CANet HQP Association for Trainees (CHAT)
One of CANet’s strategic business and capacity development targets is to launch 30-40 new talents in public and private research. Those new talents are known as Highly Qualified Personnel (HQP).
To support our HQP and help them launch their careers, we have created the CANet HQP Association for Trainees (CHAT). The CHAT Executive Committee reports to CANet’s Training and Education Committee, with a goal of helping to guide the CANet’s strategy for offering networking and career development opportunities, building multi-disciplinary collaborative relationships, and facilitating research.
Trainees are the lifeblood of our research … They offer a lot, both in terms of what they do today, but [also] the promise of what they’ll do 5 years from now, 10 years from now, 20 years from now.
Satish Raj, MD, MSCI, FRCPC
Professor of Cardiac Sciences, Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta, University of Calgary
One of the primary initiatives available to CHAT members is the Trainee Day held annually in conjunction with CANet’s Scientific Conference. Trainee Day 2017, held at the Westin Nova Scotian on Wednesday, September 13, featured interactive sessions on topics like statistics, knowledge translation, abstract writing, and patient engagement. The speed networking session gave attendees a chance to learn more about their fellow CHAT members in a fun, informal way – and led to several people making meaningful research connections! And attendees were also able to have one (or two)-on-one mentoring sessions with Network members. These private conversations gave CHAT members a chance to ask specific questions about their own career paths and also helped Network members learn more about the projects that CHAT members are pursuing.
CHAT members also have exclusive access to CANet Trainee funding competitions.
To learn more about membership criteria, and to download and complete the application form, click here.
We are excited to announce that the CANet website will soon be host to an HQP portal! The portal will be launched in early December and will incorporate electronic CHAT sign-up, member access to resources, a job directory and much more.
Stay tuned!
To hear what members have to say about CHAT, watch this brief video: