CIHR
A Catalyst for Health

CIHR - A Unique Health Research Organization

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) creates new knowledge and translates that knowledge into improved health, a strengthened health care system, and new health products and services for Canadians.

CIHR is

• Taking an inclusive approach, bringing together researchers from all disciplines, from the social sciences to biomedical sciences, informatics and engineering.
• Building partnerships, nationally and internationally, to bring new perspectives to health and ensure that research findings are applied where they are needed.
• Catalyzing the formation of multidisciplinary teams of researchers, policy-makers, caregivers and the public to ensure that the results of Canadian health research are applied to building an innovative, evidence-based health care system.
• Supporting our current generation of health researchers and taking innovative approaches to training the next generation, facilitating the development of interdisciplinary teams of young researchers.
• Helping Canadian researchers navigate the complex path from the laboratory to the marketplace, so that Canadians can enjoy the economic as well as the health benefits of discoveries made here in Canada.

Our peer review process means that CIHR is fully transparent and accountable. And with 94% of our budget going directly to funding research, Canadians' dollars are being wisely invested.

Innovation in Action

At CIHR, we put ideas to work. We mobilize research to fuel innovative thinking about real health issues facing Canadians like reducing waiting lists in our health care system, making workplaces healthier, addressing soaring drug costs and preventing our children from taking up unhealthy behaviours like smoking.

CIHR is more than a research funder - we also set strategic directions for research in priority areas, such as:

Access to health care
Canadians have agreed for some time that improving the health care system is a priority; in recent years, this debate has crystallized around a single potent concept - access to health care. Research will provide the evidence to underpin a health care system that delivers the best possible care to Canadians in the most cost-effective manner. CIHR is supporting this research and working with policy-makers and practitioners to make sure that it is put into practice in a timely way.

Cancer
At some point in their lifetimes, 38% of Canadian women and 41% of Canadian men are likely to develop cancer. If current trends continue, 5.7 million Canadians will develop cancer and 2.7 million will die of the disease over the next 30 years. CIHR, as part of the Canadian Strategy for Cancer Control, is harnessing the power of research to alleviate the burden of cancer and build capacity in the research community to build on research advances and translate them into better methods of preventing and treating cancer.

Mental health in the workplace
Mental disability accounts for 30 to 40% of disability claims in the workplace. CIHR is working with partners on an initiative entitled Mental Health and the Workplace: Delivering Evidence for Action, which aims to increase the number of researchers in the field of mental health in the workplace. Researchers will explore issues such as prevention and treatment of mental illness, return to work, disability management and stigma and discrimination, and will seek to develop and test policies and interventions to enable stakeholders and partners to take action.

Global health
Addressing health disparities between the developed and developing worlds is a matter of national security, future economic opportunity and morality and fairness. CIHR addresses these disparities while building health research capacity in developing countries through its Global Health Research Initiative. This multi-partner initiative will develop practical solutions for the health and health care problems of the developing world, while at the same time provide valuable information on how to address these issues in Canada.

CIHR Fast Facts

• CIHR supports nearly 10,000 researchers in 250 institutions in every province of Canada.
• CIHR supports more than 700 trainees in 88 multidisciplinary training programs. Another 1680 receive graduate and post-doctoral awards, while 4200 trainees are indirectly supported through grants.
• 126 partners contributed $88 million to CIHR research grants and programs in 2004-05.
• CIHR funds research across the full spectrum of health research, from biomedical to clinical, to health services, to population health.
• CIHR supports the translation of health research discoveries into new health services and products and improved health policies and programs.

Our virtual Institute structure and our inclusive, multidisciplinary and outcome-driven approach to health, disease and Canada's health care system are transforming health research in Canada, accelerating the way to improved health for Canadians.

Dr. Alan Bernstein, O.C., FRSC
President
Canadian Institutes of Health Research

Institutes of Excellence

CIHR's innovative Institutes bring together all partners in the research process - the people who fund research, those who carry it out and those who use its results - to share ideas and focus on what Canadians need: good health and the means to prevent and fight diseases when they happen.

