The fifth meeting of the Institute's advisory board got under way on Sunday evening with a joint meeting and dinner with members of the Institute of Aging's advisory board chaired by D. Pringle (IA) and T. Phillips (INMHA). Réjean Hebert, Scientific Director, IA and Tony Phillips, Chair, INMHA Advisory Board presented each Institute's strategic plan laying out major themes and initiatives to be supported in the coming years. The two Institutes will jointly support initiatives related to cognitive impairment in aging, and violence, gender and health across the lifespan. Participants thought the opportunity to meet other Institute board members was productive, gave insights and comparators into how each was operating, and facilitated discussion about areas of possible collaboration.
The meeting of the INMHA Institute Advisory Board convened on the University of British Columbia campus. Following welcome and overview of the two-day agenda we were joined by Mr. Rick Hansen, Dr. John Steeves and Mr. Greg Latham, executive director of The Rick Hansen Institute. Rick Hansen gave a personal and inspiring talk of his own experiences, the establishment of a lasting legacy to fund spinal cord injury research in Canada, lessons learned in terms of leadership, partnerships, collaboration, and the changes that he has seen in awareness, rehabilitation and research over the past 10 years. His institute will focus on finding a cure for spinal cord injury and look at ways to translate research into actions - to take discoveries in the lab and make them work for individuals. Researcher Dr. John Steeves described the formation of ICORD (International Collaboration On Repair Discoveries), an interdisciplinary research centre for the development of effective strategies to promote functional recovery after spinal cord injury, funded through the Canadian Foundation for Innovation program. During discussion, issues of co-morbidity, particularly in terms of dealing with pain and/or addiction and substance abuse, were raised as possible new areas of collaboration with INMHA.
More can be found about the Rick Hansen Institute (http://www.rickhansen.com/) and the ICORD initiative (http://cord.ubc.ca/) on their web sites.
Scientific Director Dr. Remi Quirion gave a brief report on the budget for the coming year and the preliminary results of the NET and Training Grant programs.
Fifty one Training Grants will be funded; five of these relate directly to the targeted themes of the Institute. Another Training Grant competition will be announced soon. Discussion followed on how to provide feedback and guidance to applicants for the next submission. The Training & Education focus group will spearhead these efforts by obtaining feedback from successful training grant applications and disseminating tips and pointers to researchers through the Institute list server, the university directors, the Web and other avenues.
Among the New Emerging Team Grants in the Institute's four strategic themes - Computational Neuroscience and Artificial Intelligence; Early Life Events and Neurodevelopment; Understanding the Placebo Effect, and Discrimination and Stigma - applications in the first two themes were funded (2 and 4, respectively).
Discussion followed on how best to build in areas where current capacity may be low within the Canadian research setting or needs to be mentored and nurtured. Again, feedback will be provided to applicants. There will be another call for NET applications and the Institute will look for submissions in the areas that were not funded in this first round plus other possible areas.
Dr. Richard Brière, Assistant Director, will coordinate the Institute's "Performance Measurement Framework" which includes the documentation of activities and outcomes of the Institute, a reporting requirement of all government agencies. The framework guidelines will be circulated to members of the IAB once received. The importance for the Institute at this time is the need to include these measures in our strategic plan and also as a requirement in subsequent RFA announcements. Consensus among the members was that this was a worthwhile exercise if it measured real 'outcomes' and not simply 'process'.
The dates for the first annual general meeting were firmed up for October - October 5 & 6 with the IAB meeting to precede it on Friday, October 4th.
Suggested program so far:
During lunch two UBC-based researchers - Dr. Tim Murphy and Dr. Lynn Raymond gave short presentations on their research work. Dr. Murphy is a basic research scientist using sophisticated, confocal microscopy techniques to look at individual NMDA synapses in the visual system. Dr. Raymond a clinician-scientist described her work on these same glutamate-NMDA receptors in a mouse model that mimics Huntington's disease.
