Held yearly since 2018, the IBTN Summer School seeks to break through current obstacles in behavioural trial methodologies and expand the reach, capacity, and impact of trials in the field of behavioural medicine
Working with internationally renowned experts in innovative clinical trials, behavioural intervention development, and patient-oriented research, participants learn about developing effective behavioural interventions and conducting high-quality trials through interactive workshops and training activities. The IBTN Summer School is also designed to foster networking opportunities for its participants.
The Summer School has involved 57 individual faculty members from 10 different countries and now boasts of 147 alumni from across 20 countries. Nearly half of Summer School participants are doctoral students, with the rest equally divided among Masters students, postdoctoral fellows, professionals and early career investigators.
Summer School participants resoundingly reported a positive experience, with 99% enjoying the overall course experience, 97% appreciating the course materials as relevant and useful to their research, and 89% reporting that they learned “a lot”.




The best features of the Summer School program, as reported by participants include:
- #1 – Collaborative activities
- #2 – Knowledgeable, engaging, and approachable faculty
- #3 – Social activities and networking opportunities
- #4 – Content quality and relevance
- #5 – Multidisciplinary and international scope
- #6 – Program format and structure (interactive and informal)
- #7 – Diversity of knowledge and perspectives
- #8 – Opportunities for questions and discussion
- #9 – Theoretical content and practical focus
- #10 – Applied projects
The summer school is challenging and requires a lot of work, but it’s an opportunity to acquire and apply an enormous amount of highly relevant knowledge and to benefit from the perspectives of recognized researchers.
What I learned during the summer school has helped me develop a deeper level of critical thinking, more so than what I could have acquired at the bachelor’s level and arguably even at the doctoral level. The content delivered by the school should be required curriculum, especially for those pursuing research degrees.
Listen to former Summer School participants talk about the Summer School
Course themes have included:
- Basic concepts and unique elements of behavioural trials
- What makes behavioural interventions and trials unique and complex?
- The clinically significant question and building implementation in from the start
- How to appropriately develop a behavioural intervention, including the use of multiple research designs and the integration of stakeholders in the process
- Stakeholder engagement and designing for implementation
- The role of pilot and feasibility studies for your behavioural intervention
- Intervention development models (ORBIT/SOBC)
- Intervention development and stakeholder engagement
- Matching your design to the question
- The different kinds of evaluations that need to be conducted throughout the development and testing of your behavioural intervention
- Feasibility and piloting
- Evaluation – match your evaluation to the stage and design
- Designing relevant behavioural Interventions for lower and middle-income countries
- Implementation
- The Behaviour Change Wheel
- Behaviour Change Taxonomy
- Aperçu des modèles de développement des interventions de population et individuelles
- La « science fondamentale » des interventions :
- Les déterminants sociaux de la santé
- Recherches axées sur le patient
- Moyens pour optimiser les interventions comportementales
- Revues systématiques
- Devis MOST
- Interventions de population : considérations méthodologiques
- Essais cliniques : considérations méthodologiques
- Choix de mesures
- Évaluation de la fidélité de l’intervention
- Conceptions alternatives aux essais randomisés contrôlés
- Devis SMART
- Essais pragmatique
- Diffusion de la recherche et mise en œuvre
During each edition, participant groups generated a series of different projects, including:
2018 Edition
- Behavioural Intervention to Improve Primary Care Physicians’ Screening and Referral Rates to a Diabetes Prevention Programme
- Mobile vs. In-Person CBT in Adolescents with Depression
- Factorial design for Adoption of Knowledge to increase Exercise: The FAKE Trial
- Optimization of an m-Health intervention to prevent gestational diabetes in high-risk pregnant women with overweight and/or obesity
- Implementing enhanced audit and feedback: A cluster randomised controlled trial
2019 Edition
- Le développement d’une intervention pour la réduction de la consommation de cannabis chez les jeunes adolescents âgés entre 14-18 ans
- “La minute qui change tout” – Étude de faisabilité d’une intervention d’éducation sur les bienfaits de l’activité physique proposée aux professionnels de santé en oncologie sénologique
- Des interventions eHealth pour la réduction du temps d’écran passif afin de diminuer les symptômes dépressifs chez les adolescents: essai clinique randomisé contrôlé
2021 Edition
- Can physical exercise reduce psychological distress in hotel quarantine?
- Text2Vax: Is a Text-Based Intervention for COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Feasible and Acceptable for Personal Support Workers?
