ARCHIVED - RPP 2006-2007
Canadian Institutes of Health Research

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Section II - Analysis of Program Activities by Strategic Outcome

Analysis by Program Activity

This section summarizes and identifies CIHR's planned programs and activities within each of the three strategic outcome areas.

1. Strategic Outcome: Outstanding Research

CIHR supports the development of new knowledge through health research across all disciplines that are relevant to health. Throughout 2006-2007 and beyond, CIHR will continue to support outstanding health research in order to create health knowledge responding to opportunities and priorities.

1.1. Program Activity: Fund Health Research

Financial Resources: (in millions)

2006-2007	2007-2008	2008-2009
$444.6	$446.9	$450.3
Budget 2006 Announcement:
$24.8	$26.0	$29.8

Human Resources:

2006-2007	2007-2008	2008-2009
207	207	207

Program Summary:

Program Activity Description Plan, launch and manage competitions and programs for grant funds to facilitate and enable the conduct of outstanding health research including collaborative programs in investigator-framed and Institute-framed initiatives.
Expected Results Effective and efficient funding programs that enable ethical health research, responding to opportunities and priorities.	Indicators Success of CIHR-funded research programs including results, awareness and satisfaction levels. Extent to which Institutes have appropriately influenced the research, policy and/or practice agendas in their communities.
Link to Priority Priority #1: Research - Advance health knowledge, through excellent and ethical research, across disciplines, sectors, and geography.

Description of Key Programs and Services
CIHR supports the development of new knowledge through health research across all disciplines that are relevant to health. In order to effectively fund this research, CIHR provides grants for both investigator-initiated and strategic research through competitions and requests for applications (RFAs) in conjunction with many partners.

Funding Excellence in Health Research
Research driven by the creativity of individuals and teams lies at the heart of Canada's health research enterprise. CIHR encourages and promotes excellence in research, as judged by peers, recognizing that innovative research drives progress and ensures a continuous flow of fresh insights. Over the next three years, CIHR will reinforce its commitment to research excellence through directing approximately 70% of its base budget to grants and awards in support of investigator-initiated research programs that address significant questions in biomedical and clinical research as well as in the areas of health systems and population health research. CIHR is committing 30% of its grants and awards base budget to its various strategic research initiatives.

Funding Excellence in Health Research: CIHR's Open Operating Grants Program
The Open Operating Grants Program represents CIHR's single largest investment, with a 2006-2007 program budget accounting for more than half of CIHR's grants and awards budget. This "untargeted" or "unstructured" research support program encourages Canadian health researchers to pursue their very best ideas, define and pursue the mode of research best suited to advance those ideas, and to pursue the opportunities most likely to maximize the impact of their work. This program recognizes the reality that the pursuit of excellence in research, as judged by peers, is a powerful source of inspiration. Through the Open Operating Grants program, that inspiration is converted into a continuous flow of fresh insights and into tangible progress towards improving the health of Canadians.

In 2006-2007 CIHR will reinforce its long-term commitment to the Open Operating Grants Program through implementation of a performance reporting system for individual grant holders and through enhancements to the peer review system applied within the program.

Supporting Strategic Research through Institutes
CIHR's broad-based approach brings together researchers across disciplinary and geographic boundaries through its 13 Institutes, each of which addresses an area of health research that is of importance to Canadians. Each Institute is headed by a Scientific Director who is a leader in his or her field, and is guided by an Institute Advisory Board comprising volunteers from the health research community.

Each Institute has worked closely with its partners, including other research funders, those who carry out the research, and those who use its findings, to develop strategic plans which identify research priority themes. These themes are highly relevant to government priorities such as: Aboriginal health and skills development; access to health care; and solidifying Canada's place in the world.

