Research Priorities

Message from INMD's Scientific Director

In 2009, the CIHR Institute of Nutrition, Metabolism, and Diabetes (INMD) consulted a wide range of researchers, stakeholders, and partners to identify future strategic priorities for research and knowledge translation.  I am pleased to share with you the updated INMD strategic research priorities.  The four strategic research priorities are described below:

Strategic Priority 1: Food and Health
INMD aims to develop a stronger evidence base to inform future nutritional practice and food policy. We will foster research on the total diet and specific nutrients that enhance health and reduce risk of chronic disease. This includes the evaluation of biomarkers of nutritional adequacy, emerging innovations in food engineering, and the ethical issues posed by these changes particularly with respect to people with vulnerabilities.

Strategic Priority 2: Continuum of Care
INMD aims to improve the health care experience and health of people with chronic disease by fostering research across different dimensions of the continuum of care, including developmental and transitional issues across the entire lifespan. We will specifically address translational research. Our focus will include health care reform, care gaps, and priority populations.

Strategic Priority 3: Environments, genes and chronic disease
INMD recognizes the influence of genes and the environment on the development of chronic disease. We will promote the acquisition of knowledge on the phenotypic variation of both complex and rare diseases, interactions with the human microbiome, and the health consequences of changes in the natural and built environments.

Strategic Priority 4: Obesity: Seeking Solutions
INMD aims to support research on solution-focused interventions at the clinical, policy, and population health level.  We will foster research on priority populations (e.g., children, Aboriginal peoples, morbidly obese individuals), and emphasize knowledge translation to improve prevention approaches and enhance weight management strategies.

These strategic research priorities will build on the following Foundational Principles:

  • Research excellence through partnerships – INMD will engage, collaborate and coordinate partnerships at the national and international levels. We will leverage partnership opportunities with other CIHR Institutes, government partners, voluntary health organizations, private sector partners, and international partners to advance our strategic research priorities.
  • Ethics – INMD adheres to CIHR's belief that excellent research, knowledge application, and good governance require the development of sound ethical principles and process. INMD will increase awareness of the ethical issues inherent in research relevant to our mandate, and will support a broad range of ethics research related to the strategic research priorities.
  • Capacity – INMD will strive to provide the necessary support to attract and sustain talented researchers to advance the INMD strategic research priorities, in collaboration with our many partners.
  • Knowledge translation – INMD will contribute to CIHR's role in knowledge translation  by promoting the dissemination and application of new knowledge generated by INMD's strategic priorities.
  • Evaluation – INMD will contribute to CIHR's overall strategic priority of demonstrating impact by monitoring and evaluating the impact of our efforts in advancing the strategic research priorities, building on the impact assessment framework adopted by the CIHR.

These strategic priorities were developed by the INMD Institute Advisory Board after careful consideration of what was heard from constituents at each of our Strategic Planning Summits, consultations with key stakeholders, and results of an environmental scan that was undertaken in 2008. I am very grateful for the sage advice and input provided by members of the INMD Institute Advisory Board. 

These priorities will guide INMD activities over the next five years, and will result in new research funding opportunities, opportunities to build new strategic partnerships and collaborations, and increase research capacity in Canada. Ultimately, we envision INMD's efforts in advancing these priorities as an opportunity for INMD to contribute to CIHR succeeding in its overall mandate: to excel in the creation of new knowledge and its translation into improved health for Canadians, more effective health services and products, and a strengthened and sustainable Canadian health care system.

With kindest regards,


Philip M. Sherman, MD, FRCPC
Scientific Director, INMD