Develop your data visualization skills and help to tell important stories about mental health and/or substance use.

The Canadian Association for Health Systems and Policy Research (CAHSPR)’s Mental Health and Substance Use Health Action Group (MHSU) is hosting a data viz competition open to all students at Canadian universities. Get your entries in by January 29, 2027 to be in the running for a $200 prize! 

High‑quality data is essential for improving mental health and substance use services, and creative approaches to data visualization can help turn complex findings into clear insights that drive better understanding and health system and policy change. Data visualization competitions offer a valuable opportunity for students to strengthen analytical thinking, design, and data‑science skills. This competition is open to university students across Canada. It is led by the CAHSPR MHSU Action group supported by funding from Réseau-1 Québec.

For this competition, we are asking university students to source data related to mental health and/or substance use health systems and/or policy and create a visual representation of those data to tell a story or highlight an important issue. Think broadly! For example, you could explore how integrating exercise programs into primary care improves anxiety outcomes, or how alcohol use affects long‑term healthcare costs and chronic disease burden.

What you do is up to you! Focus on issues of personal interest, or those that you think matter to your community/society more widely, and showcase your data viz strengths! We want to see the best stories that the data can tell.

This competition is inspired by a data-viz competition hosted by the Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use in Australia, that undertakes world-leading research into the patterns, prevention, and care of mental health and substance use issues. For inspiration, check out their 2025 winners and competition page!

Also have a look at some of the winners of the CIHR Institute of Human Development, Child and Youth Health Talks Competition and the World Dataviz Prize for some gold-standard inspiration.

Important Dates
TBD – Competition Launches
TBD – Opening of Entry Period
TBD  5pm EST– Entry Deadline
TBD – Winner announced

How it works
Submissions can be made by individuals or teams of students. Visualizations must be in a digital format readily accessible by the public. Specifically, they must be either a high-quality stand-alone static image (jpeg, PNG etc) or dashboard-type entry hosted on a public server (see examples). Such formats may include Shiny, Tableau, or PowerBI dashboards.

Entries must be submitted to: TBD with the subject ‘Data Viz Entry 2027’.

You must:

1. Attach either an image file, or link to an interactive visualization AND attach a static graphic screen grab of the visualization to be used as a cover image.
2. Include a paragraph (max. 200 words) describing the story you intended to tell and how your visualization was made.
3. Tell us where you accessed the data, confirm permission to publicly share the data, and provide a reference and/or link.
4. Tell us your (or your team members’) full name, degree, and year of study. Please also provide proof of degree status/enrolment. Please ensure there is no mention of your name(s), research institution, or other identifying information on the visualization itself. This is so we can judge each entry in a non-biased manner.

Judging and prizes
Ten of the top entries, as voted by an expert advisory committee, will be selected for judging. These entries will be judged by >=3 MHSU theme group members according to the following criteria (10 points for each):

• Story told and insights offered about mental health and/or substance use
• Creativity and aesthetic appeal
• Effective communication (including accessibility considerations)

For 2027, there will be 1 prizes worth $200. The winner and their visualization will be published on the CAHSPR MHSU Action group webpage and LinkedIn group. They will also be recongized at the CAHSPR conference.

Visualization tools and tips
Please provide context and text-based interpretation on the visualization so a reader can understand what you’re communicating. Think how an infographic communicates all information in a clear and aesthetically pleasing manner.

There are several tools that automate much of the work of data visualization. Some of these, such as Tableau and PowerBI, are either free or provide free licences for students. 

For making beautiful visualizations, it can help to focus on your data-ink ratio, and choosing fonts and colour schemes that work well together and are accessible. 

Where can I find data? 
There is plenty of publicly-available data that you could use for this competition – if you know where to look!

You may want to make use of aggregate level statistics. These are the kind of data you might find published in government reports or journal articles. This could be useful if you want to visualize data on a group-based level e.g., how a particular phenomenon varies across countries or over time. Aggregate data are all that is required for beautiful, insightful visualizations.

Some sources of relevant aggregate data include Statistics Canada’s summary tables (often  found in “The Daily” article, for example), the Canadian Substance Use Costs and Harms interactive data chart, and Mental Health Research Canada’s search portal. Provincial and territory public health websites often also provide local aggregate data (e.g., Public Health Ontario Substance Use Data and Quebec Public Health National Intsitute). Some health system data is also available via the Institute of Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) and Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) data tables available on their websites.

There are also some publicly available individual-level data to be found, which allow you to examine how phenomena and relationships vary (or don’t) on a more fine-grained level and to make statistical inferences. There is some individual level data available via Statistics Canada’s  Public Use Microdata Files.

Important notes: Only use personal research data if you have permission to share it publicly. Make sure to cite what data you are using somewhere on your viz.

What about AI?
AI tools are increasingly used to support coding, writing, and data visualization. Students may use generative AI tools to assist with aspects of their data visualization; however, the core idea, analytical decisions, and interpretation should be developed by the student. AI should be used as a tool to support, rather than replace, independent thinking and creativity. 

Any AI-generated content must be carefully reviewed, edited, and approved by the student before submission. Students are responsible for the accuracy, originality, and integrity of all submitted work. 

Please do not enter confidential, proprietary, copyrighted, or otherwise restricted information into generative AI tools. Any content shared with AI systems should be appropriate for the public domain and comply with applicable privacy, ethical, and institutional requirements. AI should not be used to generate data itself.  

The nitty-gritty
Everything in life has terms and conditions, and this competition is no different. Please read the terms and conditions of entry before you begin preparation of or submit your visualization.

Any questions? Contact:  Jillian Halladay at halladje@mcmaster.ca

CAHSPR MHSU Data Viz Leadership Team: Jillian Halladay, Kirsten Marchand, Ariane Girard, Raegan Mazurka, Marie-Ève Caron