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Science and Research

Health Policy Research Program

Notice


The Health Policy Research Program was discontinued as part of the spending reductions announced by the federal government on September 25, 2006.

This is consistent with the new government of Canada's approach to support Next link will open in a new window Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) as the main vehicle for federal funding of health research and to promote investigator initiated, as opposed to government directed, academic research. Consequently, the Department must cease operations in respect of the Health Policy Research Program.

No new Requests for Applicants (RFAs) will be released.

If you have any questions, please contact the Data Development and Research Dissemination Division at rmddinfo@hc-sc.gc.ca.

The purpose of the Health Policy Research Program (HPRP) was to fund extramural policy research through a competitive, peer reviewed process, in order to improve the evidence base available for health policy decisions.

Canada's health system encompasses the contributions of many partners at all levels of government and in the public, voluntary, and private sectors, making effective partnership and evidence-based decision-making key elements in health strategies.

Policies and practices in the private, voluntary, and public sectors at every jurisdictional level and in diverse fields (for example, agriculture, immigration, urban planning, pollution control) have impacts on the health of Canadians and the performance of Canada's health care and public health systems. Decisions underlying these policies and practices respond to health, health system performance, economic, legal, ecological and other concerns.

To enable decision-makers to take the health-related impacts of their actions into account and to promote informed debate and public understanding of health policy issues, reliable evidence must be generated and made widely accessible. In many areas relevant to future decisions that will affect Canadians' health and their health system, the academic literature is either sparse or not easily applied to policy options or practices of interest to decision-makers or the public.

To increase the quantity of academic research that is directly relevant to current and future health policy issues, the HPRP funded academic research on topics corresponding to these gaps in the literature. By doing so, the HPRP contributed to Health Canada's efforts to foster more and better health research that is relevant and accessible to others in the health fields and to potential partners. The HPRP also supported the government's efforts to sustain a strong health care system and fund innovation and research and development.

Last Updated: 2006-12-28 Top