Examples of the Institute's strategic research themes and funded research in 2006-2007 include:

Institute	Select examples of strategic research themes
Aboriginal Peoples' Health	Suicide Prevention Targeting Aboriginal People
Aging	Mobility in Aging Cognitive Impairment in Aging
Cancer Research	Access to Quality Cancer Care Palliative and end-of-life care
Circulatory and Respiratory Health	Cardiovascular Complications of Diabetes Inflammation & Thrombosis
Gender and Health	Gender, Sex and Health research
Genetics	Proteomics & Bioinformatics Genes to Genomic Medicine
Health Services and Policy Research	Sustainable Financing & Funding in Health Care Addressing Health Care and Health Policy Challenges
Human Development, Child and Youth Health	Indoor Air Exposures, Genes, and Gene-Environment Interactions in the Etiology of Asthma and Allergy in Early Childhood Healthy Pregnancy
Infection and Immunity	HIV/AIDS Research program Host Susceptibility Resistance
Musculoskeletal Health and Arthritis	Tissue Injury, Repair Replacement Pain, Disability Chronic Diseases
Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction	Neuromuscular Research Partnership Regenerative Medicine and Nanomedicine
Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes	Childhood Obesity & Healthy Body Weights Excellence, Innovation and Advancement in the Study of Obesity
Population and Public Health	Partnerships for Health System Improvement Population Genetics & Genetic Epidemiology of Complex Diseases

Developing National Research Platforms and Initiatives
CIHR's Strategic Plan, Blueprint, calls upon the organization to develop national research platforms and initiatives. CIHR's Governing Council has identified a number of partnered, long-term strategic initiatives to pursue to address Canada's health research priorities. These include:

1. The Global Health Research Initiative which will develop practical solutions for the health and healthcare problems of the developing world (in conjunction with Canadian International Development Agency, International Development Research Centre and Health Canada);
2. The Clinical Research Initiative which will modernize Canada's platform for clinical research including national networks, core facilities, sustainable support mechanisms for clinician researchers, and innovative mentoring and training opportunities (planned in conjunction with Canadian Foundation for Innovation); and
3. The Regenerative Medicine and Nanotechnology Initiative which will harness the full potential of a number of new technologies, and examine their impact on society and the health care system (in conjunction with Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, National Research Council Canada, Heart and Stroke Foundation and others).

The scale to which these three initiatives are implemented is contingent on the availability of finances and contributing partners.

* * *

Risks and Challenges
In delivering results related to Strategic Outcome #1, Outstanding Research, the challenges to CIHR include:

• selecting for funding the very best from among the excellent proposals for high-quality research that it receives (the number of high quality proposals far exceeds the amount of available funding);
• encouraging applications from a broad spectrum of research areas of importance to Canadians; and
• achieving the right balance between funding more applications, and ensuring that each has adequate funding to realise its goals.

The risks of not adequately addressing these challenges are that CIHR might not fully provide the research base needed for improving health and health care in Canada. Further, CIHR risks not finding the right balance between number of projects funded and size of individual grants.

To face these challenges and mitigate these risks, CIHR:

• conducts a rigorous peer-reviewed, competitive process for screening applications for funding;
• actively uses its Institute Advisory Boards, a University delegate network, and a regular e-bulletin for researchers to ensure that the entire health research community is aware of funding opportunities;
• regularly re-visits and balances the issue of grant and award numbers and size; and
• primarily through the 13 Institutes, launches strategic research initiatives encompassing the broad spectrum of health research.

2. Strategic Outcome: Outstanding Researchers in Innovative Environments

CIHR is committed to strengthening Canada's health research communities by continuing to broaden, deepen and sustain health research excellence. CIHR will continue to increase its support for interdisciplinary and multisectoral teams of researchers. CIHR will ensure that it supports an appropriate balance and mix of health researchers to realize its mandate and strategic objectives. CIHR recognizes the importance of new investigators to the Canadian health research enterprise. Throughout 2006-2007 and beyond, CIHR will work to ensure a strong Canadian health research community that is able to undertake outstanding research.

2.1. Program Activity: Fund Health Researchers and Trainees.

Financial Resources: (in millions)

2006-2007	2007-2008	2008-2009
$217.5	$222.5	$222.5
Budget 2006 Announcement:
$0.2	$0.3	$0.3

Human Resources:

2006-2007	2007-2008	2008-2009
105	105	105

Program Summary:

Program Activity Description Plan, launch and manage competitions and programs for both salary awards to enable health researchers to devote more time to their research, as well as competitions for training awards to develop future health researchers.
Expected Results Effective and efficient funding programs that ensure a supply of highly qualified health researchers and trainees are available to conduct outstanding research.	Indicators Success of CIHR-funded salary and training programs including results, awareness and satisfaction levels. Level and success of Institute activity in creating opportunities for capacity development based on successful initial and ongoing identification and targeting of research domains in need of capacity development.
Link to Priority Priority #2: Researchers - Develop and sustain Canada's health researchers in vibrant, innovative and stable research environments.

