CIHR is 500 days old and well into its second year of operation
Message from the President of CIHR
The Government of Canada set the country on a new course in 1999 by initiating a process that culminated in a major transformation in Canada's health research enterprise. Central to this transformation was the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), created by an Act of Parliament in April 2000 and launched by Allan Rock, the Minister of Health, on June 7, 2000. The immediate impact was a visible energizing and mobilizing of Canada's health research community around CIHR's integrative, collaborative and strategic vision.
As I write this, CIHR is now about 500 days old! Well into our second year, this seems like an appropriate time to look back at what has been accomplished so far and to look forward at the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.
- The Institutes
When CIHR was launched, our first priority was to turn the Institute concept into reality, and to do it as quickly as possible. Giving life to the Institutes is one of the most tangible features that distinguishes CIHR from the MRC, and more than just a passive granting agency. The uncertainties in the research community around what the Institutes are and how they and their Advisory Boards (IABs) will function is also best addressed by examples and action, not words. In addition, our case to government that the CIHR model is actually working and has been a solid investment worthy of increased support rests, in large part, on this key aspect of CIHR.
What Have We Done?
The slate of 13 Institutes was approved by the Governing Council (GC) in July 2000 and the 13 Scientific Directors (SDs) were named in December 2000 following a three-stage international review process. In addition:
The 218 men and women who make up the 13 IABs were also announced several months later. These individuals were chosen from a slate of close to 1500 names from the research, government, charities, industry, and international sectors.
The SDs have been exceptionally busy, holding over 450 meetings with the research community across Canada to discuss issues, plans and initiatives. The IABs have each met at least two or three times, and the SDs and I have held ten two-day meetings, one joint meeting with GC, and one scientific retreat.
At last count, 14 requests for applications (RFAs) have already emanated from the Institutes (see www.cihr.gc.ca for the complete listing), including the large Strategic Training Initiative in Health Research for the 21st Century. Many of the RFAs involve partnerships with health charities, provincial governments, and other federal government agencies.
We received 233 letters of intent in response to the training RFA, an amazing number and the best measure of how right-on this RFA is in addressing unmet needs within the research community.
The SDs have developed excellent rapport with each other and their IABs. I believe this shared enthusiasm, which comes from shared goals and aspirations, is key to building a strong CIHR for the future.
The 13 Institutes are presently preparing their Strategic Plans and Thematic Initiatives which will go to GC for review and approval in November. These documents are scientifically timely and exciting and offer great potential to impact on the health of Canadians. They are the culmination of very broad consultations with the IABs, research community, and partners.
What Remains to be Done?
Over the next 12 months, I expect we will see fewer, but more ambitious and long term, RFAs that reflect the country's shared views of the research opportunities and the health challenges facing Canadians.
- Broadening the Mandate
Besides the Institutes, the second transformative feature of CIHR is the explicit recognition of the importance of the four approaches to health research.
What Have We Done?
We have tried to move as quickly as possible to realize an integrated vision for health research. Broadening the mandate to include the four pillars has been approached on several fronts:
Six new or revised grants panels were created, reflecting CIHR's broadened mandate, particularly in the areas of health services research, bio-ethics and population health.
The slate of 13 Institutes, 13 SDs, and the composition of the IABs is also reflective of CIHR's broadened mandate.
In our first year, CIHR reviewed and funded ten Interdisciplinary Health Research Teams (IHRTs) and 19 Community Alliances for Health Research (CAHRs), with total support of $80M over 5 years. These applications were reviewed by multi-disciplinary, international review teams that used both research excellence and true inter-disciplinarity as their criteria for ranking.
- CIHRheld a Special Career Awards competition for investigators in pillars three and four (health services research, population health).
The RFA on Training, as well as many of the other RFAs, require inter-disciplinarity as an integral aspect of the proposals.
Many of the Town Hall meetings and workshops that the 13 SDs and I have held in universities and hospitals across Canada have brought together, in many cases for the first time, health researchers from different Faculties who represent the broad spectrum of approaches to health research.
- CIHRstaff held more than 30 grants craft workshops across the country, targeting specifically the broadened health research community.
Participation by the broadened health research community in CIHR's funding competitions has increased sharply. In the September 1999 grants competition, 10% of the applications were in pillars 3 and 4. By September 2001, this figure had increased to 21.5%.
