Budget announces new NCE to focus on BSE and related diseases

The federal government is calling for the creation of a new Network of Centres of Excellence to direct Canadian research expertise towards Mad Cow and related diseases. The Budget announcement of the new NCE has taken many within the scientific community by surprise and sideswiped or at least stalled plans to expand the program via the so-called NCE II proposal. The decision by the government to mandate an NCE’s research focus and annual budget marks a significant evolution for the 15-year-old program which has always chosen new Networks through general or targeted competitions.

Notwithstanding the political dimension of such a move, the decision to establish an NCE for research into bovine spongiform encephalopathies (BSE) and related transmissible spongiform encephalopathies is being viewed as a possible breakthrough in the dilemma facing current NCEs whose funding is set to expire. The call for such an NCE apparently came from several researchers and research groups across Canada. Their cause was successfully taken up by national science advisor Dr Arthur Carty and Dr Peter Nicholson, senior advisor to the prime minister, resulting in its inclusion in the Budget.

Among those pushing for the new NCE was Dr Robert Church, outgoing chair of the Alberta Science and Research Authority and a pioneer in networked research in Canada. Church points to the need for research into prions as well as the survival of three longstanding health-related NCEs — Protein Engineering Network (PENCE), Canadian Bacterial Diseases Network (CBDN), Canadian Genetic Diseases Network (CGDN) — as compelling reasons for advocating such a research program. Church points to PENCE’s rapid response to SARS and argues that the sunsetting health-related NCEs require a new vehicle that would allow them to serve a similar function for BSE and prion research.

“We have three senior networks that have developed world class infrastructure and networks across this country. They’re a huge success story for Canada. We also have several federal research groups,” says Church. “We need cross cutting disciplines and we need them to be competitive. Prions are an emerging area of research and like SARS it’s cross-species. We have expertise in this area.”

In addition to the three sunsetting NCEs and veterinary and agricultural interests, the BSE NCE is also supported by other research organizations . One such group is the Univ of Toronto’s Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases and several of its researchers, including Dr Neil Cashman.

“This is what you could call the great Canadian network. There have been a number of groups that have been pushing for work on prions and BSE,” says Carty. “It’s not a uniquely Canadian problem but it has affected us. You just have to look at the way in which we have had to spend money controlling BSE and now looking after the decline in the beef industry as a result.”

PENCE scientific director Dr Steve Withers welcomes the emergence of a new NCE and says it could help to address the continuation of PENCE, CGDN and CBDN.

This sort of NCE could provide part of the answer. It goes some ways towards it,” he says. “It would be nice to see more of these or a large reserve of funds ... In Canada because of the funding structure, there’s a chasm between the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC). It leaves out interdisciplinary areas and the NCEs bridge this. “

NSERC president and NCE chair Dr Tom Brzustowski also welcomes the new NCE and sees it as an indication of how the program is evolving. “The government has made a strategic decision ... and the NCE program is a good way of doing that, “ he says. “I think the evolution of the program will be to open up more ways of in fact getting networks funded.”

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