Grant: Project Grant - Priority Announcement: Patient-Oriented Research

The movement to involve patients in the design and conduct of biomedical research - known as patient engagement - recognizes that people with lived experiences contribute unique expertise and valuable, novel insights to the research process. This practice has gained considerable traction and funding support in clinical research, in part due to increased recognition that patients should be involved as the "ultimate end-users" of biomedical research knowledge. Engaging patients in preclinical laboratory-based research, which is often conducted using animals or cells, may hold similar benefits to those of clinical research, however published examples are rare and there is a lack of tools, resources, and supports for this practice. Currently, Canada's Strategy for Patient-Oriented Research (SPOR) Support units represent an untapped partnership opportunity to promote and implement preclinical patient engagement. Using our LabPartners research program as a foundational model, we propose the co-development of a sustainable, SPOR-aligned platform that embeds engagement capacity and resources for preclinical researchers and patients across Canada. The overarching goals for the LabPartners research program are to foster and sustain meaningful preclinical patient engagement, build researcher and patient partner capacity, and co-create best-practice guidance. Working in collaboration with SPOR Support units, research networks and other local interest-holders, we will obtain input on possible barriers and facilitators to use of our drafted best-practice guidance and test the guidance with preclinical researchers and patient partners. Through this work we seek to adapt our guidance to account for contexts of local research and patient communities. Our aimswill situate Canadian preclinical researchers as leaders in the global shift towards more inclusive, patient-centered research while optimizing national coordination and collaboration between regional SPOR Support units.