10th Annual Conference on Patient-Oriented Research Hosted by AbSPORU
2025 NorthWest SPOR Collaborative Forum
May 12 - 14, 2025
Registration is now open for AbSPORU’s 10th Annual Northwest SPOR Collaborative Forum on Patient-Oriented Research (POR). Join us at the BMO Centre in Calgary, Alberta from Monday, May 12 to Wednesday, May 14, 2025, where you will enjoy two and a half days of innovative conference programming focusing on 10 years of health research impact through partnerships and collaboration. This year’s special edition theme is AbSPOR & YOU: Partnership. Innovation. Impact.
2025 Program
Programming for the 2025 Northwest Collaborative Forum highlights 10 years of collaboration, patient-oriented research, and impact, through innovative sessions, workshops, lightning talks, and more, including:
- The Palix Foundation’s Resilience Scale Masterclass – a half-day workshop on the Brain Story and Resilience Scale Framework available to everyone, even if you are not attending the conference.
- A Keynote address on May 13 by Tim Caulfield, Tackling Information Chaos: Why Trust, Science, and Patients Matter.
- plus the Keynote, Patient Engagement Research Excellence in Alberta
and much, much more.
Please note that programming is subject to change without notice.
Whether held in-person, virtually, or both, our annual conference provides inclusive capacity development opportunities in patient-oriented research (POR) towards the shared goals of increased access to high-quality health care and improved patient outcomes. This event is open to researchers, students, clinicians, patients and caregivers, health-system professionals, policymakers, and more.
The conference provides opportunities for:
- Attendees to engage with other members of the POR community, in order to facilitate training, growth, and support in the practice of POR;
- Recognizing, showcasing, and celebrating POR success, innovation, talent, and partnerships in Alberta and beyond; and
- Furthering AbSPORU’s mandate to support Alberta-based POR and its impacts for health system transformation and enhanced patient outcomes.
Content and Learning Objectives
Each year our conference integrates Alberta-focused content and activities alongside programming delivered collaboratively with our POR partners across Western Canada. Through this, we aim to engage audiences with diverse perspectives and experiences, to enhance the conference impact for everyone.
Through a combination of keynote speakers, expert panel discussions, interactive workshops, poster presentations, and networking opportunities, conference attendees will:
- Gain practical knowledge and skills for conducting POR;
- Develop evidence-informed practices in several key areas of POR, including patient engagement, knowledge translation and synthesis, research methods, accessing data and conducting pragmatic clinical trials;
- Learn about opportunities and services that AbSPORU provides to help achieve research goals;
- Explore the impact of POR and AbSPORU on the research landscape;
- Develop a broader understanding of how to engage underrepresented interested parties in health research; and
- Offer patient and community members opportunity to learn about and further develop health research skills and to network with POR researcher and patient research partner communities.
Stay connected with AbSPORU and our research by signing up for our emails.
Let us know how you want to stay connected
News + Events
News + Events
Patient Partner Research OpportunitiesI agree to receive occasional emails from AbSPORU.
CALGARY
University of Calgary Foothills Campus
3330 Hospital Dr NW
Calgary, AB T2N 4N1
EDMONTON
University of Alberta North Campus
Edmonton Clinic Health Academy (ECHA)
11405 87 Ave NW
Edmonton, AB T6G 1C9
Land Acknowledgment
The Alberta SPOR SUPPORT Unit operates on and acknowledges the lands that are the traditional and ancestral territory of many peoples, presently subject to Treaties 6, 7, and 8. Namely: the Blackfoot Confederacy – Kainai, Piikani, and Siksika – the Cree, Dene, Saulteaux, Nakota Sioux, Stoney Nakoda, and the Tsuu T’ina Nation and the Métis People of Alberta. This includes the Métis Settlements and the Métis Nation of Alberta. We acknowledge the many First Nations, Métis and Inuit who have lived in and cared for these lands for generations. We make this acknowledgment as a reaffirmation of our shared commitment towards reconciliation, and as part of AbSPORU’s mandate towards fostering health system transformation.
© 2025 AbSPORU