- CIHR's Development Grants Program is designed specifically to help universities that are committed to building critical mass in health research.
What Remains to be Done?
Breaking down the barriers between research cultures will not happen overnight, nor will it happen simply between CIHR requires it in an RFA.
True transformation of how health research is conducted will take time and will depend on researchers from very different disciplines seeing the value of collaboration and having the necessary resources to collaborate. Of course, not all research needs to be collaborative, but unquestionably, health research world-wide is changing and evolving towards more inter-disciplinary teams.
Much of the discussion leading up to the creation of CIHR focussed on the social sciences and humanities. Today, the discussion is on the growing importance of the natural sciences, engineering and mathematics to health research. Clearly, CIHR needs to create opportunities that make it attractive for all researchers, regardless of discipline or geography, to come together to focus on important problems.
- Creating an Internationally Competitive Research Environment
Without question, the creation of CIHR has been correctly viewed by the entire research community, and by our partners, as the most tangible example of the federal government's commitment to health research. It is fair to say that most members of the health research community have greeted the creation of CIHR as an important opportunity for Canada to approach international levels of research support.
What Have We Done?
I am aware that many researchers are concerned that the "promise of CIHR" has not yet been realized, pointing out the success (and failure) rates of the past three competitions. While Canada has yet to reach internationally competitive levels of funding, I urge everyone to look closely at the actual data shown in the accompanying figures. I am grateful to Dr. Mark Bisby for assembling this information.
The data in these figures clearly demonstrate that there has been a very marked increase in the number and value of grants, and the number of individuals supported by CIHR either as trainees or as career awardees. This strong upward trend reflects the broadening of our mandate, as well as funding more investigators who were previously funded by the MRC.
A new Program, CIHR's Establishment Grants, has been put in place to help host institutions put together recruitment packages to attract established, internationally recognized researchers to Canada.
What Remains to be Done?
Despite the progress noted above, Canada clearly has some distance to go to create a funding environment that is truly internationally competitive. The average value of CIHR grants still needs to increase significantly, and perhaps equally importantly, we need to simplify the Canadian funding landscape so that our researchers spend less time figuring out the rules of different agencies, and writing grants, and more time doing research.
The Government of Canada is clearly committed to a broad R&D agenda, with particular emphasis on health research. Most importantly, the government's wider social and economic agenda, which includes the health of Aboriginal communities, environment and health, rural health, the health of Canada's children, developing a sustainable, responsive, and cost-effective health care system, and diversifying and strengthening Canada's knowledge-based economy, depends critically on the strength and depth of Canada's health research community, and hence on a vibrant and growing CIHR.
Indeed, the government's commitment to "a further significant increase in the budget of CIHR" in last Spring's Speech from the Throne and the Prime Minister's reaffirmation of that commitment in his reply to the Throne Speech in the House is explicit recognition of the critical role that CIHR is playing in funding research that matters to Canadians.
We should never take for granted government support, or further possible increases in the levels of support for CIHR, particularly with the tragic events in the United States and downturn in the economy. The broad coalition of researchers, universities and teaching hospitals, health charities, industry, provincial governments, and individual citizens is as important today as it was three years ago.
- An Integrated and Proactive Health Research Agenda
CIHR is not simply a granting council with a mandate that has been broadened relative to the MRC. We have been charged by Parliament with developing a strategic, inclusive and integrated approach to health research, bringing together individuals and organizations with an interest in improving the health of Canadians through research.
Shortly, I will be releasing CIHR's first Strategic Outlook, our first overview of research areas of particular importance. This document is meant to provide an evolving framework for Canada's health research agenda.
- Knowledge Translation
The Act that created CIHR stated that our objective was " to excel, according to internationally accepted standards of excellence, in the creation of new knowledge and its translation into improved health for Canadians, more effective health services and products and a strengthened Canadian health care system". The latter objective, knowledge translation, is also an entirely new dimension and mandate for CIHR, one which offers very exciting possibilities to position CIHR not simply as a granting agency, but as a proactive body involved in both catalyzing and funding research, and ensuring that it gets translated to policy makers, care givers, Canadians, young and old, and to industry.
What Have We Done?
