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CIHR - Institute of Human Development, Child and Youth Health
The Montreal Children's Hospital
Les Tourelles T - 118
2300 Tupper Street
Montreal, Quebec H3H 1P3
Tel. : (514) 412-4414
Fax : (514) 412-4253
IHDCYH-IDSEA@cihr-irsc.gc.ca
ISBN 0-9739371-9-X
The Institute of Human Development, Child and Youth Health (IHDCYH) prepared its first strategic plan in 2001 to chart its course for the first 5 years: its infancy and early childhood. The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) had just recently been created to replace the Medical Research Council (MRC), and the Canadian health research community was buzzing with enthusiasm and exciting new ideas. We had no idea at that time whether and how the 13 newly created Institutes would collaborate with one another to fund strategic research initiatives, nor whether we would be successful in establishing partnerships with agencies and organizations outside CIHR. The first strategic plan established 5 research priority themes, and a 5-year plan to "roll out" large multidisciplinary requests for applications (RFAs) in the form of 3 team grants of $750K per year each for 5 years, one at a time, in each of these 5 thematic areas.
The last 5 years have been exciting ones for CIHR, IHDCYH, and reproductive and child health researchers in Canada, but the landscape has changed considerably. Despite an increase in CIHR's overall budget over the last 5 years, each Institute's budget is currently about $8M per year, an amount significantly lower than our initial expectations in 2001. In 2003, IHDCYH underwent an unplanned move (from Toronto to Montreal) and change in Scientific Director. On the positive side, the 13 Institutes now collaborate extensively and creatively to launch RFAs in many domains of research and capacity building where our respective mandates overlap. In addition, we have developed partnerships with other Canadian government agencies, non-governmental research foundations, the Canadian Paediatric Society, the National Institute of Child Health Development (NICHD), our "sister" Institute at the National Institute of Health (NIH), and other international health research organizations, including the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the World Health Organization. Finally, the 13 Institutes and CIHR Central have worked together to create several cross-cutting strategic initiatives in the areas of clinical research, nano- and regenerative medicine, global health research, and a national cohort initiative.
Faced with this changed Canadian landscape in health research, IHDCYH initiated a new strategic planning process in the spring of 2005. Armed with the results of our mid-term formative evaluation, and spearheaded by Anne-Cécile Desfaits, our Montreal-based Assistant Director, and consultant Jacques Larivière, we held individual interviews and focus groups with researchers and stakeholders across the country. This process culminated in a second retreat in late October 2005, where a new strategic plan was developed for 2006-2010. Our mission, vision, and values have not changed substantially but have been reworded to reflect the knowledge and experience we have gained over our first 5 years. We will launch RFAs to augment and improve our activity in the areas of knowledge translation and health services research-areas in which we (and many of the other Institutes) were not particularly creative or productive during our first 5 years.
Several of our original priority research themes have been retained, and a number of others have been added. The large number (11) and wide variety of these themes may strike some as not particularly strategic. But unlike our original strategic plan, we do not intend to launch large, multidisciplinary RFAs in all 11 themes. Which of the themes will form the basis of IHDCYH's team grant RFAs, will depend partly on the interest of other CIHR Institutes and of non-Institute partners. Moreover, the themes will guide us in choosing among the large number of potential areas for funding start-up grants for new investigators, smaller high-risk projects, research syntheses (systematic reviews), research training awards, and investigator salary awards. They will also guide us in responding to approaches from other Institutes and other partners to co-fund strategic initiatives for which they have taken the lead. We will use these themes, not only to orient our future work, but also to report on our activities (in our annual report, for example) and to evaluate ourselves at the end of our next 5 years. As always, we welcome feedback on our strategic goals and objectives and ideas on how we can best achieve them.
In closing, I want to thank the many researchers and stakeholders who participated in IHDCYH's strategic planning process over the past year and underline the outstanding efforts not only of Anne-Cécile Desfaits and Jacques Larivière, but also of Louise Poulin (our Ottawa-based Assistant Director for Partnerships and International Relations), Bruce Murphy (Chair of our Institute Advisory Board [IAB]), and the entire IAB membership, who contributed so much time, effort, and creativity to this process.
CIHR is the major federal agency responsible for funding health research in Canada. It was created under the CIHR Act (Bill C-13, April 13, 2000) which came into force in June 2000.
CIHR has identified 5 key strategic directions that should guide the activities of its Institutes (Source: CIHR's Blueprint for Health Research and Innovation, 2004):
In pursuit of the accomplishment of its mandate, CIHR has also articulated 5 expected outcomes, 3 of which are strategic and the other 2, enabling:
These strategic outcomes will be enabled through:
CIHR is structured around 13 Institutes that are mandated to support health research in its four major areas or domains: biomedical; clinical; health systems and services; and health of populations, including social and cultural dimensions of health and environmental influences on health.