Description of Key Programs and Services
CIHR provides various training and salary programs, to support and nurture Canada's health research community. Other activities include CIHR's participation in the Canada Research Chairs and Canada Graduate Scholarships programs. CIHR will continue to evaluate and simplify its numerous program tools to become more efficient in program delivery and make it easier for researchers to access the support they need.

Training the Next Generation of Researchers
Training the next generation of researchers is crucial to the future of health research in Canada. Demographic trends indicate an increasing need for young researchers. In turn, the health care system depends on research for continual improvements. Trainees not only replenish the ranks of independent investigators, but also help to fill the needs of industry for HQP, and provide health professionals, financial managers, and policy decision-makers with a research background.

CIHR's regular training awards support more than 2,100 individuals, including undergraduates, masters and, doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows. CIHR's single largest source of support for research training continues to be its regular research grant programs. With the growth in number and size of these in recent years, there has been a corresponding increase in the number of trainees supported from grants held by researchers, with the current total being more than 4,200. CIHR will continue to explore ways of enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of these programs.

The trend in research is for the really cutting edge discoveries to be made at the intersection of disciplines. CIHR encourages and supports training programs that prepare young researchers to work effectively with a team of colleagues from various disciplines able to focus multiple talents on a single health issue. CIHR took a bold step in 2001 in an effort to improve the health research training environment and increase health research capacity by launching the Strategic Training Initiative in Health Research (STIHR). STIHR provides funding to innovative, interdisciplinary training programs and currently supports nearly 600 trainees at different levels through training centres across the country. The consensus for the need for this type of training is shown by the large number of external partners that were part of the STIHR launch. In addition, the Institute of Aboriginal People's Health is building capacity in their area by supporting Aboriginal Capacity and Developmental Research Environments (ACADRE) grants. CIHR will continue funding these innovative programs and at the same time evaluating their effectiveness. For example, in 2006-2007, the STIHR program will be evaluated.

Clinician-investigators in all the health professions are a key element in the transfer of new knowledge to applications in the health care system, and CIHR's Clinical Research Initiative is helping to ensure that those clinicians with a commitment to research have an opportunity to pursue their interests. CIHR will continue to increase capacity in clinical research by providing additional training and salary awards to clinician-investigators through dedicated funding.

Supporting Research Careers
One of CIHR's core objectives is to provide leadership in building capacity within Canada's health research community. This is done through the training and development of researchers, and by fostering the development and ongoing support of scientific careers in health research. In 2005, CIHR formed a Task Force on Career Support to advise its Governing Council on an appropriate niche for CIHR in the area of salary support. Following delivery of the final Task Force report, CIHR has begun the process of designing a revised portfolio of career support programs through broad consultation with all stakeholders. The new portfolio is intended to address the issues raised by the Task Force, including program sustainability. Roll-out of the newly designed programs, intended to complement support provided through the Canada Research Chairs program, will begin in late 2006 if funding is available.

In addition to providing trainees and independent investigators with salary support, CIHR is committed to helping them develop the skills they require to succeed in the modern research environment. Several Institutes provide their trainees and new investigators interdisciplinary networking opportunities as well as workshops on topics such as building and managing a research team, how to write effective grant proposals, and time management.

Building Research Capacity in Universities
In collaboration with the federal funding agencies (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada) CIHR will continue to invest in research capacity building through the Canada Research Chairs program and the Canada Graduate Scholarships program in 2006-2007 and beyond. For example, CIHR has the lead for the tri-agency evaluation of the Canada Graduate Scholarships program, which supports both masters and doctoral students.