Although not yet widely known, we have been quite active over the past six months in establishing a knowledge translation (KT) agenda. Led by Drs. Elizabeth Dickson and Charlyn Black (while on her sabbatical from the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy and Evaluation at the University of Manitoba), we have been building a foundation for major thrusts in this area.
An RFA has now been issued designed to assess the current state of KT in Canada.
Many individual CIHR investigators are actively engaged in KT. Three very different examples from three CIHR Distinguished Investigators:
Dr. Ian Stiell from the Ottawa General Hospital and the University of Ottawa is internationally known for developing and disseminating the Ottawa Knee and Ankle Rules, guidelines now used in emergency rooms throughout North America.
Dr. Pat McGrath of Dalhousie University is working with community groups to disseminate information about childhood pain.
Dr. Tony Pawson of the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute at the University of Toronto, has been involved in forming several companies, including MDS Proteomics and Blueprint Worlwide Inc., that are built on the new fields of proteomics and bio-informatics.
- CIHRannounced a new Science Journalism studentship program designed to encourage and support science students going into journalism. Last month, a national review team of journalists and scientists, chaired by Dr. John Hoeg, Editor of the Canadian Medical Association Journal, met to review our first group of excellent candidates. The five successful recipients are announced on CIHR's website.
Lucie Kempffer, head of CIHR's IT department and her Deputy, Evie Gray, are working with a large number of partner agencies in developing a very exciting concept - a research portal that will provide access on the Web to all Canadians interested in research-researchers, funders, host institutions, industry, governments, the public, etc... This site, tentatively called Researchnet.ca, has received competitive funding from the Government-On-Line initiative to develop the concept. One of the first goals of the team is to develop a common CV form and then hopefully a common grant form, for all federal granting agencies, health charities, etc... I have been very pleased with the cooperation between agencies in moving this important project forward.
Over the next year, we will be developing a number of other programs designed to stimulate knowledge translation and to assist CIHR investigators in their efforts at knowledge translation. I strongly believe that there are increasingly many exciting opportunities for new knowledge to inform public policy, excite young people about a career in research, and to build a vibrant, knowledge-based life and health sciences sector in Canada.
I would welcome suggestions and ideas about how CIHR can play this central role in knowledge translation and public policy development.
What Remains to be Done?
Clinical research, performed by health professionals in all clinical disciplines, forms an important translational link, usually expressed as "bench to bedside", but also including applications in health maintenance and prevention of ill-health. Many health professionals face severe challenges in becoming, and remaining, health researchers in the face of demands for clinical service. I will appoint a task force on Clinical Research that will review CIHR's current support mechanisms for clinical research and clinician-researchers to advise CIHR on improvements we should put in place to encourage the growth of this key translational aspect of health research, CIHR recognizes that concerted action is also needed by our partners in academia, hospitals, other healthcare service providers and facilities, and provincial governments.
- Ethics
Ethics is also explicitly discussed in the CIHR Act as a 'cross-cutting' theme that must permeate everything we do. Recognizing the importance of this area, we have done the following:
Ensured that every IAB includes at least one bio-ethicist. Several months ago, we held a very successful meeting of the 13 ethicists from the 13 IABs to identify and discuss common and emerging issues.
Established a GC Working Group on Ethics that will now become a GC Standing Committee on Ethics.
With NSERC and SSHRC, CIHR has revamped the Tri-Council activities around ethics, establishing a Tri-Council Panel and Secretariat on Ethics. I am pleased to announce that Dr. Howard Brunt of the University of Victoria has agreed to chair this Panel of distinguished individuals.
I am also very pleased to announce that Dr. Thérèse Leroux has agreed to become Director of CIHR's Office of Ethics. Thérèse is a Professor at the Université de Montréal, a past-president of the Canadian Bioethics Society and has a Ph.D. in Biochemistry. Her recruitment will add considerable depth and breadth to CIHR's ethics activities.
Patricia Kosseim, a senior member of CIHR's Office of Ethics and now on maternity leave, has assumed a national leadership role on two key pieces of legislation with direct implications for health researchers: Privacy Legislation and the Regulations around the Use of Animals in Research. Patricia's energy and insights in both of these areas is well known and highly regarded here in Ottawa. I am pleased to acknowledge her efforts to ensure that the research perspective is factored into any legislation and regulations that flow from these pieces of legislation.
