Assistant Professor Dr. Boriana Miloucheva Receives Connaught New Researcher Award

Dr. Boriana Miloucheva has been named among the 2025-26 Connaught New Researcher Award recipients for her project that explores the long-term impacts of mental health treatment decisions during pregnancy.

By: Marielle Boutin

Dr. Miloucheva joined IHPME in 2023 as an assistant professor in the Health Systems Research (HSR) program. A health economist, her research has evolved throughout her career, from her PhD exploring the rising number of ‘deaths of despair (deaths related to suicide, alcoholism and drug abuse) to the influence of pharmaceutical marketing on prescribing practices.

Today, her research runs along similar lines and is centred around how care is shaped outside of traditional settings and how systems of care can contribute to covering disparities rather than revealing them.

The project that earned Dr. Miloucheva a Connaught New Researcher Award explores the lasting effects of mental health treatment decisions during pregnancy on children’s outcomes later in life.

“The core of it is always: who gets counted, who gets believed and what happens to the people who don’t,” says Dr. Miloucheva.

A Vote of Confidence

The Connaught New Researcher Award, part of the Connaught Fund, was established to help early-career scholars with seed funding to develop an independent research program and strength their position when seeking major external grants from agencies.

For Dr. Miloucheva, the award plays a vital role in moving her project forward, particularly by funding access to critical data needed to track the trajectories of mothers and children from pregnancy through childhood, including health records, prescriptions, education and social services data.

“That’s the part of a project like this that’s hard to get funded and impossible to skip.”

Beyond financial support, the award is a significant mark of recognition. Approximately 50 Connaught New Research Awards are granted annually across disciplines, chosen by peer reviewers and university research leaders.

For Dr. Miloucheva, this is what makes this recognition so meaningful.

“It’s a real vote of confidence, both in me and in the work. Having a panel of colleagues from across the university say yes to this project is something I’ll carry with me.”

An Impact Felt Across Disciplines

While validation from her peers is gratifying, recognition beyond her field is especially rewarding. Working at the intersection of economics and public health has challenged Dr. Miloucheva to rethink how she approaches research questions, adapting them to meet the realities of the health sector.

“I’m much more deliberate about who a piece of work is for and how it needs to be framed to reach them,” says Dr. Miloucheva. “The methods still come from economics, but the questions are ones clinicians, policymakers and families can recognize as their own. If the award says anything about my research, I hope it’s that some of that has rubbed off.”

That intention comes through not only in the questions she chooses to pursue, but also in the way she talks about them. She attributes that balance to her training and the insights she gains through teaching, both of which help her continually test her research against real-world needs.

“Every year I hear directly from administrators and care providers about the problems keeping them up at night. Those conversations have a way of redirecting your attention. Some questions that look elegant on paper turn out to matter very little to the people running a hospital, and others that seem messy turn out to be exactly what they need answered.”

At the heart of her work is a desire to produce research that advances academic scholarship while helping clinicians and policymakers make sense of complex challenges. Now, she is excited for the opportunity the award brings to build on momentum and pursue questions she has been eager to explore for years.