Clinical Research Initiative (CRI)
A partnership for Clinical Research: Clinical Research Coalition
CIHR is but one of several major contributors to the Canadian endeavor in clinical research.
CIHR's research funding role is complemented by voluntary lay research foundations (health charities), and by the increasingly important provincial health research foundations funded by provincial governments. The Universities and teaching hospitals across Canada employ the health scientists and provide the settings in which they work and conduct their research. The health professional associations and their accrediting and coordinating bodies determine the frameworks within which health professional researchers are educated and work. Regulatory and ethics bodies as well as the Canadian public determine the environment within which clinical research is conducted. The health industries, including the pharmaceutical companies, the device manufacturers and the burgeoning bioscience firms are directly engaged in the spectrum of basic discovery research, testing, evaluation and eventual marketing of diagnostic, preventive and therapeutic agents. The federal and provincial governments create an overall framework of support for research, its regulation and the funding and management of the health care system within which clinical research is conducted and the eventual new agents are used for the benefit of Canadians.
Each major stakeholder must play its role more effectively and the efforts of all must be better coordinated, coherent, and complementary if clinical research in Canada is to be strengthened. A Clinical Research Coalition could provide the framework for collaborative strengthening of clinical research, and establish a unified voice to convince governments and the public to increase the funding of clinical research. CIHR has the credibility and the will to play a leadership and coordinating role in bringing together the major stakeholders to consider the creation of a Clinical Research Coalition.
Partnership with the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI)
The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) is an independent corporation created by the Government of Canada to fund research infrastructure. The CFI's mandate is to strengthen the capacity of Canadian universities, colleges, research hospitals, and non-profit research institutions to carry out world-class research and technology development that benefits Canadians.
Both CIHR and CFI recognize the current need and opportunity to improve the infrastructure for conducting clinical research in Canada. In addition, both agencies perceive the advantages in coordinating their efforts to strengthen clinical research infrastructure. These advantages include enhanced strategic national approaches, coordinated funding of new infrastructure, and efficiencies in the application process for investigators and institutions. To learn more about the collaboration, click here.
