The CEO Clinical Learning Environment (CEO-CLER) Innovation Awards Program is sponsored by the Cambridge Health Alliance Senior Leadership Team, the Center for Professional and Academic Development and the Graduate Medical Education Committee

Initially funded by the Arnold P. Gold Foundation, with continued support from our CHA CEO, the program aims to enlist graduate-level trainees in improving the clinical learning environment at CHA. All graduate level trainees in CHA-sponsored health professional education programs are eligible to apply for a grant up to $2,000 to support initiatives that will make positive change. Applicants who wish to continue a prior CEO CLER project are eligible to apply for a grant up to $1,000 to support the change project. However, new initiatives will be prioritized for funding.

In the 2025-2026 program, we solicited proposals for change projects in the following areas: 

1. Improving patient and staff safety, and High Reliability culture 

2. Nurturing trainee well-being

3. Improving the patient and family experience of care

4. Improving patient quality of care, including reducing health disparities, waste and cost of care

5. Cultivating clinician engagement, professionalism and teamwork

Project selection criteria included:

• Expected contribution to the clinical learning environment for trainees, staff, patients and/or families in one of the five aims above

• Clarity of the proposal including a well-articulated aim, a practical change idea, and a viable measurement strategy that demonstrates how the change leads to improvement

• Feasibility of the project with a scope right-sized for available time and resources

• Evidence of engagement with key stakeholders and support from appropriate leaders

• A plan for sustainability of the effort beyond the end of the academic year

Questions? Contact the Center for Professional and Academic Development (cpd@challiance.org) 

Maren Batalden, Carolyn Fisher, Richard Pels, Elizabeth Gaufberg; CEO-CLER Innovation Grants Program: Empowering Residents as Clinical Learning Environment Change Agents. J Grad Med Educ 1 February 2019; 11 (1): 72–78. doi: https://doi.org/10.4300/JGME-D-18-00278.1