Grant: Planning and Dissemination Grant - Institute Community Support

The Ottawa brain imaging community is seeing extensive growth thanks to recent investments in infrastructure, equipment, and faculty recruitment at local universities and hospital-based research institutes. While neuroimaging is common across various research groups and specialities, including psychiatry, neurology and neurosurgery, these teams traditionally work in silos. Our proposed retreat aims to promote collaboration across research and clinical foci, providing exposure to advanced neuroimaging techniques used across the city. This two-day event, hosted by the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre, including the Brain Imaging Centre (BIC) and the University of Ottawa Institute of Mental Health Research at the Royal (IMHR) has three primary aims: 1) foster interdisciplinary collaborations, 2) exchange knowledge on imaging techniques and analyses, and 3) provide pilot research funding through a pitch competition. Our target audience includes early-career researchers, physicians, scientists, trainees, and all other neuroimaging users. The conference will feature plenary and local speakers presenting their use of neuroimaging in research, common techniques, neuroimaging parameters, recruitment strategies, roadblocks and more. Furthermore, students will present neuroimaging acquisitions and analyses used in their research through posters and oral presentations, providing opportunities for professional development and knowledge exchange. Over the course of the retreat, participants will form cross-diagnostic, cross-disciplinary teams to develop a neuroimaging research project through an Innovation Pitch Competition, with seed funding awarded to the winning proposal to collect pilot data to support a future grant application. Ultimately, this retreat will create an expanded network to fuel future collaborations and further strengthen the neuroimaging research impact of Ottawa-area scientists and grant-funded infrastructure.