- Promoting adherence to Canada’s 24-hour movement guidelines by 9-12 year old girls to reduce depressive symptomology in adolescence
- Physical activity intervention targeting sedentary adolescents with depression: A proof-of-concept study
- A SMS intervention to increase PrEP adherence among women in serodiscordant relationships (PAWS) in Uganda: A protocol for a optimization trial à
- Increasing COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake Among University Undergraduate Students
- Optimization of the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) to improve physical activity and diet among meat-packing warehouse employees at risk for type 2 diabetes
- mHealth for Mental Health in Adults: M & M
2022 Edition
- Body and mind intervention (behavioural weight management)
- A hybrid intervention to increase completion of cardiac rehabilitation in women: protocol for randomized controlled trial
- Increasing levels of physical activity among young adults with depression to decrease risk factors associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus: A feasibility study for an RCT
- Increasing HPV vaccine uptake in community within Ireland with low HPV vaccine rates
- A hybrid nutrition intervention for pregnant women in Canada
- Improving insomnia treatment in primary care settings
2023 Edition
- Intervention comportementale de soutien à l’arrêt du vapotage
- Protocole d’intervention : MB-EAT auprès des adolescents hyperphagiques
- Intervention de pleine conscience pour les adolescents présentant un TSA
- Adaptation du MB-EAT pour prévenir le diabète
Summer School Core Faculty, Faculty, and Satellite Group Leaders
2018 | 2019 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | ||
Angela Alberga, PhD | Concordia University, Canada | Faculty | Faculty | Core Faculty and Satellite Lead | Faculty | |
Silvina Arrossi, PhD | National Institute of Science and Technology, Argentina | Faculty | ||||
Simon Bacon, PhD | Concordia University, Canada | Faculty | Faculty | Faculty | Faculty | Faculty |
Tracie Barnett, PhD | INRS-Institut Armand Frappier, Canada | Faculty | Faculty | |||
Ariane Bélanger-Gravel, PhD | Université Laval, Canada | Faculty | Faculty | |||
Jean Bourbeau, PhD | McGill University, Canada | Faculty | ||||
Claude-Julie Bourque, PhD | Université de Montréal, Canada | Faculty | Faculty | |||
David Buckeridge, PhD | McGill University, Canada | Faculty | ||||
Molly Byrne, PhD | NUI Galway, Ireland | Core Faculty | Core Faculty and Satellite Lead | Faculty | ||
Tavis Campbell, PhD | University of Calgary, Canada | Core Faculty | Satellite Lead | |||
Linda Carlson, PhD | University of Calgary, Canada | Faculty | Satellite Lead | |||
Linda Collins, PhD | Pennsylvania State University, USA | Faculty | ||||
Susan Czajkowski, PhD | National Cancer Institute, USA | Core Faculty | Core Faculty and Satellite Lead | Faculty | ||
Kaberi Dasgupta, MD, Msc | McGill University, Canada | Faculty | ||||
Karina Davidson, PhD | Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, USA | Faculty | ||||
Declan Devane, PhD | National University of Ireland Galway, Ireland | Faculty | ||||
Sébastien Dewez, PhD | Université de Montréal, Canada | Faculty | ||||
Maureen Dobbins, PhD | McMaster University, Canada | Faculty | ||||
Ken Freedland, PhD | Washington University, USA | Faculty | Faculty | |||
Annick Gauthier | Centre de médecine comportementale de Montréal, Canada | Faculty | ||||
Lise Gauvin, PhD | Université de Montréal, Canada | Faculty | Faculty | |||
Jennifer Gordon, PhD | University of Regina, Canada | Satellite Lead | ||||
Vincent Gosselin Boucher, PhD | University of British Columbia, Canada | Satellite Lead | Group Lead | |||
Jeremy Grimshaw, MD, PhD | University of Ottawa, Canada | Faculty | ||||
Kate Guastaferro, PhD | Pennsylvania State University, USA | Core Faculty and Satellite Lead | Faculty | |||
Robert Kaplan, PhD | Stanford University, USA | Faculty | ||||
Ian Kronish, MD | Columbia University, USA | Faculty | ||||
Catherine Laurin, PhD | Montreal Behavioural Medicine Centre, Canada | Faculty | ||||
Kim Lavoie, PhD | Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada | Core Faculty | Faculty | Core Faculty and Satellite Lead | Faculty | Faculty |