CIHR's Institute of Aboriginal Peoples' Health (IAPH)
The IAPH has a mission - to reduce the health disparities that affect the lives of so many Aboriginal Peoples in Canada. It is forging partnerships, based on research excellence, with researchers and communities that respect Aboriginal values and cultures, while engaging Aboriginal People to become health researchers themselves.

CIHR's Institute of Aging (IA)
Canada's population is aging - by 2050, 20% of Canadians will be over 65. IA is helping older Canadians of today and tomorrow enjoy good health and quality of life, by focusing on a wide range of conditions associated with aging.

CIHR's Institute of Cancer Research (ICR)
ICR has been coordinating cancer research across Canada in priority areas such as palliative and end-of-life care, establishing a model for the world. Other priorities run the range from molecular profiling of tumours to early detection of cancer, to preventing the risk behaviours that can lead to cancer.

CIHR's Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health (ICRH)
Heart, lung and blood vessel diseases are the major health burdens facing Canadians - yet if we understood how our genes, the environment, and our behaviour interplay to cause these common conditions, they might be preventable. ICRH is supporting research that asks tough questions about the causes, consequences, and control of these conditions.

CIHR's Institute of Gender and Health (IGH)
IGH is the first research institute in the world to examine the health of women and girls, men and boys. It champions efforts to better understand how sex and gender influence access to the health system, chronic conditions and disabilities, health across the lifespan, health behaviours and addictions and environmental determinants of health.

CIHR's Institute of Genetics (IG)
The IG supports research on the human and other genomes and on all aspects of genetics, basic biochemistry and cell biology. New advances in genetics and genomics, and in the understanding of how cells work, pose challenges to our health care system and often raise complex ethical, legal and social issues. The Institute is addressing these challenges to develop solutions that benefit Canadians.

CIHR's Institute of Health Services and Policy Research (IHSPR)
IHSPR is helping the country meet the challenge of making high quality health care available to all those who need it, while ensuring that Canada's health care system is strong and sustainable. It fosters debate on reconciling privacy concerns with access to data needed to facilitate health research, in order to both protect Canadians and promote their health.

CIHR's Institute of Human Development, Child and Youth Health (IHDCYH)
From fertility and healthy pregnancy to improving outcomes for adolescents, IHDCYH is building the life foundation for tomorrow's Canadians, helping to ensure that all children have the best possible start in life and achieve their potential for optimal growth and development.

CIHR's Institute of Infection and Immunity (III)
III led the charge against SARS, orchestrating a rapid research response unprecedented in Canadian health research. Its strategic priorities are the immune system and infectious disease. Areas that fall under this umbrella include vaccine development, food and water safety and the federal government's initiatives in HIV/AIDS research.

CIHR's Institute of Musculoskeletal Health and Arthritis (IMHA)
IMHA's work is literally out of this world - among other important projects, the Institute is working with the Canadian Space Agency to fund research on
long-term bed rest and bone loss in space flight. An active member of the Canadian National Action Network, IMHA is also an avid supporter of the Bone and Joint Decade launched by the World Health Organization and endorsed by the United Nations in 2000.

CIHR's Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction (INMHA)
From diseases of the central nervous system, such as multiple sclerosis, to addiction, to mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, to the five senses with which we interpret the world, INMHA is concerned with how the brain works and how to deal with the social stigmas associated with mental illness.

CIHR's Institute of Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes (INMD)
The World Health Organization has identified obesity as the major public health issue of our time. In recognition of the magnitude of the problem, INMD has made obesity its number one health research priority and is supporting research on the causes, prevention, treatment and consequences of obesity, as well as on measures and tools to investigate obesity in all its complexity.

CIHR's Institute of Population and Public Health (IPPH)
What makes some people healthy while others suffer from disease or disability? The reasons can vary, from biological to cultural to social to environmental. IPPH is studying these factors as the basis for sound programs, preventive practices and healthy public policies that will improve the health of people in Canada and around the world.