Alison Paprica is a Professor (Adjunct) and a Senior Fellow at the University of Toronto’s Institute for Health Policy, Management and Evaluation. She is also the Principal of the boutique consultancy Research Project Management (RPM), a Senior Fellow at Massey College, a member of the International Advisory Board for Health Data Research UK, and the author of Research Project Management & Leadership: A Handbook for Everyone (University of Toronto Press, 2024).
Her previous roles include inaugural Vice President, Health Strategy and Partnerships at the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence; member of the Health Data Research Network Canada Executive Committee and Chair of its Public Engagement Working Group; and Director, Strategic Partnerships at ICES. From 2010-2103, she was the Director of the Planning, Research & Analysis Branch at the Ontario Ministry of Health where she was responsible for up to $60 million annual applied health research investment and in-house knowledge translation activities to bring research findings into policy and practice. Before working in the public sector, she held scientist and R&D management positions at three international pharmaceutical companies.
Alison holds an Honours Combined BSc in biochemistry and chemistry (McMaster) and a PhD in organic chemistry (Western University), and is currently working towards her BA in philosophy (McMaster).
Her main research interests are data governance and research data infrastructure, public involvement in data-intensive health R&D, evidence-informed policy, and the leadership and management of research as a topic in its own right. In addition to conversations about those topics, she would be happy to speak with faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students about how to scope, conduct, and communicate research in ways that will capture the attention of policy- and decision-makers. Please get in touch with her at alison.paprica@utoronto.ca if you would like to connect.