Institute-led Capacity Building
A key role of CIHR's Institutes is capacity building. Several large initiatives will continue in 2006-2007 and beyond, including:

• The Institute of Aboriginal Peoples' Health has established eight Aboriginal Capacity and Developmental Research Environments (ACADRE) centres to develop a network of supportive research environments across Canada that continue to facilitate the development of aboriginal capacity in health research.
• The Institute of Health Services and Policy Research launched Partnerships for Health System Improvement, with the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation, to support teams of researchers and decision-makers interested in conducting applied health research useful to health system managers and/or policymakers. Researchers are focusing on priority areas identified through national consultations undertaken by IHSPR in partnership with provincial and federal health system organizations.
• The Institute of Population and Public Health will continue to hold Summer Institutes, bringing together expert tutors and students to improve their understanding and skills in building interdisciplinary partnerships, and allow students to interact with decision-makers with interests in population health research. These events also are creating a Canadian research network of future young investigators.

2.2. Program Activity: Fund research resources, collaboration and other grants to strengthen the health research community.

Financial Resources: (in millions)

2006-2007	2007-2008	2008-2009
$68.2	$68.2	$68.2
Budget 2006 Announcement:
$5.0	$5.0	$5.0

Human Resources:

2006-2007	2007-2008	2008-2009
31	31	31

Program Summary:

Program Activity Description Plan, launch and manage competitions and programs for grant funds for research-enabling activities, such as networking, provision of new equipment, databases and/or specialized resources. Encourage participation and involvement of stakeholders in the public and private sectors through collaborative, enabling programs and competitions.
Expected Results Effective and efficient partnerships and funding programs that lead to a dynamic research environment and enable outstanding research.	Indicators Success of CIHR-funded research resources and collaboration programs including results, awareness and satisfaction levels. Expenditure levels and distribution. Level of Institute leadership, activity and success in strengthening research infrastructure/environment.
Link to Priority Priority #2: Researchers - Develop and sustain Canada's health researchers in vibrant, innovative and stable research environments.

Description of Key Programs and Services
CIHR contributes funding to a number of team-related programs as part of its strategy to strengthen the research environment and enable outstanding research.

Advancing Multidisciplinary Research
In 2004, CIHR introduced the Team Grant program. It is designed to bring together researchers from across multiple disciplines in order to harness their collective expertise to solve complex, multi-facetted, health challenges. In 2006-2007, CIHR will fund nineteen innovative proposals, focused on resolving health issues of high importance to Canadians. These 19 projects will be selected from over 200 original proposals - a clear indication the research community has taken up the challenge. In addition, CIHR will continue with the full implementation of the Team Grant strategy, launching its third annual request for proposals under the program. Once running at full capacity, it is anticipated that up to 100 teams, bringing together researchers across geographic and disciplinary boundaries, will be supported.

Advancing Research that is Relevant to Official Language Minority Communities
CIHR is committed to supporting health research related issues facing official language minority communities (OLMC) and thus has included the OLMC initiative as one of the CIHR multi-institute strategic initiatives. Furthermore, CIHR's financial support for the next four fiscal years will result in increased funding opportunities for research projects focusing on health issues pertinent to OLMC in Canada. In compliance with the Official Languages Act, CIHR will continue to collaborate with the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages and its representatives by having an official observer present at all consultative committee meetings. Plans for 2006-2007 also include the creation of partnerships with other government and non-governmental organizations to maximize funding and expand the scope of OLMC research activities in Canada; the elaboration of a three year strategic plan with clear measurable outcomes; and the inclusion of sessions within a summer institute that will aim to increase awareness of the challenges facing OLMC among young researchers.

Regional Partnerships Program (RPP)
CIHR's Regional Partnerships Program (RPP) promotes health research in provinces that traditionally are not considered as being major centres of health research in Canada. CIHR, together with partners in these regions, will co-fund applications submitted to CIHR which are shown to be fundable through CIHR's peer review process, but are below the funding capacity of various CIHR competitions. CIHR's current commitment to the program is $4.4 million per annum. In 2006-2007, a new program design will be presented to CIHR's Governing Council following on from the recommendations contained in a program evaluation conducted in 2005.

