Grant Recipients for Translational Research & Best Practice Implementation Open Funding Competitions
Praxis Spinal Cord Institute is proud to announce the grant recipients from its Translational Research (TR) and Best Practice Implementation (BPI) open funding competitions. These open competitions were designed to address critical gaps in spinal cord injury (SCI) care by advancing innovative research, implementing evidence-based care, and fostering meaningful collaboration with persons with lived experience (PLEX). Praxis would like to express gratitude to the diverse clinicians and lived experience experts who formed the peer-review panels for these competitions. Their contributions helped us through a challenging selection process among the strong applications we received.
The two funding competitions were:
Translational Research into Neurorestorative Treatments
The objective of this TR competition is to fund a team planning grant to catalyze and translate clinical research on neurorestorative treatments harnessing the potential of precision health approaches, AI, or other innovative technologies. The goal is to submit a grant proposal to a larger funding agency so more Canadians can access these treatments.
Supporting Networks to Translate and Implement Evidence-based Care
The objective of this BPI competition is to promote implementation and advance adoption of evidence-based care that is meaningful to the local SCI community. Teams will build strong networks to facilitate and champion practice and policy changes, with the goal of optimizing delivery of care for Canadians living with SCI.
Translational Research (TR) Grant Recipients
| Grant Title | Nominated Principal Applicant | Affiliation |
| Abdominal transcutaneous electrical stimulation to alleviate neurogenic bowel dysfunction in people with chronic spinal cord injury | Chester Ho | University of Alberta |
| Comparative evaluation of non-invasive neuromodulation therapies to restore upper extremity function in chronic cervical spinal cord injury | Jessica D’Amico | University of Alberta |
| Canadian multi-centre study of nerve transfer surgery to restore upper limb function in cervical spinal cord injury | Mike Berger | University of British Columbia (ICORD) |
Best Practice Implementation (BPI) Grant Recipients
| Project Title | Nominated Principal Applicant | Affiliation |
| Developing best practice guidelines for activity-based therapy in Canada | Janelle Unger | Western University |
| Pedaling forward: development of an interprovincial functional electrical stimulation cycling community of practice | Hope Jervis- Rademeyer | University of Saskatchewan |
| Bridging the gap for early identification and documentation of reaching, grasping and manipulation impairment and neurorestorative therapy needs among individuals with tetraplegia at SCI-IEQCC sites | Cathy Craven | University Health Network |
| Perimenopause/menopause and persons with spinal cord injury: co-creating priorities for clinical practice, research and knowledge translation | Stacy Elliott | University of British Columbia |
| Advancing consensus on the provincial approach to early decompression surgery in acute traumatic spinal cord injury in Alberta | Kiran Pohar Manhas | University of Alberta |
| Code Spine: a multi-faceted knowledge translation initiative for ‘Time is Spine’ | Michael Fehlings | University Health Network |
Driving Impact through Collaboration
These grants represent the power of collaboration between researchers, clinicians, and PLEX, with a shared goal of advancing SCI care and research. Praxis extends its gratitude to all applicants and reviewers for their dedication to transforming lives through innovation. For more information on these projects and Praxis’ initiatives, visit praxisinstitute.org.
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Praxis is a Canadian-based not-for-profit organization that leads global collaboration in spinal cord injury research, innovation and care. We accelerate the translation of discoveries and best practices into improved treatments for people with spinal cord injuries.