- Organizational ReDesign
In biology, as D'Arcy Thomson most aptly put it: "Form follows function". CIHR's function has changed and hence so must our form! CIHR is now in the middle of a major organizational restructuring which in the end will result in the creation of three major portfolios: Research (including both Institute thematic activities as well as CIHR's grant competitions for support of research and researchers), Knowledge Translation and Communications, and Corporate Affairs.
Over the next few months, we will be selecting the individuals to head up these Portfolios. These appointments are very important as CIHR continues to evolve towards a truly virtual organization, bringing together other agencies, governments, industry, host institutions, researchers and the Canadian public, to develop a common health research agenda.
As part of this restructuring, we are examining our approach to peer review and grants committees. Dr. Mark Bisby, CIHR's Director of the Research Portfolio, is leading this process and will be announcing changes shortly following broad consultations with members of the research community.
I am particularly grateful to all staff for having demonstrated a genuine willingness to adapt to the CIHR world, to offer advice and support to me, and for serving the community with unmost professionalism.
- Communications and Proactivity
Canadians need to see the connections between advances in health research and the role that CIHR and Canadian researchers are playing in this new Century of Health Research. This connection is key if we are to develop an internationally competitive research environment in Canada, and if we are going to attract the best and brightest young people to pursue a career in health research in Canada.
Related to but also separated from this issue, Parliament clearly wanted to create a new agency that would provide informed and trusted advice on research issues of the day, issues as varied as stem cell ethics, human cloning, health disparities, privacy issues, and the safety of Canada's water and food supplies.
What have We Done?
- CIHR's profile and the profiles of individual Canadian health researchers has certainly increased over the past 12 months, in large part as a result of the public's and media's interest in current health research advances.
- CIHR's Committee on Stem Cells, chaired by CIHR Distinguished Investigator Dr. Janet Rossant, released their Draft Report in March for public consultation. This Report has served, in large part, as the basis for the Section on Human Stem Cells and Cloning in the draft legislation tabled in Parliament by Allan Rock, the Minister of Health. Janet's Committee is currently finalizing their recommended guidelines for CIHR funded-research. These recommendations will then be discussed by GC later this Fall.
We have appointed university delegates from a record 31 universities to serve as CIHR's local contacts and source of information of CIHR programs. More will be added in the future.
We have circulated to all Parliamentarians CIHR's first "Achievements in Research", covering the 12 months period starting from our launch in June 2000.
The media has increasingly been running made-in-Canada health research stories, covering all four pillars of health research. Marcel Chartand, CIHR's Director of Communications, and I have met with the editorial boards of four of Canada's major newspapers to increase their awareness of health research and of CIHR.
We will shortly be releasing CIHR's first Strategic Outlook, providing a framework for our Institutes and for the country as we set out priorities in health research over the next few years.
What Remains to be Done?
Canadians care deeply about health issues, and are very taken up by health issues of the day, from stem cells, to access to PET machines, to genetic testing for disease. I believe that CIHR has a major responsibility and opportunity to provide the Canadian public with timely, objective, balanced, and easily understood information on these and other issues. Over the next year, CIHR will become much more proactive in this regard, involving our 13 SDs, leading researchers, IAB members, in these activities.
Working with host institutions and individual researchers, we still have a long way to go to position CIHR in the public eye. Over the next year, we plan to initiate a number of policies and activities which will help raise CIHR's profile and help to make the connection between the investment in health research and research outcomes. I believe that everyone - The research community, health charities, our universities, teaching hospitals and other partnering institutions, industry, and the provinces, can only benefit from establishing this connection.
CIHR, and particularly our 13 Institutes and Scientific Directors, need to be able to respond quickly to breaking health news strives, becoming sources of reliable perspectives on the science and public policy aspects of health research.Summary
In summary, the past 16 months have been exceptionally challenging and exciting. I have been so impressed with everyone associated with building CIHR into what I hope will be a global model for an outstanding health research organization: Governing Council, our 13 Scientific Directors and their IABs, the staff in Ottawa, the research community particularly, those who give so generously of their time to sit on peer review and advisory committees, and our partners in the health charities, industry, and government. All of these groups have worked exceptionally hard and shown such great shared commitment and passion in working towards a common vision for CIHR and for Canada.
The tragic events of the past weeks have only served to emphasize for me how right is our mission - to improve the health of the world's peoples through research.