Each Institute is headed by a Scientific Director who receives guidance and advice from an Institute Advisory Board (IAB), made up of representatives from all areas of the health research community, including those who fund research, those who carry it out and those who use its results. The Institutes are formally accountable to the CIHR President, the CIHR Governing Council and, through the Minister of Health, to Parliament.
As one of CIHR's Institutes, IHDCYH shares responsibility for achieving the principal objectives of CIHR, which are: "...to excel, according to internationally accepted standards of scientific 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" (CIHR Act, Section 4, C-6, R.S.C. 2000).
As a life-cycle based Institute, IHDCYH has a broad mandate that covers defined time periods and a wide range of issues pertaining to human development: pre-conception; fertilization; embryonic and fetal development; the health of the mother; and child health and development.
In 2003, the Institute underwent a change of Scientific Director and staff, accompanied by a transfer from Toronto (University of Toronto) to Montreal (McGill University). 2004-05 marked the first full year of IHDCYH's new home at McGill University and the Montreal Children's Hospital, with its full complement of staff both at the Institute's home and in Ottawa.
While IHDCYH's first strategic plan (2001-2005) was driven by the need to develop the new organization and to implement new research initiatives, the coming years will be focused on collaboration with our partners and redeployment of our resources towards a broader set of research priorities. Our goal remains, however, to create and translate knowledge that improves the health and health care of mothers, infants, children, youth and families.
Our mission is to promote and support research that improves the health and development of mothers, infants, children, youth, and families in Canada and throughout the world.
Our vision is to be recognized as an organization that creates knowledge, and facilitates its application, to ensure the best start in life and to optimize reproductive and child health, growth, and development.
The values and principles that guide our decisions, our strategies and our actions are the following:
Leadership
Mobilize commitment and influence future research directions.
Innovation
Create an environment favourable to the emergence of new ideas, approaches and solutions.
Excellence
Support research, researchers and research trainees of the highest international standard.
Transdisciplinarity
Embrace the multiple disciplines required by IHDCYH's mission and research priorities; create research initiatives and projects that encourage transdisciplinary approaches.
Ethics, integrity, and respect
Be ethical, transparent, and respectful in all our actions and programs, and in all our relationships and dealings with researchers, partners, other stakeholders, children, youth, families, and communities.
Knowledge translation
Support knowledge exchange between investigators and users of research at all stages of the research cycle; support the application of research findings to improve health products, practices, services, behaviours, and policies.
Capacity building and nurturing
Attract, train and retain investigators in the domains of IHDCYH's mandate; build and strengthen links among researchers and within and across research communities; support research initiatives with strong career development potential.
The Institute has identified 5 strategic goals as the foundation on which it intends to build its principal objectives and key programs over the next 3-to 5-year period. These strategic goals are directly aligned with CIHR's strategic and enabling outcomes. The pursuit and achievement of the first 3 strategic goals will contribute to develop the research component of our mission, while the fourth and fifth will enable and guide us to organize and manage the activities related to the first 3, including an active two-way communication strategy with our research community, partners and stakeholders.
Strategic Goal 1: Support excellent and innovative research that will advance knowledge in the research areas within IHDCYH's mandate.
The principal objectives to be achieved and the key actions, initiatives and programs to be developed in relation to this strategic goal are listed below; many of these objectives and actions are inter-connected, and the achievement of one should contribute to the achievement of others.
Objective 1.1: Pursue and support our research agenda in reproductive and child health1, based on a clear consensus among investigators and other stakeholders.
Some of the possible key actions, initiatives and programs that could contribute to the achievement of this objective, as well as to other objectives related to this first strategic goal are the following:
(Note 1: The term "reproductive and child health" is inclusive of all periods of the lifecycle within the Institute's mandate: before conception through to adolescence, including maternal health.)
Objective 1.2: Fund excellent new and ongoing strategic research initiatives and programs that address IHDCYH's research priorities.
Some of the possible key actions, initiatives and programs:
Objective 1.3: Encourage and support applications that address IHDCYH's priorities in investigator-initiated open competitions at CIHR and other funding organizations in Canada and abroad.
Some of the key actions, initiatives and programs envisaged:
Objective 1.4: Promote IHDCYH's research priorities at all levels of research, policy and practice in Canada and abroad.
Some of the possible key actions, initiatives and programs:
Strategic Goal 2: Increase and sustain the number of highly-qualified researchers in all disciplines related to IHDCYH's mandate.
Objective 2.1: Ensure a sufficient number of investigators and research trainees in a wide spectrum of disciplines and methodological approaches to conduct research related to IHDCYH's research priorities.
