Leveraging the Impact Canada Fellowship to Support Federal COVID-19 Response Efforts

Impact Canada was established in March 2017 to help solve some of our country’s biggest challenges. So when COVID-19 arrived on Canadian soil in January 2020, we mobilized our entire team to assist with the Government of Canada’s response. Early on, we initiated COSMO (COVID-19 Snapshot Monitoring Study), a longitudinal study to help understand Canadians’ knowledge, risk perceptions, and behaviors related to COVID-19. Insights from COSMO data have been numerous, propelling Impact Canada’s Behavioural Science Team to undertake a series of “deep dive” studies that fed directly into response efforts, notably the development of behaviourally-informed communication strategies.

The impact of this work created a huge demand for behavioural science capacity in other parts of the Government’s pandemic response, notably the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC). Enter the Impact Canada Fellowship program as the vehicle to provide this capacity. The Fellowship program is designed to recruit external-to-government talent with specialized skills in discreet disciplines, including behavioural sciences. The placement and integration of Fellows in federal departments and agencies help advance key policy priorities, as well as build capacity.

So how did we mobilize the Impact Canada Fellowship program towards the Government’s COVID-19 response?

First, we repatriated our existing behavioural science Fellows from across the federal system to work on the rollout of COSMO and subsequent analysis that is generated with each wave of data collection. This saved valuable time — many weeks in total — in recruiting behavioural science expertise early in the pandemic as we pivoted our work more deeply into supporting the pandemic response. Put another way, we already had the skill set and expertise in the public service; it was a question of agility and how quickly the Fellows could begin work on the pandemic response.

Next, as the weeks turned into months and the value of behavioural science gained more traction and interest amongst our partner departments and agencies, we realized we would need more Fellows. In the midst of a pandemic, we launched and completed a recruitment process in a mere 47 days, with all interviews completed virtually over a two-week period. We are particularly proud of this feat given the average time for an external Government recruitment process to be completed is 197^{Footnote 1} days.

The result?

In partnership with the PHAC, we welcomed a group of behavioural science Fellows — Mark Morrissey, Andrew Abela, and Sarah Wall — into the Impact Canada Fellowship program in Fall/Winter 2020/21. Mark, Andrew and Sarah are working on some of the most important COVID-19 priorities, including vaccine hesitancy, and supporting the Office of the Chief Public Health Officer. The pandemic exposed an opportunity to test a “cohort” model where behavioural science capacity can be recruited and deployed quickly into a host organization, while receiving leadership and support from Impact Canada.

To support Mark, Andrew and Sarah’s unique transition into the public service, we developed and delivered a tailored onboarding program designed to orient and familiarize them with the operational landscape. Some of the content covered in the customized onboarding included an overview of how government works; information on values and ethics; access to information; security; and other key policies that allow public servants to do their job; and focused sessions on the “art and craft” of applying behavioural science in government. From an Impact Canada perspective, this tailored onboarding program is integral to the Fellows’ early and ongoing success, enabling them to integrate into the PHAC organizational culture more rapidly and preparing them for the work and challenges that lie ahead.

This is not, however, the end of Fellowship story in PHAC. Throughout 2021, we will be integrating additional behavioural science Fellows into the cohort to provide additional capacity to the COVID-19 response.

Taking stock of the role of the Impact Canada Fellowship program played thus far in the Government’s pandemic response gives us great pride. It’s the quality of the Fellows who applied and found deep purpose in public service, especially during a public health emergency. It’s the flexibility in the bureaucratic system to recruit with purpose and speed. It’s the partnership fostered between our team and PHAC to tackle one of the biggest challenges of our generation. This is the Impact Canada way.

Stay connected with us as we intend to recruit more Fellows throughout 2021.

In Other Fellowship News

• The United Kingdom (UK) Government Digital Services launched the №10 Innovation Fellowship Programme in Fall 2020. Their programme focuses on delivering high impact technology and data projects to improve public services. We are working in collaboration with the UK to exchange best practices and lessons learned specifically around recruitment, host organization placement, onboarding and the continued learning curriculum.
• In Fall 2020, a new Challenge Prize Fellow joined the Fellowship program’s interdisciplinary cohort. Brad Andrews is working in partnership with the Canadian Space Agency.