[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Denburg_Susan.jpg” caption=”Susan Denburg, director of Collaborations for Health and associate vice-president, academic for the Faculty of Health Sciences. File photo.”]McMaster's Collaborations for Health initiative has launched a website to raise its profile and spotlight the University's interdisciplinary strengths in research and education.

The site, www.mcmaster.ca/cfh/, offers a range of information on the progress of the initiative and provides examples of cross-Faculty endeavours that reflect the goal of advancing cutting-edge, interdisciplinary research that will help establish McMaster as the premier health university in Canada.

It also includes information on new educational programs at the undergraduate and graduate level that align with the Collaborations for Health objective to leverage strengths in health education across all disciplines, and facilitate the development of additional learning opportunities involving the complexities of health and health care systems.

The site features news on research grant opportunities, and will soon have a Directory of Expertise that faculty members can use to search for others across the McMaster campus who have common or complementary research interests and projects.

Collaborations for Health is a university-wide initiative that is fostering new ways of designing and conducting research aimed at addressing the complex and important questions in health from scientific, clinical, societal, economic and environmental perspectives. It builds on McMaster's key strengths across four themes: Development Across the Lifespan; Health and the Environment; Health Systems and Knowledge Translation.

“It is a way of doing business…looking at health from a number of perspectives,” says Susan Denburg, director of Collaborations for Health and associate vice-president, academic for the Faculty of Health Sciences. “We're asking people to explore new relationships and new ways of thinking about how they conduct research.”

The new website is one mechanism to promote the existing interdisciplinary strengths at McMaster, and to help people connect in order to advance multi-dimensional ideas and expand the University's knowledge base.

“Our initial audience for the site is McMaster faculty, but the site will continue to develop over time to address the needs and interests of other audiences including students, funders, external academic collaborators, and the community,” said Anthony Levinson, a co-leader for the Knowledge Translation theme of the initiative, and the John R. Evans Chair in Health Sciences Educational Research and Instructional Development.

“We hope to make the McMaster community more aware of some of the innovative collaborations happening across the university, as well as act as a catalyst for new research and educational partnerships across our key themes.”