During the afternoon session and the following day the IAB Focus Groups gave presentations on their work to date. Initial discussion looked at current Focus Groups to determine whether or not they were still needed, if new groups needed to be struck or old groups combined. Decisions - now that a communications officer is in place the IAB felt a specific focus group on Communications was no longer needed. A new committee on Prizes and Awards was struck. Continuing focus groups will be:
Dr. Candace Gibson, Communications Officer, submitted a communications plan to the board and presented its main points. Target audiences and their needs were identified and means to collect and disseminate reliable and credible information about research funding and outcomes were proposed (including a variety of publications (e.g. newsletters, brochures, one page briefs); the use of the web site; linkages through partnerships).
Mr. Phil Upshall reported on activities of the Government Affairs group - he and Dr. Quirion had made several visits to MPs and appeared before the Finance Committee prior to the February budget. He also identified several places for input into governmental groups (at federal, provincial and even local level).
A summary report of the second NGO round table held in Calgary, January 19-20th was submitted and a draft of the full report circulated to members via e-mail. Institute Liaison Astrid Eberhart reported that this second meeting had been very successful and had built on the input provided by participants in the first session.
Dr. Lisa McKerracher presented a summary from the Partnerships with Industry focus group setting out CIHR guidelines for 'working partnerships' and outlining next steps, i.e. determining the goals of potential partnerships for translation of research knowledge, training & education; funding possibilities; establishing effective collaborations with 'big pharma' and 'small biotech' companies, venture capitalists and service companies; and means of disseminating information. Suggestions were made that industry partnerships be discussed again at the next IAB meeting and that David Brener (CIHR-Partnerships) or Kevin Keough (Health Canada) be invited.
Three remaining focus groups presented summaries the next day.
Training and Education led by Marlene Reimer made several recommendations including:
INMHA ethics representative and discussion leader of the Ethics & Law focus group, Dr. Gordon DuVal, stressed the importance of ethics as an integral part of all CIHR-funded research and the ethical considerations to be kept in mind in our partnerships with industry and NGOs.
Dr. Stan Kutcher, International Affairs focus group, reported on his visit as part of a CIHR delegation looking at potential liaisons with NIH-Mexico. There are several areas of potential collaboration (e.g. tobacco control, diabetes, cognition in the elderly, bilateral research training programs). A recommendation to explore further possibilities was made.
A new focus group, Prizes and Awards, spearheaded by the Scientific Director, will solicit the names of Canadian researchers eligible for major national/international awards and promote their discoveries, and look for ways to recognize the contributions of others in helping to build the research enterprise in Canada, e.g. a named plaque or award, acknowledgement in INMHA newsletter.
At Monday evening's dinner the board members were joined by Drs. Edith and Pat McGeer, UBC researchers, who throughout their own productive careers have mentored a number of prominent neuroscience researchers (the McGeers are two of the most highly cited scientists in Canada); Dr. Max Cynader, director of UBC's Brain Research Centre; Dr. Tim Murphy and Dr. Lynn Raymond; Dr. Steve Vincent and Dr. John Steeves.
The meeting reconvened at the downtown UBC campus and the morning was spent in discussion of how best to proceed with implementing the four large themes in the Institute's strategic plan:
Champions/team leaders were recruited to push these research themes forward. Within the next NET competition it was suggested that two targeted themes be rerun, Understanding the Placebo Effect and Discrimination & Stigma and in addition, Co-occurrence of Illness and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Informational briefings were given on workshops sponsored by the INMHA in three areas:
These presentations were very impressive in terms of the scope and importance of the problems addressed, the researchers identified within Canada in these areas of research (across all 4 pillars), and the potential for the development of very strong research teams, training centers, etc. associated with each area.
Dr. Morris Barer, Scientific Director of the Institute of Health Services and Policy Research, made a presentation outlining his Institute's strategic plan and emphasis on building capacity (primarily in people, but also in building a useful data infrastructure). A novel approach is the funding of ICE teams, i.e. Interdisciplinary Capacity Enhancement teams, which will foster and develop existing strengths and build capacity. One area in which the two Institutes can partner is in developing the pool of researchers in mental health services research.
The meeting was adjourned after a very full two days. Next meeting to be held in Halifax, May 24-25.