Institute-led collaboration
A key role of CIHR's Institutes is collaboration within and across their research communities. Several large initiatives will continue in 2006-2007 and beyond, including:

• The Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health has developed the New Frontiers Program, which supports workshops, consensus conferences, opportunities for research collaboration and similar activities that lead to the identification of research priorities and the development of successful new research proposals. Recent focus has been on clinical trials networks in critical and respiratory health, and the cardiovascular complications of diabetes.
• The Institute of Musculoskeletal Health and Arthritis, recognizing that successful health research is tied to the availability of an array of tools, techniques and methodologies, has launched the "Inventions: Tools and Techniques in Health Research" funding program, together with two other Institutes. This program is funding an impressive array of research, including investigation into gene therapy, transplantation, and new analytical and diagnostic techniques.
• The Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction is a co-lead for CIHR's multi-year Regenerative Medicine and Nanomedicine Initiative, with a total investment of over $12M, and an emphasis on building multidisciplinary teams, including participants from the physical sciences and engineering. The National Research Council and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council are among the many partners.

2.3. Program Activity: Develop and support a strong health research community through national and international alliances and priority setting.

Financial Resources: (in millions)

2006-2007	2007-2008	2008-2009
$28.1	$28.1	$28.1
Budget 2006 Announcement:
$0.1	$0.1	$0.1

Human Resources:

2006-2007	2007-2008	2008-2009
12	12	12

Program Summary:

Program Activity Description Plan, launch and manage both Institute Support Grants that enable Institute activities such as the development of strategic health research priorities and development of alliances, as well as competitions and programs for grant funds for both national and international partnered programs.
Expected Results National and international health research agendas are formulated and implemented.	Indicators Success of CIHR-funded partnership research programs including results, awareness and satisfaction levels. Number, diversity and scope of linkages, exchanges, alliances and partnerships with other organizations including health policy-makers at all levels of government (especially provincial governments) compared to baseline. Includes willingness of stakeholders to support research in Institute domains and number and size of funding flows through jointly-funded partnership programs where relevant.
Link to Priority Priority #2: Researchers - Develop and sustain Canada's health researchers in vibrant, innovative and stable research environments.

Description of Key Programs and Services
CIHR will work towards the development of innovative national and international alliances to increase the quality and quantity of research, as well as to provide operational support to the Institutes to carry out their collaborative work.

Building and Cultivating Partnerships for Health Research
Partnerships are increasingly the way that health research stakeholders do business, and they are a key to CIHR's success in achieving its vision for the future. In the past five years, CIHR has developed strategic partnerships with a range of organizations including other federal government departments and agencies, provincial research funding agencies and relevant provincial and territorial departments, health charities, professional associations, other non-governmental organizations, and industry. CIHR's partners help set research priorities, share best practices in research and peer review, build research capacity, leverage knowledge translation efforts and make more effective use of resources for research. CIHR will continue to expand its partnership base by reaching out to stakeholders to ensure it responds to the needs of the health research community in a coordinated and effective manner.

Enhancing International Collaboration
Canadians learned first-hand from the SARS outbreak that disease knows no borders. This has underlined the importance of a global perspective in collectively addressing health priorities through research, policy and collective action. CIHR has developed an International Framework and organizational best practices to guide its international activities through the identification of five priorities and criteria for selecting the opportunities to pursue. The five priority areas are: research, talent, global health, safety and security. CIHR will continue to build international partnerships and alliances to support international research and training projects over the next three years in order to protect the health of Canadians and to ensure that Canada is on the leading edge of health research developments.

Institute Support Grants
CIHR provides each of its 13 Institutes with a $1 million support grant annually to facilitate and develop national research networks that link researchers. These grants also engage other stakeholders across the country in pursuit of common health research objectives. The Institutes will continue to seek out opportunities to form alliances and networks over the next three years, and will continue to form international partnerships that address the research agendas they have established with their communities.

2.4. Program Activity: Inform research, clinical practice and public policy on ethical, legal and social issues (ELSI) related to health and health research.

Financial Resources: (in millions)

2006-2007	2007-2008	2008-2009
$6.3	$6.3	$6.3

Human Resources:

2006-2007	2007-2008	2008-2009
3	3	3

Program Summary:

Program Activity Description Undertake consultations to enable inclusive dialogue across sectors, disciplines and communities to lead to greater public engagement, improved knowledge and understanding of the ethical, legal and social issues in the context of health and health research. As well, plan, launch and manage competitions and programs for grant funds to create new knowledge and provide grant funds that enable effective insights pertaining to the ethical, legal and social issues in the context of health and health research.
Expected Results Uptake and application of ethics knowledge as an integral part of decision-making in health practice, research and policy.	Indicators Success of CIHR's ELSI activities, for example, changes in the number of ethics-related incidents that arise from health practice, research, and policies. Number of publications resulting from ELSI research. Number of public policies influenced by ELSI principles. Opinions of health researchers, and policy-makers regarding their success in uptake and application of new ethical knowledge.
Link to Priority Priority #2: Researchers - Develop and sustain Canada's health researchers in vibrant, innovative and stable research environments.

