Dr. Sarah Munce, implementation scientist at the Bloorview Research Institute (BRI), Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital, and faculty at the University of Toronto, has been awarded a prestigious Implementation Science Chair by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).

The five-year award, valued at $1 million, will support Dr. Munce’s work to advance how young people and families are meaningfully engaged within learning health systems — care environments where research and practice continuously inform one another to improve outcomes.

The CIHR Implementation Science Chairs in Human Development, Child and Youth Health program recognizes a small number of early- to mid-career researchers across Canada. The Chair provides funding for both the researcher’s salary and their broader program of work, including research, training and knowledge mobilization.

Holland Bloorview’s strategic plan, HB2030, commits to “continuously evolve our engagement efforts, including authentic partnership and co-creation, inside and outside of Holland Bloorview,” and to “creatively seek out new co-creation opportunities, including with alumni, the external disability community and those experiencing structural oppression to ensure our learning health system work has the greatest impact on the health and quality of life of children, youth and families with disabilities and developmental differences.”

As Chair, Dr. Munce will address this critical need by using UNITE, a measure of youth- and family-specific engagement in research and study its implementation in the context of a learning health system.

This work builds on her existing program of research on youth and family engagement in research and implementation science. It holds the potential to foster resilience, empower youth, enhance service delivery and serve as an exemplar learning health system for other organizations serving youth with disabilities and their families.

“Youth and families bring essential perspectives to research that affects their lives. But too often, their engagement is inconsistent or tokenistic,” said Dr. Munce. “This Chair allows us to design a research-informed, user-driven way to measure and strengthen how we include youth and families as partners — not participants — in the learning process.”

The work aligns closely with BRI’s 2023–2030 strategic priorities and Holland Bloorview’s 2030 strategic plan. In particular, it supports the goals to advance research practices through IDEAA (inclusion, diversity, equity, accessibility and anti-racism), enable care transformed by research and become a learning health system.

“This Chair reflects Sarah’s national leadership in the intersection of engagement, implementation science and inclusive health research,” said Dr. Evdokia Anagnostou, vice-president of research and director of the BRI. “Her work will provide a practical framework for making client and family engagement measurable, accountable and sustainable — not just at Holland Bloorview, but across the pediatric health research landscape.”

In addition to her role at BRI, Dr. Munce holds status appointments at the University of Toronto’s Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation and the Rehabilitation Sciences Institute, where she also serves as graduate coordinator. She is the incoming associate chief of learning health systems at BRI and editor-in-chief of JMIR Rehabilitation and Assistive Technologies.

With almost 140 peer-reviewed publications and $20 million in grant funding as principal or co-investigator, Dr. Munce is recognized nationally for her leadership in implementation science, co-design, and mentorship. Her research program includes students, early-career scientists and youth collaborators who will help shape the future of engagement in health research.

“I’m deeply grateful to my peer and senior mentors, youth and family partners, students and trainees, staff, the BRI, and CIHR for this incredible honour,” said Dr. Munce. “This Chair award will propel our research program forward as we explore how to meaningfully engage youth and families in the learning health system. Together, we aim to understand not only what data matters most to them, but also how to interpret its outputs and co-develop solutions that reflect their priorities.”

Dr. Munce and her team plan to share findings through peer-reviewed publications, training resources and partnerships — all with the goal of advancing more inclusive, equity-informed research across Canada.