Strategic plan gives greater weight to international partnerships and collaboration

First CIHR plan in 10 years

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) is formulating a new strategic plan during a full-blown recession, increasing the pressure for value for money as well as additional resources to counter investments made south of the border. The strategy aims to achieve an effective balance between the competing yet complementary priorities of improving the health of Canadians and assisting industry, while conforming to the tenets of the government's S&T Strategy.

Entitled Health Research Roadmap: Creating Innovative Research for Better Health and Healthcare, the draft plan is now in the field for consultations with a final version to be considered by CIHR's governing council at the end of the month. Pending any changes that may occur before then, the new strategy is not a radical departure from the original strategy under which CIHR has evolved since its launch in 2000.

"We're building on what we've done so far … We plan to place a greater emphasis on collaboration and international partnerships," says CIHR president Dr Alain Beaudet. "The strategy began a little more than a year ago before I arrived at CIHR but the governing council was wise enough not to squeeze me into making final decisions."

The strategy also comes at a time when a debate is raging across Canada over the merits of increased targeting of research funding. Beaudet says CIHR currently maintains an approximate 70:30 ratio of purely open research grants and strategic grants, the latter also driven by basic research.

"It's clear in the plan to maintain a broad base of basic research. This is absolutely key and we want to encourage this ... It's a reasonable balance," he says. "It's also true that we're between two sets of priorities. We have the priorities of STIC (Science, Technology and Innovation Council) which are Industry Canada and also the priorities of the ministry of health and health threats to Canadians. We're proposing a mix of the two to respond to both the priorities of industry and of health."

Within the health research community, CIHR — as the dominant funder — plans to further enhance knowledge translation and its impact on health by reinforcing its role as a leader and convenor of other organizations. That means placing a major emphasis on patient-oriented research as well as clinical trials.

Beaudet acknowledges that the latter poses a particularly tough challenge in light of recent trends within the health research community and industry.

"Clinical research is in dire straits right now. There's a manpower shortage and the clinical side is now more demanding," he says. "The research part is not fully integrated and pharmaceutical companies are shying away from doing clinical research in Canada due to the high costs. There's not a lot we can do except emphasize higher levels of excellence and better career paths."

"The impact of the recession on the health research community is also significant, with many resource and research opportunities lost. The recession furthermore increases pressure on Canada's research community and funding agencies to demonstrate value for money." — CIHR Draft Strategic Plan

As for other organizations and health jurisdictions, Beaudet says it's essential to work more closely with Genome Canada, the other granting councils, the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), the provinces and the major charities.

"We have to work more closely at the interface between CIHR and NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council) and SSHRC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council)," he says. "We would be penalizing innovative research if we were not participating in mechanisms for close collaboration. The same goes for the CFI. There has to be a balance between operating, equipment, infrastructure and people."

Closer ties with the provinces and major charities also comprise a key plank of the new strategic plan. Through the Leaders' Forum, talks are progressing with provincial ministers and DMs of health to determine how CIHR can best assist in forwarding their specific missions. A planned outcome of the Leaders' Forum is a national strategy for patient-oriented research.

"We have niches but we're not networked enough. We need to take better advantage of health databases and build better health records systems," says Beaudet. "The health system has been too fragmented because things evolved that way. We need to build coherence."

The new strategy also contains provisions to expand Canada's participation in international partnerships. Beaudet points to the Cancer Stem Cell Consortium as an example of the kinds of collaborations Canada should pursue.

"We have not been major players in major international research or consortia," says Beaudet. "We need to be involved in more of these major thrusts where Canada can be a leader or a key player. We need to be at the table with money."

Also critical to demonstrating CIHR's multiple social and economic impacts is the development of a new generation of indicators. To that end, CIHR is working with the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences which recently issued a report detailing a sophisticated framework for measuring return of investment for health research (R$, January 22/09). Based on the Payback Model which informed an earlier CIHR impact framework, the model is seen as the most effective tool for demonstrating the value CIHR brings to a host of areas.

"The Payback Model is a good one. We need to get reliable data rapidly and develop metrics to demonstrate impact," he says. "It's not easy and it's expensive so we'll first focus on low hanging fruit. We can track what we do, what our students become, what they do and where they go."

The impact of CIHR's efforts will subject to a second external review by an international blue ribbon panel, to be carried out in FY10-11.

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