Description of Key Programs and Services
CIHR funds research on ELSI related to health and health research. In addition, CIHR engages in inclusive dialogue across sectors, disciplines and communities and pursues public engagement to improve knowledge and understanding of ELSI in the context of health and health research.

Promoting Research on ELSI Related to Health and Health Research
CIHR and multiple partners promote research on cross-cutting ELSI as an integral part of the national health research agenda. In 2006-2007, CIHR will provide a research fund of approximately $1.8 million to serve as a minimum base amount to support strategic initiatives in this area. CIHR will also support additional research in this area through its open funding competitions, and a number of Institute-sponsored initiatives. By providing this fund CIHR has signaled a commitment to build capacity among investigators who are poised to conduct research and translate new knowledge in strategically important research areas related to ELSI. Ultimately, this CIHR initiative will further its mandate to promote, assist and undertake research that meets the highest international scientific standards of excellence and ethics, and enhance Canada's reputation for producing cutting-edge research in ELSI.

Contributing to Broader Health Policy Debate
CIHR is committed to promoting health research that meets the highest international standards of excellence and ethics. CIHR works collaboratively with many partners to develop the highest ethical standards for health research and to see to their application in practice. This includes funding the Canadian Council on Animal Care, in partnership with the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and the National Council on Ethics of Human Research, in partnership with Health Canada. In addition, CIHR will continue to build on the work done to date in relevant public policy areas:

• The launch of the initial implementation phase for CIHR's Best Practices for Protecting Privacy in Health Research, along with ongoing contribution to policy and legislative initiatives at the federal and national level relevant to health research and privacy issues
• The implementation of a national policy respecting the appropriate use of placebos in randomized controlled trials;
• The development of conflict of interest guidelines for CIHR-funded institutions and the broader community; and
• The launch of national ethics guidelines for research involving Aboriginal peoples.

Addressing Allegations of Non-Compliance with Research Policies
The permanent CIHR Research Integrity Committee (RIC), which has been in place since February 2005, considers allegations of non-compliance with CIHR research policies. The committee is chaired by the Director of the Ethics Office, with members drawn from academic institutions and from within CIHR. This committee serves to identify and remedy breaches of ethics policies.

Governance of Ethics on Research Involving Humans
CIHR is committed to promoting and enhancing governance of research involving human subjects. Since such governance is multi-jurisdictional, multi-sectoral, and of interest to a spectrum of other stakeholders, CIHR is collaborating with a multi-stakeholder Table of Sponsors. Its goal is to develop an action plan for the governance of human research in Canada that will protect human participants and increase public trust in health research.

* * *

Risks and Challenges
In delivering results related to Strategic Outcome #2, Outstanding Researchers in Innovative Environments, the challenges to CIHR include:

• the country faces potential shortages in scientific, research and academic personnel, including medical professionals, due to an ageing workforce, as well as international competition for highly qualified people; and
• there is a need for sustained and improved research funding to continue to support an expanding pool of researchers, stimulated by other federal investments in research, particularly CFI and the Canada Research Chairs.

The risks of not adequately addressing these challenges are that CIHR and Canada might not have the intellectual capital to conduct the research needed to support improvements in personal, population and public health, as well as health care and the health system in Canada. Failure to address the capacity issue also places Canadian economic competitiveness at risk.

In order to help face these challenges and mitigate these risks, CIHR has made research capacity development a priority and has launched strategic programs to address capacity gaps.

3. Strategic Outcome: Transforming Health Research into Action

CIHR's knowledge translation activities aim to accelerate the transformation of research results into health benefits for Canadians and an improved health care system. This includes funding knowledge translation research and building knowledge translation networks. CIHR also plays a role in helping to move promising new research breakthroughs toward potential commercial applications. Throughout 2006-2007 and beyond, CIHR will work to ensure that relevant health research is adopted into practice, programs and policies for a productive health system, and to stimulate economic development through discovery and innovation.

