Skills Training for Real-world Intervention Evaluation in Sexually Transmitted and Blood-Borne Infections (STRIVE-STBBI)

The STRIVE-STBBI academic training program is open to current graduate students (MSc, PhD), postdoctoral fellows, public health professionals, and early-career researchers (within 5 years of obtaining an independent research-related appointment).

Trainees must demonstrate a strong interest in STBBIs and real-world evaluation methods, including use of large-scale administrative health data. STRIVE-STBBI is open to applicants from across Canada, with preference given to those based in British Columbia and the Yukon.

Trainee participation in STRIVE-STBBI grants access to all program components (seminar series, summer school, and research placement), free of charge. A limited number of travel awards and placement stipends are available through an application process.

Key program benefits include:

1. Skill development: STRIVE-STBBI instructional content will span the full continuum of intervention domains (e.g., prevention, testing, treatment, linkage to care) and will cover key methodological approaches (e.g., target trial emulation, causal inference methods, applications of artificial intelligence/ machine learning, policy decisions). A strong focus will also be placed on health equity and disparities, by teaching how to identify and assess priority populations within real-world healthcare administrative datasets. The program will demonstrate how to evaluate interventions tailored to priority populations using strengths-based and precision health approaches and will provide guidance on community engagement and involving research users in the research process.
2. Inclusion in the STRIVE Community of Practice: STRIVE-STBBI will provide opportunities for networking and collaboration, fostering lasting professional relationships that will support long-term cooperation among trainees, mentors, alumni and partners. This ongoing engagement will create a self-sustaining ecosystem of knowledge exchange, career development, and collaborative research opportunities within the STRIVE research community.
3. Two-Tiered Certification: Trainees who complete the Summer School, attend more than 70% of the virtual seminars, and complete a mentored research placement will receive a Certificate of Completion. A Certificate of Participation is available for trainees who complete the Summer School and seminar attendance requirements but opt out of the research placement.

Completed over 10–14 months

1. Monthly Seminar Series: October 2026 – April 2027

STRIVE academic trainees participate in a virtual monthly seminar series organized around rotating themes: (a) Methodological Innovations: exploring advancements in real-world evaluation; and (b) Applied Case Presentations: featuring in-progress or completed evaluations of STBBI interventions and practical approaches to knowledge translation. Seminar faculty include Canadian and international experts in real-world evaluations and STBBI research, policy and community leaders and industry partners. Each seminar session includes a 1-hour open expert presentation and facilitated discussion, followed by a 1-hour closed small group breakout session for trainees to discuss the practical applications of the seminar content, potential methodological challenges, policy relevance, and connections to their own work.

2. Summer School: June 7 – 11, 2027

All trainees are expected to attend a 5-day in-person Summer School in Vancouver, British Columbia. The course will begin with a joint session for academic and community trainees to provide an orientation to the STRIVE program and to discuss foundational issues related to the use of healthcare administrative data in the evaluation of STBBI interventions. This half-day session will be followed by separate training sessions tailored to trainees in the academic stream and the community stream. Through participation in the Summer School curriculum, trainees will build capacity to evaluate interventions that address the specific needs of priority populations, a critical and unique feature of STBBI research. Course activities will include expert lectures, teaching assistant led data labs using real-world synthetic STBBI data, and case-based group projects. Faculty will include experts in STBBIs and real-world evaluations from across Canada. A detailed program will be shared with trainees in advance. A limited number of travel awards are available through an application process for trainees based outside of Vancouver.

3. Mentored research placements: Summer – Fall 2027

A mentored placement option provides trainees with an opportunity to apply the knowledge and skills gained during the Summer School and virtual seminar series to real-world questions. Participating trainees undertake a 4-month part-time mentored research placement, requiring an estimated 10–15 hours per week, embedded within an active STBBI evaluation project within Canada. To support participation, a limited number of stipends (valued at $4000 each) are available through an application process to select trainees during this period

To ensure comprehensive guidance and cross-disciplinary training, each trainee completing a placement will be co-supervised by an STBBI subject-matter expert and a methodological mentor. Typically, placements are conducted over the summer term, but the timing may be adapted depending on the project and mutual agreement between the trainee and placement mentors. Placement activities may include project conceptualization, community engagement, data preparation, advanced analysis, and the development of manuscripts or technical reports, and knowledge mobilization. At a minimum, all participating trainees must produce a publicly shareable summary report detailing their placement activities, alongside a lay summary. Trainees and their mentors are strongly encouraged—though not required—to leverage their placement work to collaboratively develop a data analysis protocol, a conference abstract, or a scientific manuscript. Additional outputs will be determined through the placement agreement between trainees and their mentors.

Mentored Research Placement Opportunities 2027

A list of available placement opportunities for Summer–Fall 2027 will be posted by September 2026.

To apply as a STRIVE-STBBI trainee candidate, please click on the link above to access the application portal. The application form will ask you to provide details about your current career stage, primary affiliation/ institution and supervisor (for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows). You will also be asked to complete an Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Self-Identification Form. The Applicant EDI Self-Identification Form is used to monitor equity and diversity in the recruitment and selection process for the STRIVE-STBBI training program. STRIVE-STBBI is committed to equitable and inclusive access to the training program, particularly for scholars underrepresented in health research. The selection process will include application equalization measures to ensure that underrepresented groups have access to the STRIVE program at least proportional to other groups.

Additionally, you will be prompted to attach the following for your application:

1. Applicant letter

Maximum 2 pages

Letter should include:

• A brief summary of your academic background and research experience, including current research projects (e.g., thesis or postdoctoral work)
• A description of how your academic background and research interests align with the focus of the STRIVE training program on real-world evaluation of STBBI interventions using large-scale administrative data and equity-centred and community-engaged approaches.
• 3–5 specific learning goals, describing the skills, methods or experiences that you hope to gain through participation in STRIVE-STBBI program.
• A description of your future research and professional goals and how participation in STRIVE will support these goals.
• A description of how equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) considerations inform your approach to research and/or your professional practice, partnerships and/or personal commitments.

2. Narrative Tri-agency CV

3. Completed and signed STRIVE-STBBI Applicant Supervisor Confirmation of Support Form

Graduate students and postdoctoral fellows only

4. Optional: Special Circumstances

Maximum 1 page.

Applicants are encouraged to confidentially explain any personal circumstances to allow for a fair assessment of their application. This optional component provides an opportunity for applicants to describe any circumstances that may have delayed or interrupted their academic and/or career advancement, research, dissemination of results, or training (e.g., parental leave, illness, disability, cultural, community or family responsibilities, etc.).

You will be able to view your submitted or in-progress application at any point by clicking on “My Applications” at the top of the UBC application portal page.

Each application will be reviewed by two members of the STRIVE-STBBI Recruitment and Selection Committee. Each reviewer will evaluate the application as a whole and provide a single numeric score, using the CIHR rating scale (0 – 4.9), and constructive feedback for the applicant. Reviewers’ numeric scores will be averaged, and where there is a discrepancy of >1, the reviewers will be asked to discuss their ratings and make any changes before the review committee meeting. Only applications with an average score of 3.5 or greater will be discussed by the committee.

Competition launch: June 15, 2026

Application deadline: July 15, 2026

Results announcement: September 8, 2026

Program start date: October 1, 2026