O'Brien Institute announces 2026 Healthier Populations Catalyst award recipients

The O'Brien Institute for Public Health is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2026 Healthier Populations Catalyst competition. This year, five projects were selected from 20 applications to receive catalyst funding for research that align with the O’Brien Institute’s healthier populations and health equity priorities. The funded projects have strong potential to generate meaningful impact and attract future external funding.

The O’Brien Institute partnered with the Department of Community Health Sciences, which contributed $15,000 in matching funds to support two projects aligned with its strategic priorities. Matching funding was also provided by the faculties of Nursing and Kinesiology to projects aligned with their population health priorities. This year also marked the first time the competition offered a supplemental undergraduate student stipend, awarded to support undergraduate engagement in one of the funded projects.

Three of this year's funded projects are led by postdoctoral scholars in partnership with their supervisors, reflecting the competition's commitment to supporting emerging researchers.

The 2026 recipients are:

Dr. Brae Anne McArthur, PhD

Faculty of Arts, Department of Psychology

Co-developing family-focused intervention priorities to reduce mental health inequities among 2S/LGBTQI+ youth

The project also received the competition's undergraduate student supplement ($8,750) to support an undergraduate student in the research.

Dr. Daniel Helldén, MD, PhD

Supervisor: Dr. Jennifer Brenner, MD | Department of Pediatrics

Piloting community-based citizen science for exploring climate change impacts on maternal and child health in southwestern Uganda: a catalyst partnership between Mbarara University of Science and Technology and the University of Calgary

Dr. Md Badrul Hyder, PhD

Supervisor: Dr. Tanvir Chowdhury, PhD | Department of Community Health Sciences

Community-guided climate health engagement: assessing racialized/immigrant communities' readiness for collective climate action

Co-funded by the Department of Community Health Sciences

Dr. Bonnie Lashewicz, PhD

Department of Community Health Sciences

Building foundation for co-designed resources to prevent and interrupt gender- and race-based workplace harm in continuing care homes

Co-funded by the Department of Community Health Sciences

Dr. Henry Michael, PhD

Supervisor: Dr. Tolulope Sajobi, PhD | Department of Community Health Sciences

Toward equitable measurement of mental health in coronary artery disease: developing a personalized adaptive assessment platform