Natural Health Products Research Program

The Natural Health Products Directorate (NHPD) is the regulating authority for natural health products (NHPs) for sale in Canada. The role of the NHPD is to ensure that Canadians have ready access to NHPs that are safe, effective and of high quality while respecting freedom of choice and philosophical and cultural diversity. In addition to its role as product regulator, the NHPD is committed to supporting NHP research. In order to determine how best to fulfill its research mandate, the NHPD held a series of consultations with key stakeholders to determine research priorities. In June 2003, the NHPD launched the Natural Health Product Research Program (NHPRP) to address these priorities.

The scope of the NHPRP is to germinate research interest in NHP research and direct funding to research and related activities that are relevant to the regulatory function of the NHPD; enable consumers to make informed choices about NHPs; and are sensitive to the needs of the communities that produce and utilize these products.

The objectives of the NHPRP are to facilitate an improved knowledge of NHPs and to disseminate the knowledge gained, thus enabling Canadian consumers to make informed decisions regarding the use of NHPs as part of their health care options. To meet these objectives, the NHPRP focuses on the following key areas:

• Building research capacity;
• Supporting the conduct of research;
• Fostering collaboration, community infrastructure and partnership building; and
• Enhancing information retrieval and knowledge transfer.

NHP research is defined as any form of research involving NHPs that is related to the following key themes:

• Biomedical research;
• Product quality;
• Clinical research;
• Health systems and health services research;
• Societal, cultural, environmental influences on health and the health of populations;
• Issues related to NHP regulations; and
• Information and knowledge transfer.

The NHPRP has been developed to reflect the diverse nature of the NHP research community and supports NHP research through a solicitation process both directly and in partnership with The Canadian Institutes of Health Research. For information on current and past solicitations, please visit our section entitled "funding opportunities".