Health Data Research Network Canada (HDRN Canada) invites proposals from organizations and/or individuals with demonstrated experience and knowledge of health data and related areas to undertake an interim evaluation of its activities since its launch in April 2019.
Overview
In 2019, HDRN Canada was awarded funding through a seven-year grant to build and operate the Strategy for Patient-Oriented Research (SPOR) Canadian Data Platform (CDP). The SPOR CDP, funded by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research and in-kind contributions from partners, is focused on enabling high-quality, innovative, and multi-jurisdictional research that supports health and health equity.
HDRN Canada is a distributed network of organizations and people who come together with common objectives related to data and multi-regional research. Our network includes clinicians, decision-makers, members of the public, and researchers from across Canada. Our members include provincial, territorial, and multi-regional organizations that hold health and health-related data for entire populations.
We are also actively working to better support inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility (IDEA) through data use and supporting Indigenous-led data governance priorities that advance First Nations, Inuit, and Métis data sovereignty.
HDRN Canada is a unique organization that is working to alleviate various challenges with respect to multi-regional research. These challenges include data access, data analysis (including data organization and comparability), data governance, and how to incorporate principles of IDEA and Indigenous Data Sovereignty into everything we do.
For more information about HDRN Canada and its activities please refer to our website at https://www.hdrn.ca/ and strategic plan at https://www.hdrn.ca/en/about/strategic-plan.
Scope of Work
HDRN Canada is seeking an external organization or individual to undertake an interim evaluation of its actions and activities from April 2019 to April 30, 2022. This evaluation is expected to be a formative evaluation that can identify lessons learned from the development of HDRN Canada. The main focus of the evaluation will be to describe the approach and activities led or supported by HDRN Canada across the five goals included in the Strategic Plan. Additional focus areas will include:
- Describing the approach and activities led or supported by HDRN Canada across the outcomes in the SPOR CDP Logic Model (see Appendix in attached document).
- Linking outputs/outcomes to HDRN Canada’s overall goals and checking alignment with those of the SPOR CDP.
- Evaluation and impact of HDRN Canada activities (may include impact overview/impact typology/case studies/anticipated impacts).
- Understanding how HDRN Canada’s distributed nature contributed to impact(s).
- Assessing the relationships, engagement, involvement, and impact of stakeholder groups (e.g., researchers, clinicians, decision-makers, members of the public, Indigenous Groups) in HDRN Canada activities.
- Assessing the value-add of HDRN Canada in the multi-regional health data research field within Canada.
- Identifying the main lessons learned to ensure sustainability of future activities or initiatives.
The evaluation will gather information from activities across HDRN Canada including from all of HDRN Canada’s partners, Working Groups, Committees, Teams, Public Advisory Council and Board of Directors, and to engage with relevant external stakeholders from across Canada. The successful applicant would be expected to work collaboratively with HDRN Canada’s partners, however, it is not an evaluation of individual partners, other than in their contributions to the overall goals of HDRN Canada.
The evaluation is also expected to speak to stakeholder needs, including findings that are relevant to public partners (e.g., public roles in HDRN Canada), findings that are relevant to HDRN Canada’s research community (e.g., research institutes, academic partners, patients, and members of the public) and identify impacts specific to Federal/Provincial/Territorial partners.
Submitted proposals must deliver an evaluation report over a four-month timeframe. There is no fixed approach to the interim evaluation but we will work with the selected applicant to identify the most appropriate approach. The criteria should align with the key HDRN Canada goals in the Strategic Plan. Proposals will be assessed according to the evaluation criteria specified in the requirements section.
Requirements
Proposals must provide the following information (evaluation weight shown in brackets):
- Develop a tailored evaluation approach (40%). This should include:
- Clear linkage between the proposed evaluation framework and the five goals in HDRN Canada’s Strategic Plan and the CIHR SPOR Logic Model (see Appendix).
- Specify a plan to connect with HDRN Canada and other stakeholders engaged in patient-oriented research activities across Canada.
- Identify proposed methods to capture both qualitative and quantitative information.
- Identify an approach to synthesize information and provide meaningful insights on the impacts of HDRN Canada and the work it has supported, including developing impact stories from HDRN Canada activities.
- Demonstrate a strong track record in formative/summative evaluation of health research (30%). This should include:
- Demonstrated knowledge and familiarity with HDRN Canada.
- Demonstrated understanding of CIHR’s Strategy for Patient-Oriented Research (SPOR).
- Demonstrated knowledge and familiarity of the Canadian health research and health data landscapes, including previous public reports and recommendations.
- Demonstrated experience of program evaluation.
- Demonstrate awareness of inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility topics.
- Demonstrate awareness of Indigenous networks and processes and knowledge of Indigenous-led data governance priorities that advance First Nations, Inuit, and Métis data sovereignty.
- Demonstrated inclusion of stakeholder engagement in the evaluation process.
- Develop an evaluation report that speaks to HDRN Canada and stakeholder needs (20%), which should include:
- Findings that are relevant to public partners (e.g., public roles in HDRN Canada).
- Findings that are relevant to HDRN Canada’s research community (e.g., research institutes, academic partners, patients, and members of the public).
- Identify impacts specific to Federal/Provincial/Territorial partners.
- Identify opportunities and lessons learned for HDRN Canada
- Identify whether there are gaps in the CIHR SPOR Logic Model, particularly if changes are required to the performance indicators to best track and evaluate HDRN Canada performance.
- Anticipated budget and timeline (10%) for the proposed work:
- Identify available capacity to undertake the work.
- Identify the anticipated cost of undertaking the evaluation (not to exceed $75,000).
- Demonstrate how the evaluation will meet HDRN Canada timelines.
Key Dates
- May 16, 2022 – Request for Proposals opens.
- May 30, 2022 – Questions about the RFP to be submitted to HDRN Canada at info@hdrn.ca.
- TBD depending on interest – HDRN Canada will host a one-hour virtual meeting to review submitted questions and answer any other questions that arise.
- June 10, 2022 – RFP closes.
- June 13, 2022 – Internal triage process begins.
- June 20, 2022 – All RFP applicants will be contacted about decisions by end of day June 20.
- June 27-29, 2022 – Top three selected proposals invited to give a 30-minute presentation to the evaluation review panel (with an extra 30 minutes for questions).
- July 6, 2022 – Successful applicant will be identified.
- August 2, 2022 – Evaluation phase begins.
- November 30, 2022 – Evaluation report to be submitted to HDRN Canada leadership.
