Take Note

A Message from the President ...

September 20, 2005

Dear AHFMR Investigator:

AHFMR is pleased to announce a new policy that recognizes the challenges of remaining competitive faced by its women Independent Investigators who take maternity leave. This policy is one of the first of its kind in Canada.

The continued strength of the health research workforce in Alberta is crucial and AHFMR wants to contribute to improving the opportunities for women to play a role in this environment.

In order to deal with this challenge, the Foundation's Board of Trustee's approved a new policy at their September 14, 2005 meeting for AHFMR investigators who take maternity leaves during the tenure of their awards. This new policy is as follows:

The Foundation will extend the term of any Independent Investigator award for one full year for any woman who takes maternity leave during her current term of support. This would be done independently of the actual length of maternity leave taken by the Investigator.

AHFMR would provide its normal full support for this extra year, including the Research Prize. This extension year would be added on to the regular term of award approved for the Investigator and would not impact her eligibility to obtain Terminal support should she be unsuccessful in future AHFMR competitions.

Over the years, AHFMR in collaboration with the Alberta institutions has supported a growing number of women investigators through its Independent Investigator programs. From 1997 to 2005, the number of AHFMR women investigators has grown from 21 (14% of the total cohort) to 61 (26% of the total).

This relative success in attracting new women investigators is tempered by the lower success rates of such investigators in maintaining support beyond their first award. One of the factors which has been identified as contributing to this is that many of the women investigators who take on their initial faculty position have delayed having children to that point (in order to pursue their studies and put themselves in position to compete successfully for available career positions). Access to time is crucial in health research: the timing and impact of pregnancy and subsequent maternity leave can have serious negative effects on the careers of women who are in this highly competitive research field.

Although AHFMR's General Policies for Independent Investigator Awards recognize that "AHFMR investigators are employees of their host institutions and thus that their maternity leave arrangements are dependent on institutional regulations", the reality is that the impact of such a leave (of whatever duration) on the continued success of a woman as an independent investigator is immediate and can be long lasting.

The Foundation's application form for independent investigator awards does provide the opportunity for the applicant to outline any interruptions in his/her academic career. This information is used in the peer review process to help understand periods of decreased productivity including those attributable to parental leave(s), but is still difficult to fully and objectively assess.

The intent of this new policy clearly would not be to extend the period of leave which an investigator would take from work, but to help her recoup some of the research time lost due to the leave and therefore provide the opportunity for a woman investigator to reduce the impact of such a leave on her competitiveness and on the sustainability of her research careers It is a way to enable the investigator to return to work following her maternity leave with enough time to regain the momentum she needs to rebuild or solidify her research productivity, thus helping her to maintain her place within the research community.

The following are some specific aspects regarding this new policy:

1. A one-year extension is available for each maternity leave taken. For example, if two maternity leaves are taken during one five-year award then the award would be extended by two years.

2. This new policy will apply to all currently supported AHFMR investigators and will be applicable to maternity leaves taken during the term of their current awards (active award as of September 15, 2005). It will not apply to maternity leaves taken during previous awards.

3. Any amount of a maternity leave taken during the tenure of the AHFMR award will be deemed to make the investigator eligible for the one-year extension. For example, if someone is on a maternity leave from April to September but her AHFMR award starts or ends on July 1 of the same year, she is eligible for the one-year extension.

4. All requests for the extension must originate from the sponsoring institution and all general terms and conditions regarding AHFMR Independent Investigator awards will continue to apply. There is no change in the Foundation's policy and procedure for parental leave.

5. The sponsoring institution will still be required to inform the Foundation when an AHFMR investigator will be on maternity leave.

6. A current AHFMR Investigator who has submitted an application in the September 2005 competition and who has taken one or more maternity leaves during the tenure of their current award can choose from one of the following options:

   1. withdraw her current application and request an extension (one year per maternity leave taken) and then apply at the appropriate new deadline.

   2. allow her application to remain in the competition. If an application is not successful then the extension can be requested in March 2006 when the competition results are released. The results of this competition will stand though, and the terminal support will be applied following the extension.

7. During the extension all components of the AHFMR award will be provided, including the Research Prize.

8. University administrations will be informed of this policy and will be asked to identify those individuals who will be requesting an award extension which commences July 1, 2006. During initial implementation, it is recognized that special circumstances may apply for some individuals and these will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

9. The impact of this new policy will be evaluated at an appropriate point in the future to determine its effectiveness and whether it should be continued or modified.

Please note that this new policy has been in development for some time and this is the earliest that it could be brought forward to the Foundation's Board of Trustees for consideration.

The Foundation welcomes any comments that you might have regarding this new policy. Please provide these to me; Dr. Jacques Magnan, Vice-President, Programs; or Mark Taylor, Director of Grants & Awards.

Yours sincerely,

Kevin Keough, PhD
President and CEO
Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research