The 4th meeting of the IAB was held on 23 and 24 September in Toronto. It began with a dinner meeting on 23 September and the next day the meeting was hosted at the School of Public Health of the University of Toronto (many thanks to Dean David Naylor and Dr. Eric Single for the local arrangements). The day started with a breakfast attended by Dr. Carolyn Bennett, MP for St-Paul riding in the Toronto area. there were great exchanges and discussion with Dr. Bennett who is a strong supporter of CIHR in general and of Women Health and Disabilities in particular. She will be a strong voice in support of both CIHR and INMHA.
Dr. Tony Phillips called the meeting to order at 9:00 am. Following approval of the agenda, attention focused on detailed discussion of a circulated draft of the Strategic Plan. Dr. Remi Quirion and Mrs Rita Cavaliere, consultant from Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton, highlighted some of the key items that needed to be considered in order to identify priorities for INMHA in its submission of the final 4 years strategic plan to CIHR Governing Council by 8 November 2001. The balance of the morning was reserved for an extensive discussion of Training awards and the NET program. The training of the next generation of Canadian scientists in all fields from basic to clinical and psychosocial research was clearly and unanimously established as a top priority for INMHA. IAB members strongly recommended that the recently developed CIHR Training Grant Program be pursued on a yearly basis by INMHA, hopefully in conjunction with CIHR, other Institutes and non-governmental organizations. In future years, training in areas where capacity must be built could be prioritized and an early mechanism should be put in place to identify gaps and unique opportunity areas and to ensure competitiveness at the International level. For this year and the present Training grant competition, INMHA will aim to support as many awards in partnership with other CIHR Institutes, governmental organizations and the voluntary sector as possible.
Support for the NET Program in priority areas was also clear and the IAB agreed that in future years, this flexible program could be used as a tool to support research areas where unique opportunities arise and also to build capacity. The areas of focus this year are prototypical in that regard (stigma & discrimination; understanding the placebo effect; computational neuroscience, and neurodevelopment and early life events). A call for suggestions for this program along with the criteria used to establish priority will be posted ahead of time in future years.
The first hour of the afternoon was devoted to discussion of Communications led by M. Marcel Chartrand, Head of Communications at CIHR. Ms. Candace Gibson, our newly recruited Communications Officer for INMHA, was also involved in the Discussion. Following a brief presentation by M. Chartrand of an integrated CIHR Strategy, issues as to best practices in communications with the general public and government were discussed. It is clear that communication on behalf of INMHA must be closely linked with CIHR strategies and that public awareness must be increased in the near future about all of our activities etc. The role of non-governmental agencies and the voluntary sector was particularly highlighted as key, preferred partners for the Institute.
Most of the remainder of the afternoon was devoted to discussion of major strategic initiatives for INMHA. Following a series of unofficial criteria proposed by the Scientific Directors under the leadership of Dr. John Franks (Population Health) and Dr. Morris Barer (Health and Service), Dr. Quirion suggested five general themes which were discussed at the last two IAB meetings. These topics were then examined in detail taking into consideration the recent Strategic Outlook document elaborated by President Bernstein and discussed at recent meetings of Governing Council and the Scientific Directors. It was agreed that in these early days, INMHA must focus on broad, trans-disciplinary and cross-pillar, inclusive topics that will promote collaboration not only among scientists primarily affiliated with our institute but between experts of all Institutes as well as Internationally. The following five global themes, as suggested by Dr. Quirion, were agreed upon and it is expected that they will be promoted and highlighted over the next few years (they are listed alphabetically and not necessarily in order of importance)
Brain and Spinal Cord Repair
Concurrent brain and other organ illnesses
First Episodes in neurological and mental illnesses, and in addiction.
Nicotine Addiction and Tobacco Abuse
Vision and Hearing Losses.
Brief descriptions on each of these five themes can be found in our Strategic Outlook document and soon in the draft version of the Strategic Plan. The objective is to promote trans-disciplinary, innovative research in each of these major program areas over the next 3-4 years depending on opportunities and capacities. As always, comments on the choice of these exciting but challenging proposals would be most welcome.
Under the leadership of Ms. Rita Cavaliere, we then discussed the administrative organization of INMHA, our structure and focus groups, accountability to all our stakeholders including our scientists, CIHR, NGOs, etc. All these structures should become operational over the coming years.
The meeting ended with discussions about:
The first Annual Meeting of INMHA that should be held mid-June 2002 in Montreal in partnership with interested NGOs and scientists (suggestions most welcome at quirem@douglas.mcgill.ca);
The next IAB meeting (February 19 and 20) in Vancouver;
A second joint meeting with NGOs planned for Calgary on January 19-20,2002;
The Tobacco Summit to be held in Ottawa on April 19-21,2002.
This most productive meeting ended at 5:00pm.
The mandate of this Institute is broad and every effort is being made to do full justice to its entire spectrum of responsibilities and to all stakeholders. As a result, it is important for the Institute to receive comments and input from the large community it represents. All suggestions will be given careful consideration.
Respectfully submitted.
Remi Quirion, PhD
Scientific Director