Rebecca Lee, PhD | Arizona State University, USA | Faculty | ||||
Mariantonia Lemos, PhD | UEAFIT, Colombia | Satellite Lead | Satellite Lead | |||
Audrey L’Espérance, PhD | Centre d’excellence sur le partenariat avec les patients et le public, Canada | Faculty | ||||
Sean Locke, PhD | Brock University, Canada | Satellite Lead | ||||
Marta Marques, PhD | Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal | Satellite Lead | Faculty | |||
Oonagh Meade, PhD | National University of Ireland Galway, Ireland | Satellite Lead | Satellite Lead | |||
Susan Michie, PhD | University College London, UK | Faculty | ||||
Paul Montgomery, PhD | University of Birmingham, UK | Core Faculty | ||||
Grégory Ninot, PhD | Université de Montpellier, France | Core Faculty | Faculty | Faculty | ||
Chris Noone, PhD | National University of Ireland Galway, Ireland | Satellite Lead | ||||
David Ogez, PhD | Université de Montréal, Canada | Faculty | ||||
Linda Pagani, PhD | Université de Montréal, Canada | Faculty | ||||
Mark Parascandola, PhD, MPH | Center for Global Health, US National Cancer Institute, USA | Faculty | ||||
Sandra Peláez, PhD | Université de Montréal, Canada | Faculty | ||||
Lynda Powell, PhD | Rush University, USA | Faculty | Faculty | |||
Justin Presseau, PhD | Ottawa University, Canada | Core Faculty | Faculty | Faculty | Faculty | |
María Fernanda Sedeño, BEng, MM | RESPIPLUS, McGill University, Canada | Faculty | ||||
Arash Shaban-Nejad, PhD | University of California, Berkeley, USA | Faculty | ||||
Sherri Sheinfeld-Gorin, PhD | University of Michigan, USA | Core Faculty and Satellite Lead | Faculty | |||
Sharon Simpson, PhD | University of Glasgow, Scotland | Faculty | ||||
Sudha Sivaram, DrPH, MPH | Center for Global Health, US National Cancer Institute, USA | Faculty | ||||
Bonnie Spring, PhD | Northwestern University, USA | Faculty | ||||
Serge Sultan, PhD | Université de Montréal, Canada | Faculty | Faculty | |||
Michael Sykes, PhD | Northumbria University, UK | Satellite Lead | Satellite Lead | |||
K. Thankappan, PhD | Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, India | Faculty | ||||
Elaine Toomey, PhD | NUI Galway (2018), University of Limerick (2021), Ireland | Faculty | Faculty | |||
Byron Wallace, PhD | Northeastern University, USA | Faculty | ||||
Robert West, PhD | University College London, UK | Faculty |
SUMMER SCHOOL COMMITTEE AND ADMINISTRATIVE TEAM
Scientific Committee | 2018 | 2019 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
Simon Bacon | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Kim Lavoie | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Angela Alberga | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
Tracie Barnett | ✓ | ✓ | |||
Ariane Bélanger-Gravel | ✓ | ✓ | |||
Molly Byrne | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
Tavis Campbell | ✓ | ||||
Marilou Côté | ✓ | ||||
Susan Czajkowski | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
Kaberi Dasgupta | ✓ | ||||
Frédérique Deslauriers | ✓ | ✓ | |||
Lise Gauvin | ✓ | ||||
Jennifer Gordon | ✓ | ||||
Vincent Gosselin Boucher | ✓ | ✓ | |||
Kate Guastaferro | ✓ | ✓ | |||
Jo Hart | ✓ | ||||
Sara Labbé | ✓ | ||||
Krisopher Lamore | ✓ | ||||
Élise Legault | ✓ | ||||
Sean Locke | ✓ | ||||
Mariantonia Lemos | ✓ | ||||
Paul Montgomery | ✓ | ||||
Grégory Ninot | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
Chris Noone | ✓ | ✓ | |||
Nicola Paine | ✓ | ||||
Frank Penedo | ✓ | ||||
Justin Presseau | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
Geneviève Rouleau | ✓ | ||||
Rebecca Seagrave | ✓ | ||||
Sherri Sheinfeld-Gorin | ✓ | ✓ | |||
Jovana Stojanovic | ✓ | ||||
Brigitte Voisard | ✓ |
Administrative Team | 2018 | 2019 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
Cloé Blanchette-Carrière | ✓ | ||||
Cassandre Julien | ✓ | ||||
Thalie Labonté | ✓ | ||||
Guillaume Lacoste | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Nathalie Maroun | ✓ | ✓ | |||
Johanne O’Malley | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Paula Ribeiro | ✓ | ||||
Geneviève Szczepanik | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |