Patient Partner Circles

Patient Partner Circles are spaces for Patient Partners to share advice, ideas, feedback, and priorities.

Circle members help us understand what matters to people affected by diabetes and how our work can be more useful, accessible, respectful, and relevant.

Members are not expected to represent an entire community. Each person brings their own experience, knowledge, questions, and priorities.

You do not need research experience to join.

Diabetes Action Canada supports three Patient Partner Circles.

Collective Patient Circle

A national Circle for Patient Partners from across Canada with different diabetes experiences, backgrounds, regions, and perspectives.

Indigenous Patient Circle

A dedicated space for Indigenous Patient Partners, including First Nations, Inuit, Métis, and other Indigenous people living in Canada who bring lived or loved experience of diabetes.

This Circle is co-run with the Indigenous Diabetes Health Circle.

Francophone Patient Circle

A dedicated space for Francophone Patient Partners living in Canada who bring lived or loved experience of diabetes.

This Circle helps strengthen French-language engagement, resources, communications, and research partnerships.

Circle members help Diabetes Action Canada by sharing feedback and advice on our work.

This may include:

• Reviewing research ideas, resources, and plain-language summaries
• Identifying topics that matter to people affected by diabetes
• Advising on how we recruit, welcome, support, and compensate Patient Partners
• Helping make diabetes research easier to understand and use
• Suggesting themes for blogs, webinars, tools, and communications
• Helping shape Patient Partner town halls and learning opportunities
• Helping us improve how we share back what changed because of Patient Partner input

The Circles are advisory groups. This means members provide guidance and recommendations, but they are not responsible for making final organizational decisions.

Each Patient Partner Circle will have two Co-Chairs.

Co-Chairs help guide the work of the Circle, with support from Diabetes Action Canada staff.

For each Circle, one Co-Chair position will be reserved for a youth member. For this role, youth generally means someone who is 31 years old or younger, with some flexibility depending on the Circle and applicant pool.

The youth Co-Chair has the same authority, voice, and decision-making role as the other Co-Chair. This is not a symbolic or junior role.

Co-Chairs may help:

• Set meeting agendas
• Support respectful and inclusive discussion
• Make space for different ways of participating
• Summarize key discussion points and follow-up items
• Help identify Circle priorities
• Advise Diabetes Action Canada staff on issues raised by the Circle
• Welcome and mentor new members
• Support youth leadership and succession planning

Co-Chairs will be selected through a confidential nominations process. Circle members may nominate themselves or someone else.

Co-Chairs receive $195 per Circle meeting. This includes meeting time, preparation, agenda planning, meeting leadership, and follow-up connected to the Co-Chair role.

Most Circle meetings happen online.

Depending on the Circle, members can expect approximately 4 to 8 meetings per year. Meetings are usually 60 to 90 minutes.

Diabetes Action Canada aims to provide clear agendas, plain-language materials, accessible documents, and flexible ways to participate.

Patient Partner Circle members are paid for their time and expertise.

Circle members receive $95 per Circle meeting. This includes meeting time, preparation, and document review.

Co-Chairs receive $195 per Circle meeting. This includes meeting time, preparation, agenda planning, meeting leadership, and follow-up connected to the Co-Chair role.

Additional work outside regular Circle meetings, such as writing, presenting, reviewing major documents, or helping develop resources, will be discussed and compensated separately.

Applications for the Patient Partner Circles will open on July 27, 2026.

Applications close: August 12, 2026, 11:59 p.m. ET

You may be a good fit for a Patient Partner Circle if you:

• Live in Canada
• Have lived or loved experience of diabetes
• Are interested in helping shape diabetes research and resources
• Want to work with others in a respectful and collaborative way
• Can attend virtual meetings during the year

If you recently applied to the Research-to-Action Fellowship, you may not need to complete a full written application again. Some applicants may be invited to complete a shorter process.

More information, including the application form, will be available here when applications open.