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About

The goal of the IMN-Ontario is to continue the excellent work that began 5 years ago to support and grow the next generation of Indigenous health scholars with an eye to serve the research needs and capacities of Ontario’s Indigenous communities and advancing Indigenous health equity along the way.

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The Anishinabe concept, Mno Nimkodding Geegi (translation: “we are all connected”) was a guiding theme of the IMN-Ontario since its inception, and we will continue to honour that concept going forward as we re-affirm a commitment to growing and supporting community-based health and well-being research and training opportunities for Indigenous trainees and researchers in Ontario.

We invite all students (current, prospective, and/or past) and Indigenous communities and organizations interested in Indigenous health and well-being research to join our mailing list. We welcome general inquiries and/or requests to facilitate connections with our mentors and their research, please email our Coordinator: imn@mcmaster.ca

In 2002, the Institute for Aboriginal (now Indigenous) Peoples’ Health of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research launched its flagship initiative – Aboriginal Capacity and Developmental Research Environments (ACADRE) and then in 2007, Network Environments for Aboriginal Health Research (NEAHRs) – that aimed to increase capacity in Indigenous health research.  The Ontario node of the network, the Indigenous Health Research Development Program, granted 119 awards to 66 students over a decade who were supported through their graduate training while building a network of Indigenous health researchers that exists today, with many of those individuals now leaders within their institutions.

While the funding for the original NEAHRs ended, the CIHR-IIPH created the 5-year Indigenous Mentorship Network program in 2017 in recognition of the great need to continue to support Indigenous graduate students through their training. This 5-year CIHR grant has ended, though the Indigenous Mentorship Network of Ontario will receive financial support from the University of Toronto node of the renewed Network Environments for Indigenous Health Research to continue to support Indigenous graduate students in Ontario.