“What if we were stronger together, as individuals, organizations, and proud Northern Ontarians.” These words from Dr. Erin Cameron, Professor and Director of Dr. Gilles Arcand Centre for Health Equity, rang true when the Centre brought local and global interest holders together for the bi-annual CREATE project meeting in November 2025. CREATE–short for Community-engaged ‍Research in Education, ‍Advocacy, and system ‍Transformation for advancing health ‍Equity–is a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Partnership-funded project led by NOSM University researchers. It explores the ways in which partnered research networks can better serve local community health needs.

The project, now two years into its seven-year timeline, involves more than 50 international collaborators, including research, community, and organizational partners, with leadership from five institutional partners including Memorial University of Newfoundland, Sherbrooke University, The University of New Mexico, and the University of Central Queensland. The meeting, chaired by Dr. David Marsh, Vice President of Research and Graduate Studies, brings together project partners to celebrate successes, acknowledge relevant challenges, and identify key opportunities.

Partners celebrated both the depth and breadth of work happening across the project, with a combined 173 activities including research papers, workshops, and presentations. Partners emphasized that the CREATE project demonstrates how socially accountable research can be catalyzed through collaboration across research networks that are both locally embedded and globally focused. One output, a scoping review, was of particular interest as the findings identified the evolution of social accountability in the past decade and highlighted a significant research gap on socially accountable research.

“The findings also underscored that training and mentoring for researchers and communities strengthen socially accountable research, while revealing a knowledge gap in understanding the appropriate resources and structures needed to support it,” says Dr. Cameron.

This year’s interactive discussions focused on how the partners can collectively measure and capture the impact of sustained, valued research networks over time. Many ideas were presented and will help shape the next phase of the project. “Congratulations to all NOSM University members advancing socially accountable health equity research to support our rural, Northern, Indigenous and Francophone communities, and for putting us on the map,” says Dr. Cameron.

An Executive Committee Member at the CREATE gathering shared, “My aspiration is that social accountability becomes mainstream in health workforce education, health service delivery and health research. I see CREATE as an exciting major leap forward in that direction.”

About the Dr. Gilles Arcand Centre for Health Equity

The Centre is the first of its kind in Canada. It is a model for multidisciplinary, community-led, and community-prioritized health and public health research. The Centre is advancing social accountability research globally and locally by working and collaborating with diverse interest holders in the broad areas of health professional education, health system transformation, health human resources, social and population health. The Centre is home to 11 research networks that are focused on building capacity and providing tools for change. Learn more about the work of the Centre in the 2024 Annual Report.