Community Based Research Centre 2025 Summit: Building Bridges for 2S/LGBTQI+ Health Research Ancillary Event
What we heard

Purpose of the report

This What We Heard report summarizes the key themes, priorities, and insights shared during the ancillary event. It is intended to share back with participants and to provide the broader research, policy, and community-based audiences connected with the CIHR Institute of Gender and Health (CIHR-IGH) with a concise summary of community-identified priorities and areas for future engagement. The report is meant to reflect participant perspectives and discussions and to inform ongoing CIHR-IGH learning, relationship-building, and strategic planning related to 2S/LGBTQI+ health research.

Event overview

On November 20th, 2025, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Institute of Gender and Health (IGH) held an ancillary event workshop at the 2025 Community Based Research Centre (CBRC) Summit in Montreal, QC titled "Building Bridges for 2S/LGBTQI+ Health Research".

This interactive session was held in support of CIHR IGH's Research Priority 3.1: 2S/LGBTQI+ Health, which seeks to address gaps in intersectional, strengths-based, and community-driven research that contribute to health inequities for 2S/LGBTQI+ individuals and communities in Canada. This session was open to the broader community and not limited to registered CBRC Summit attendees. It brought together researchers, trainees, community organizations, practitioners, and people with lived and living experience (PLLE).

The purpose of the session was to foster meaningful networking across disciplines and communities; surface shared research priorities and community-identified needs through structured dialogue; generate early-stage concept sketches for future research collaborations; encourage connection and collaboration; and inform future CIHR IGH engagement strategies in 2S/LGBTQI+ health research.

Who was in the room

Event summary

The session used an interactive, community-engaged format to support equitable participation and shared learning across disciplines and lived/living experience. The session began with a land acknowledgement and opening remarks by CIHR-IGH Elder-in-Residence, Sheila Nyman, followed by introductions and networking to foster interdisciplinary relationships.

CIHR-IGH shared its mandate and a new research funding opportunity (announced Nov 19, 2025), Advancing 2S/LGBTQI+ Health Through Research. This information helped situate the discussion within CIHR-IGH's priority to strengthen 2S/LGBTQI+ health research. During a World Café dialogue, participants explored priority research areas such as social determinants of health, chronic conditions, mental health, Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer health, and evaluation of community-engaged interventions. These discussions emphasized lived/living experience, community knowledge, and relational dimensions of health that are often underrepresented in traditional research settings.

Building on themes that emerged during these discussions, participants collaborated in an Ideas Sprint to sketch early-stage concepts for research proposals. This activity was intended to support practical translation of shared priorities into potential areas for future collaboration. Groups identified key purposes, partners, and strategies for knowledge mobilization. The event concluded with a share-back session, commitments to next steps, and closing reflections. This interactive format encouraged networking between community and academic participants, surfaced community-driven research priorities, and generated actionable ideas to inform future CIHR-IGH engagement and funding strategies related to 2S/LGBTQI+ health.

Attendees said

• "... what a great, great initiative!"
• "It was like we were speaking the same language as queer and trans people."
• "Met many possible collaborators"
• "Loved the roundtable format, great space to hear from everyone"

Key insights

Across the World Café tables, participants emphasized:

• Health for 2S/LGBTQI+ communities is intersectional, relational, and structurally shaped.
• Chronic health needs intersect with disability, race, neurodiversity, age, and gender identity to shape experience of access, validation, and quality of care;
• The social determinants of health (housing, income, culture, land) are inseparable from clinical outcomes.
• Systems and providers often invalidate experiences — especially for trans people, Indigiqueer/Two-Spirit folks, older adults, and those with invisible conditions — while data gaps, cost barriers, and fragmented services compound inequities.

Action areas

The following action areas reflect priorities and opportunities identified by participants during the workshop. They are shared to inform CIHR-IGH's ongoing learning, engagement, and strategic planning, and to provide researchers, community organizations, practitioners, and other knowledge users with insight into areas where participants see a need for further attention, collaboration, and investment in 2S/LGBTQI+ health.

• Community-led navigation and research
• Intersectional provider training
• Non-extractive evaluation approaches
• Integrated pathways and funding for community-led supports
• Data sovereignty and accessibility
• Disability justice and culturally grounded care (including ceremony and language
• Centering joy, fluidity, and belonging in care

Date modified:

2026-01-26