3.1. Program Activity: Support activities on knowledge translation, exchange, use and strategies to strengthen the health system.

Financial Resources: (in millions)

2006-2007	2007-2008	2008-2009
$40.7	$40.7	$40.7
Budget 2006 Announcement:
$0	$0.1	$0.1

Human Resources:

2006-2007	2007-2008	2008-2009
20	20	20

Program Summary:

Program Activity Description Implement strategies to enable the effective dissemination, exchange, synthesis and application of health research results that will lead to improvements in the Canadian health system. As well, plan, launch and manage competitions and programs for grant funds designed to create new knowledge, strengthen Canadian capacity and networks, and together with our partners undertake effective research and knowledge translation of health research.
Expected Results Effective dissemination, exchange, synthesis and application of research results take place to create new knowledge, strengthen Canadian capacity and networks, and together with our partners, enable effective research and knowledge translation of health research.	Indicators Success of CIHR-funded research programs including results, awareness and satisfaction levels. Increased number, scope and diversity of knowledge translation activities supported by CIHR (and its partners where relevant) or resulting from CIHR activities (for example, synthesis papers, briefs, participation in policy task forces) compared to baseline. Identification of and initial communication with key knowledge translation stakeholders, followed by increased number of inputs (driven by research evidence) to stakeholders' decision processes.
Link to Priority Priority #3: Knowledge Translation - Catalyze health innovation in order to strengthen health and the health care system and contribute to the growth of Canada's economy.

Description of Key Programs and Services
CIHR supports dissemination and use of research knowledge through funding research on knowledge translation and developing tools, programs and strategies.

Knowledge Translation
A key part of CIHR's mandate, knowledge translation (KT) is about turning the knowledge gained through health research into improved health for Canadians, more effective services and products, and a strengthened health system. CIHR's KT Strategy is designed to further expand and increase its ongoing efforts in this area. The strategy is a multi-year plan based on Blueprint, and identifies planned activities in the following four areas:

1. supporting research on KT concepts and processes;
2. contributing to building networks of researchers and end-users;
3. improving capability to support KT research at CIHR and with partners; and
4. supporting and recognizing KT excellence.

KT efforts at CIHR aim to catalyze health innovation in order to strengthen health and the health care system and contribute to the growth of Canada's economy. Throughout 2006-2007, CIHR will fund KT research and KT researchers; support journalism and biomedical communications students seeking to interpret new knowledge and disseminate findings to a variety of audiences; fund teams of researchers and decision makers working together to explore new ways of delivering health care efficiently; and will fund research syntheses. CIHR will develop the Canadian Health Innovation Network in consultation with health services research and health care stakeholders, including provincial governments. KT Casebooks in the health services and population health domains will be disseminated in order to increase understanding of KT concepts.

Helping Canada Innovate
CIHR will continue to administer $27.5 million annually in the Networks of Centres of Excellence Program, in collaboration with Industry Canada and the federal granting councils (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada). This initiative mobilizes Canada's world-class research talent in academia and the private and public sectors by creating and investing in leading-edge, multidisciplinary national research networks across the country.

3.2. Program Activity: Support national efforts to capture the economic value for Canada of health research advances made at Canadian institutions.

Financial Resources: (in millions)

2006-2007	2007-2008	2008-2009
$27.3	$27.3	$27.3

Human Resources:

2006-2007	2007-2008	2008-2009
12	12	12

Program Summary:

Program Activity Description Implement strategies to enable the effective development and commercialization of health research that will lead to a better quality of life for Canadians through improvements in the Canadian health system, products and economy. As well, plan, launch and manage competitions and programs for grant funds to create and transfer new knowledge, strengthen Canadian capacity and networks, and undertake effective commercialization of health research.
Expected Results Mobilizing research to improve health services, products, a strengthened healthcare system and the economy.	Indicators Success of CIHR-funded research programs including results, awareness and satisfaction levels. Number and nature of patents, spin-off companies and licenses for intellectual property (IP) generated from CIHR-funded research.
Link to Priority Priority #3: Knowledge Translation - Catalyze health innovation in order to strengthen health and the health care system and contribute to the growth of Canada's economy.