Some of the possible key actions, initiatives and programs:
Objective 2.2: Enhance the skills and abilities of new researchers in reproductive and child health research.
Some of the key actions, initiatives and programs envisaged:
Objective 2.3: Emphasize capacity building in clinical research.
Two of the potential actions, initiatives and programs:
Objective 2.4: Retain and sustain highly-qualified researchers in the field of reproductive and child health research.
Two of the possible key actions, initiatives and programs:
Strategic Goal 3: Facilitate the application of research findings in the form of health policies, interventions, behaviours, services and products in all fields and sectors related to IHDCYH's mandate.
Objective 3.1: Involve IHDCYH and its affiliated researchers in effective knowledge translation.
Some of the key actions, initiatives and programs envisaged:
Objective 3.2: Develop research initiatives and tools for knowledge translation.
Some of the key actions, initiatives and programs:
Strategic Goal 4: Develop effective partnerships as a major enabling tool to support the other strategic goals of IHDCYH.
Objective 4.1: Identify and establish partnerships in Canada and abroad.
Some of the potential key actions, initiatives and programs:
Objective 4.2: Manage our established partnerships.
Some of the key actions, initiatives and programs:
Strategic Goal 5: Build and maintain an excellent organization to fulfill our mission, pursue our vision and achieve our strategic goals.
Objective 5.1: Implement and maintain an effective management and governance structure.
Some of the key actions, initiatives and programs required:
Objective 5.2: Implement and evaluate a communications plan with all stakeholders and the general public.
Some of the key actions, initiatives and programs envisaged:
Objective 5.3: Build a strong sense of community among IHDCYH-affiliated researchers.
Some of the possible key actions, initiatives and programs:
Defining research priorities is a major challenge and responsibility for all CIHR Institutes.
The criteria used to select IHDCYH's research priorities in the years ahead were based on:
Eight criteria had a direct influence on the selection of IHDCYH's research priorities:
IHDCYH will continue to support the following 4 research priorities from its original strategic plan:
Causes and prevention of congenital anomalies
Fetal growth and preterm birth
Causes, prevention and treatment of major chronic illnesses in children
Healthy developmental trajectories
Seven new strategic research priorities have been added to these 4 original ones:
Effects of the physico-chemical environment on reproductive and child health and development
Improving the health, development and quality of life of children and youth with chronic illnesses and disabilities
Health of Aboriginal mothers, children and youth
Maternal health and lifestyle
Childhood injury and maltreatment
Indicators of maternal and child health, and access to and quality of reproductive and child health care services
The 11 research priorities constitute the framework within which IHDCYH will operate in the coming years. We do not necessarily intend to launch large, multidisciplinary RFAs in all 11 priorities, however. Which of the themes will form the basis of IHDCYH's team grant RFAs will depend partly on the interest of other CIHR Institutes and of non-Institute partners. Moreover, the themes will guide us in choosing among the large number of potential areas for funding start-up grants for new investigators, smaller high-risk projects, research syntheses, research training awards, and investigator salary awards. They will also guide us in responding to approaches from other CIHR Institutes and other partners to co-fund strategic initiatives for which they have taken the lead. We will use these themes not only to orient our future work, but also to report on our activities and to evaluate ourselves at the end of our next 5 years.
Dr. Michael Kramer, Scientific Director
Dr. Anne-Cécile Desfaits, Assistant Director
Ms. Louise Poulin, Assistant Director, Partnerships and International Relations (Ottawa)
Ms. Stella DiPiano, Administrative Assistant
Ms. Anick Lambert, Project Officer
Dr. Bruce Murphy, Université de Montréal (Chair)
Dr. James Bonta, Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada
Dr. Sandra Davidge, University of Alberta
Dr. William Fraser, Université de Montréal
Dr. Victor Han, University of Western Ontario
Dr. Maureen Heaman, University of Manitoba
Dr. Lucie Jeannotte, Université Laval
Dr. K.S. Joseph, Dalhousie University
Ms. Brenda Kirtzinger, Prairie North Health Region
Dr. Shoo Lee, University of Alberta
Dr. Catherine McCourt, Public Health Agency of Canada
Dr. Hugh O'Brodovich, University of Toronto
Dr. Jim Roberts, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Dr. Peter Rosenbaum, McMaster University
Dr. Bonnie Stevens, University of Toronto
Ms. Dawn Walker, Health Canada
Three core ideas and beliefs have guided the preparation of IHDCYH's Strategic Plan:
Ideas, opinions and suggestions on IHDCYH's future strategies, courses of action and research priorities were generated between April and November 2005 through several means:
Three internal groups and committees have been directly associated with IHDCYH's strategic planning review and preparations:
