BC adopts new health research strategy and launches $110-million foundation

Foundation named in honour of late Dr Michael Smith

British Columbia's health research community has moved closer to parity with its provincial counterparts with the creation of the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research (MSFHR) (www.msfhr.org). Funded with $110 million in year-end money, the Foundation - named in honour of the late Dr Michael Smith - is aimed at building BC's research capacity to enable the sector to compete effectively for federal funding and recruit and retain highly skilled personnel. It also marks the first plank in the implementation of a new provincial health research strategy that was developed by the BC Health Research Coalition.

The timing and method for delivering the Foundation's funding were extremely important factors in ensuring its success, given the political volatility in BC and the likelihood of an election call at any time. Although the year-end money was not accounted for in the FY00-01 Budget, the beleaguered NDP government most likely found the cash from higher-than-expected energy revenues stemming from hydro sales to California. More details on the source of the Foundation funding are contained in the supplemental Budget estimates completed last week but still pending release.

The MSFHR marks the successful conclusion of an 18-month campaign by the Coalition. The organization was specifically created to develop a provincial strategy and convince the government that significant levels of new funding were urgently required to halt the slow but steady slide in BC's share of federal health research support.

The Foundation will spend approximately $15 million over its first year of operation, ramping up to $35 million by the fifth and final year. By that time, Coalition members hope a more permanent funding mechanism will be in place, possibly an endowment similar to the Alberta Heritage Medical Research Fund. The MSFHR replaces the province's BC Health Research Foundation, which had watched its funding progressively reduced from a high of $10 million to just $1 million before its dissolution.

FAST TRACK COMPETITION

The MSFHR will start dispensing funds immediately with a competition that will support awards for 33 scholar scientists and 35 trainees. A second competition is set for this September, and by that time it's hoped that an agreement with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) will be negotiated that will see the federal granting agency conduct the Foundation's peer review. As the Foundation ramps up, programs for research infrastructure and partnerships will also be initiated.

Coalition head Dr Aubrey Tingle has been appointed as the first president of the Foundation, which is now negotiating a lease in the Vancouver area in space situated outside other major health research organizations. As head of the Coalition, Tingle led an ambitious effort to create a vision and plan for restoring the province's health research competitiveness, culminating in the release of a report - Building a BC Health Research Strategy - which served as the basis of negotiations with the ministries health and advanced education before proceeding to the premier's office.

"The science community in BC feels that this is a major change in the course of research in the province and will have a dramatic impact. The government accepted the entire plan put forward by the Coalition and the first five years of funding was an up-front advance in the bank," says Tingle in an interview with RE$EARCH MONEY. "Because of the California power shortage, the resulting cash flow surplus for the province allowed it to make this type of gesture. We need to move quickly so we launched the first program to deal with pent-up demand. We're expecting a flood."

Tingle says that while the Coalition was successful in convincing the province of the importance of restoring and building health research capacity, the Foundation is only the first step. The ultimate goal is to establish a BC Legacy Fund with an endowment that's sizeable enough to provide stable funding. During its consultation phase, the Coalition consulted extensively with officials from the provinces of Alberta and Quebec, to determine which model would best serve BC's needs. It discovered two effective approaches to health research funding, and ended up taking what it considered to be the best elements from both and crafting a model that best applied to BC's health research environment.

"In Quebec, 80% of health research is conducted off university campuses at health institute sites. It's very effective," says Tingle. "But Quebec doesn't have endowments while Alberta does and we felt an endowment would be preferable."

The Foundation's research showed that provinces with a health research strategy received funding above its portion of the overall population, while provinces without a strategy were below the average. BC received an 8% share of CIHR funding in 2000 although its population is 13% of the national total. Tingle says the provincial share has fallen even further in the most recent CIHR competition to 5%, despite having a strong, internationally renowned health research community.

R$