Description of Key Programs and Services
Commercialization is an integral part of CIHR's mandate. CIHR provides various funding programs, in support of implementation of its commercialization strategy, that are focussed in four areas: research, talent, capital and linkages. CIHR's commercialization strategy focuses on the early stages of commercialization, where there is a growing gap between a promising initial concept and its exploitation for economic and health advantage. CIHR's initiatives encourage universities and teaching hospitals to interact with partners responsible for delivering the benefits of health research. More information on the strategy can be found at: http://www.cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/30162.html.

Mobilizing Research
CIHR will continue to develop new national platforms and initiatives to support clinical research, technology and drug development programs. The Clinical Research Programs will develop centres, platforms and expertise in specialized facilities for clinical research. While the Technology Programs and Drug Development Programs will continue to promote and facilitate the advancement of new research tools and techniques, and of promising drug compounds discovered in academia respectively. In 2006-2007, a panel comprised of health innovation strategic investors, with expertise in the translation of strategic health research initiatives, will evaluate the latest trends and propose models that would enable CIHR to become an international leader of knowledge for best practices in commercialization and innovation of health research.

Developing People and Careers
In 2006-2007 CIHR will continue to build on the capacity of people who possess scientific, managerial and entrepreneurial skills within the Canadian health innovation landscape. CIHR offers initiatives such as the Science to Business (S2B) program to engage Canadian business schools at universities in providing support for qualified PhDs in health research to enroll in MBA programs with a focus on health sciences and biotechnology. Similar initiatives offer MBA and research trainees work placements to develop skills in commercialization management and intellectual property mobilization.

Capital - Facilitating Growth
CIHR will continue its successful Proof of Principle (PoP) program, designed to advance discoveries/inventions towards commercializable technologies, through 2006-2007 and beyond. Given that this program reduces risk, CIHR expects the private sector to increasingly share costs as product discoveries and innovations proceed through the development process. In addition, CIHR will help innovation by strengthening the abilities of research institutions to manage the intellectual property of their health research discoveries through the Intellectual Property Mobilization (IPM) program, and by increasing awareness among current and future stakeholders of the commercialization potential of health research.

Building Partnerships
CIHR will continue its efforts promoting linkages within and between the private sector, finance and health research communities. Partnerships within these sectors facilitate strategic collaborative projects and strengthen capacity and impact of all elements of the Commercialization Strategy. Successful programs that demonstrate the value of these linkages include:

• The CIHR/Rx&D Collaborative Research Program with Canada's research based pharmaceutical companies enhancing research opportunities in Canada's research institutions and development of health research personnel stimulating jobs and growth in the Canadian economy;
• The CIHR/Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise (SME) Research Program with Canada's developing biopharmaceutical community encourages and strengthens the health research programs of start-ups, university spin-offs, and SMEs, and strengthens intellectual property (IP) portfolios in partnership with Canadian biotech companies.

Conscious of the issues that may arise from the academic/industry interface and the potential for ethical conflict between profit and the public good, CIHR will be leading an industry/university effort to review and propose standards for ethical conduct of projects in the commercialization and innovation arena.

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Risks and Challenges
In achieving results in Strategic Outcome #3, Transforming Health Research into Action, CIHR is challenged by the need to work with a multitude of players involved in the process of innovation and the relative shortage of Canadians specialized in knowledge translation. The risks of inadequately addressing these challenges are that Canadians would not benefit as fully or as quickly as they should from the new knowledge produced through research.

CIHR is responding to these challenges and risks by:

• supporting synthesis reports, research policy interface symposia, collaboration with policy influencers in development of RFAs, and intervention research across the full spectrum of health research;
• recognizing and valuing KT activities in its evaluation processes for grants and awards, and requiring that plans for dissemination and exchange are components of applications for funding;
• increasing support for existing research activities that have a strong KT component, such as programs that have potential application in programs, practices or policies or have commercialization of research as their major goal;
• supporting research into the art and science of knowledge translation itself through strategic initiatives and the open competition; and
• developing innovative funding schemes and partnerships that focus on KT in the context of health system reform, or commercialization initiatives such as Proof of Principle, Small and Medium Sized Enterprise research support and Intellectual Property Management.

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