Grant: Planning Grants

The objective of this meeting is to bring together experts and other key stakeholders from various sectors and disciplines (including clinical and community health) to develop methodological guidelines for the evaluation of complex health interventions. This meeting will expand on the UK Medical Research Council Guidance for Evaluation of Complex Health Interventions by incorporating a wider variety of views on learning and evaluation. In preparation for the meeting, a scoping study will be carried out to highlight knowledge gaps and the methodological needs of intended users: those designing, implementing, and evaluation complex health interventions. This meeting will directly address CIHR's priority areas by identifying evaluation theories and methods that are especially helpful in generating translatable knowledge. Various experts will be asked to prepare background papers on key topics identified through the scoping study and to lead the discussion at the meeting itself. In order to reach a wider group of potential users, the scoping study, background papers, and meeting presentations will be put into a meeting website. The guidelines will be developed through these various activities. As a future follow-up to this grant, the guidelines will be disseminated widely through the website and an edited book.