In 2002 the CIHR Institute of Population and Public Health (IPPH) launched an inaugural funding program to support Centres for Research Development. These Centres, jointly governed by research-users and researchers, focus on understanding and addressing the impacts that physical and social environments have on health. This novel arrangement is designed to maximize the transfer of research results into practical applications and the development of new policies and programs that will lead to population-health benefits. Through the active engagement of policy makers and community leaders, these Centres, the first of their kind in Canada, aim to build research capacity to better understand and address the impacts of programs and policies that help to improve the quality of physical and social environments.
These unique Centres are supported in partnership with the Canadian Lung Association; Association pulmonaire du Québec; L'Institut de recherche Robert-Sauvé en santé et en sécurité du travail (IRSST), and the CIHR Strategic Initiative in Rural and Northern Health Research, representing an investment of over $15 million in Population and Public Health Research and Knowledge Translation.
The objectives of the Centres Program are to:
Dr. Penelope Hawe (University of Calgary),
International Collaborative Centre for the Study of Social and Physical Environments and Health
The International Collaborative Centre for the Study of Social and Physical Environments and Health will bring together researchers from Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, to promote best practices in health interventions in schools, workplaces, communities and other environments. The objective of the centre is to build stronger theory and context-assessment methods, in order to improve the likelihood of successful interventions and to better understand the factors that determine the effectiveness and applicability of particular interventions. The centre hub is in Calgary and one of the first projects that will benefit immediately from this collaboration is a project to improve the quality of the social environment in high schools.
Dr. James Dosman (University of Saskatchewan),
Canadian Centre for Health and Safety in Agriculture
The Canadian Centre for Health and Safety in Agriculture (CCHSA) will address issues of health and safety for workers, family members and the public at large as a result of inhalation exposures (what we breathe.), food and water contamination (what we eat and drink.), adverse working conditions (how we work.), and health issues for the public (how we live). The Institute of Agricultural Rural and Environmental Health (IAREH) at the University of Saskatchewan and collaborators currently have established programs, capacity and infrastructure in each of the necessary building blocks of research, capacity building (training) and knowledge transfer for the development of the CCHSA. The CCHSA will connect these building blocks together and will: 1) make more efficient use of intellectual resources and create new knowledge that would otherwise not be developed, leading to 2) unique training opportunities and 3) new collaborative research initiatives with effective consumer-driven knowledge transfer. All of these activities will be grounded in a series of cooperative relationships with agricultural producers and health policy initiatives.
Dr. John Myles (University of Toronto)
Centre for Urban Health Initiatives - Website
The Centre for Urban Health Initiatives (CUHI) will facilitate the development of high-quality, innovative, trans-disciplinary research that investigates the combined effects of local physical and social environments on the health of urban residents. CUHI will support scholarship in emerging areas by supporting the synthesis of existing literatures, promoting the development of innovative methodologies in pilot studies, and informing the design of neighborhood-level action strategies. The centre will be home to an urban health data repository that will facilitate dissemination and the development of research projects.
Dr. Jean-Luc Malo (Hôpital du Sacré-Cour de Montréal, affiliated with l'Université de Montréal),
Asthma in the Workplace Centre - Website
The Asthma in the Workplace Centre will study a wide range of health impacts of asthma in the workplace, including psychological and social, as well as biological considerations. The centre will facilitate the translation of research results to improve the health of those affected with asthma in the workplace in the Canadian population. To achieve these objectives, the centre will: 1) unite researchers from Université de Montréal and McGill in psychological, social, economic, clinical, epidemiological, evaluative and biological methodologies; 2) exchange with partners and stakeholders who will share knowledge and make it rapidly useful to Canadian asthmatics and those at-risk of developing asthma in the workplace; 3) become a world-renowned centre of excellence in which most aspects of asthma in the workplace will be examined and, thus, attract a vast number of students and ensure continuing education for health professionals. For further information on this centre, please visit their web site.
Drs. Louise Potvin and Marie-France Raynault (Université de Montréal), Centre de recherche Léa-Roback sur les inégalités sociales et de santé de Montréal - Website
The Centre d'études et d'interventions sur les inégalités sociales de santé de Montréal will extend and intensify the development of infrastructures for researching health inequalities in Montréal. The centre will develop and support three new infrastructures: 1) an infrastructure for the exchange of knowledge among multidisciplinary researchers, practitioners and policy makers; 2) a system for linking information on the health of the population of Montreal by grouping together existing data banks and new investigations; 3) an infrastructure for knowledge transfer.
Dr. Renée Lyons (Dalhousie University),
Atlantic Networks for Prevention Research - Website
The Atlantic Network for Prevention Research will develop research infrastructure in Atlantic Canada to advance population health science and public health systems in the area of illness and injury prevention and will develop a ground-breaking program of research, knowledge translation, and training in environmental diagnostics in three environments: workplaces, communities, and schools. The alliance will capitalize on and enhance the collective resources of universities, governments, community organizations, and the private sector.
Dr. Judith Guernsey (Dalhousie University),
Atlantic Rural Environments and Health Centre - Website
The Atlantic Rural Environments and Health Centre will focus on building a collaborative research network and resource centre to increase our understanding of the physical and socio-economic environmental influences of health on rural Canadians, and the capacity of rural Canadians to respond to these challenges. The centre will be linked to participating Atlantic academic institutions through the establishment of regional nodes facilitating shared access to existing and newly developing research capacity and resources. A three dimensional conceptual model that integrates the rural physical and social environmental context, with health outcomes at a range of spatial and population levels, will provide the research framework. Opportunities for 'virtual' transdisciplinary interaction on specific research questions, using WebCT and other teleconferencing methods, will be built into the research program.
| Principal Investigator | Name of Establishment | Title* | Total* |
| Dosman, James | University of Saskatchewan | Health of Canadians associated with agricultural production, in particular inhalation exposure, food and water contamination and adverse working conditions | $2,040,000 |
| Guernsey, Judith | Dalhousie University | Atlantic Rural Environments and Health Centre | $2,400,000 |
| Hawe, Penelope | University of Calgary | Internatonal Collaborative Centre for the Study of Social and Physical Environments and Health | $2,336,892 |
| Lyons, Renée | Dalhousie University | Atlantic Health Network for Prevention Research | $2,133,772 |
| Malo, Jean-Luc |
Hôpital du Sacré-Coeur de Montréal | Asthma in the Workplace Centre | $2,270,250 |
| Myles, John | University of Toronto | Centre for Urban Health Initiatives | $2,348,115 |
| Potvin, Louise et Raynault, Marie-France | Université de Montréal | Centre d'études et d'interventions sur les inégalités sociales de santé de Montréal | $2,291,101 |
| Grand total | $15,820,130 |
Research project titles are listed in the language in which they were provided.
Total funding per centre is for a period of 6 years.
