH Oncology Subject Matter Experts, OPOR, and Oracle Health

Both the Standard of Care (SoC) and research module build for oncology OPOR initiative have been awarded to our partners at Oracle Health.

Things have been moving fast since then, and a series of workshops is coming up in May and June (total of about 45 hours), with the key goal to engage all levels and profiles of oncology subject matter experts (SMEs), so that the OPOR modules, clinical AND research, can be built to last and be truly fit for purpose.

The workshops are bringing together SMEs in both solid tumours, hematological malignancies, and benign hematology, with the OPOR team and system builders- our colleagues at Oracle Health.

All sessions will be recorded.

Both standard of care and research personnel are welcome.

National Funding Competitions

Canadian Institutes of Health Research: Planning and Dissemination Grants

Application Deadline: June 19th 2025

Results: October 31 2025

Funding Amount: Varies by the sponsoring Institute and Initiative, but will not exceed $75,000. Duration is 1 year.

Objectives: The specific objectives of this funding opportunity are to support: planning activities, partnership development and to increase understanding of the health research landscape that will contribute to the advancement of research consistent with the mandate of CIHR; and dissemination events and activities that focus on the communication of health research evidence to the appropriate researcher or knowledge-user audiences, tailoring the message and medium as appropriate.

Further Details: ResearchNet - RechercheNet

New Frontiers in Research Fund: Exploration Grants 2025

NOI Deadline: August 19, 2025

Application Deadline: October 21, 2025

Results: March 31, 2026

Funding Amount: Up to $125,000 per year (including indirect costs). Duration is up to 2 years.

Objectives: The goal of the Exploration stream is to inspire high-risk, high-reward and interdisciplinary research. Exploration grants support research that pushes boundaries into exciting new areas. Researchers are encouraged to think “outside of the box” and undertake research that would defy current paradigms; brings disciplines together in unexpected ways and from bold, innovative perspectives; and has the potential to be disruptive or deliver game-changing impacts. Exploration stream grants support projects that:

• bring disciplines together beyond traditional disciplinary or common interdisciplinary approaches;
•  propose to explore something new, which might fail; and
• have the potential for significant impact.

Further Details: 2025 Exploration Competition

Should any researchers or research teams be interested in apply to these competitions please reach out to researchgrants@nshealth.ca for next steps on support on internal deadline or submission information.

Funding Opportunity Deadlines

Upcoming Research Grant Opportunities June - Aug 2025_0.pdf

Please see the agenda link here.

Thank you for reading the Research Bulletin! The next edition will be July 2025.

Follow the Nova Scotia Health Innovation Hub on social media