25th Institute Advisory Board Meeting

Institute of Infection and Immunity (III)
25th Advisory Board Meeting

Sept. 23-24, 2008

Lord Elgin
Ottawa, Ontario

Minutes

Present:	L. Barreto, R. Clarke, P. Ernst, R. Hogg, M. Grant, J. Guimond, J. Lavery, M. Loeb, V. Loo, J. Madrenas, M. Ouellette, C. Power (Chair), B. Singh, D. Speert, J. Stankova, G. Wu
Staff:	J. Bray, D. Christin, J. Flamenbaum, D. Hartell, M. Hume, S. Lalumiere, C. Leneis, G. Malo, A. Matejcic, B. Moor, J. Ralph, C. Richardson, J. Shields
Regrets:	S. Jones

Chair, Vice-Chair

B. Singh opened the meeting by congratulating C. Power on his appointment as Chair of the Institute Advisory Board. Members of the Board were asked to identify a Vice-chair, and, after a brief discussion, G. Wu was nominated (M. Grant, M. Ouellette), received unanimous support from the Board and agreed to serve as Vice-chair.

Agenda

The agenda was approved (R. Clarke, M. Ouellette).

Minutes

The minutes of the May 14-15, 2008 IAB meeting were approved (M. Ouellette, J. Madrenas).

Report from the Scientific Director

The new members of the Advisory Board - P. Ernst, R. Hogg, V. Loo, S. Jones - were introduced and welcomed to the Board. For the benefit of the new members and as a reminder to continuing members of the Board, B. Singh outlined the key roles of the Advisory Board in planning Institute activities: identification of Institute priorities, future directions and gaps within the III mandate, involvement in the translational role of the Institute, advising on appropriate actions to address health challenges and partnership opportunities and providing tangible links to the health research community. The Institute is also responsible for managing conflict of interest that members might be faced with as a consequence of serving on the Board, and members were reminded to inform the Scientific Director as soon as members perceive a potential conflict (e.g. intent to apply to an Institute funding opportunity).

The current state of CIHR funding was outlined by the SD. In 2007-08, CIHR invested $237 million in infection and immunity related research, and the Institute was directly responsible for managing an $8.5 million strategic budget and a $25.5 million targeted (HIV, pandemic and hepatitis C) budget.

Science, Technology and Innovation Council (STIC) priorities for science and technology accepted by the federal government in 2008 include: Environmental science and technologies, Natural resources and energies, Health and related life science and technologies, Information and communications technologies. Health and related life sciences sub-priorities included regenerative medicine, neuroscience, health in the aging population and biomedical technology. Water was an identified priority within Environmental Science. CIHR will endeavour to incorporate the STIC priorities in designing its new strategic plan; Institutes have been encouraged to align their priorities and activities where feasible.

The role of the CIHR open operating grants program (OGP) would be reviewed in the coming months. Over 50% of the CIHR budget of ($480 million annually) is allocated to the OGP. The review - beginning with a retreat of the CIHR senior executives and scientific directors - would examine the fundamental underlying purposes of the OGP - "best ideas", "brightest minds", "base of support/foundation" - and attempt to rationalize current realities with future needs.

Recent planning processes of the Institute were summarized - Institute strategic plan, the strategic plan for HIV/AIDS, pandemic influenza research preparedness plan - and the major priority areas for each of these areas were described. Current activities relating to the priorities include catalyst grant funding opportunities for pandemic preparedness, the Canadian HIV Vaccine Initiative, food and water safety in northern communities, microbiome, and systems biology/immunotherapy. Additionally, 26 of the 137 Strategic Training Initiative in Health Research letters of intent that have been approved to proceed to the full application identified the Institute of Infection and Immunity as their primary institute affiliation.

Discussion highlighted research issues related to these initiatives. In vaccines, the need for a human vaccine model or cohorts of vaccine volunteers was noted, as was more knowledge of the link between animal and human health and what constituted protective immunity. A human vaccine challenge unit led by S. Halperin has been funded by sanofi Pasteur, but more capacity is required. Research and development on therapeutic vaccines, especially for HIV, could be targeted. The microbiome study section of NIH has launched a funding opportunity in stage three of its "road map"; grants average $6 million annually. Current research is driven by existing technology, while more sophisticated research questions may be limited by limited technology access, especially in Canada. For Canadians, Genome Canada will be an important partner in any program launched by CIHR. It was suggested the best strategy was to keep the research question simple, limit the target, and do extensive quality control of samples. For systems biology, there was interest across CIHR, but platforms are under-developed; those who do have access to suitable platforms developed may not have the ability to frame biological questions.

Report from the President

Alain Beaudet, new President of CIHR, recognized the new IAB Chair, new IAB members and the contribution of M. Grant as chair of CHARAC and praised the Institute for its partnership activities (eg. C. difficile with FRSQ) and its response to challenges, particularly in infectious disease areas. He commented on the importance of the IAB in driving these initiatives and implementing creative research solutions. He applauded the Institute for its strategic programming and stressed the importance of research in infectious disease and immunology for its potential to improve global health.

Dr. Beaudet identified the key to CIHR success as a balance between a strong integration of CIHR Institutes and Branches while maintaining the independence and creativity of the Institutes. Having tripled the CIHR budget over the last several years, there is a need to stabilize the organization, maintaining balance between the research "pillars" while ensuring that programs are delivered in context of the CIHR Act. He stressed the importance of engaging the provinces in a national research dialogue to strengthen the ability of CIHR to launch new initiatives and leverage funding opportunities, and indicated that the creation of a national health research plan may facilitate that provincial engagement.

Responding to questions from members of the Board, Dr. Beaudet stated that federal government health portfolios are fully aware of CIHR and he has found them to be strongly supportive. Science, technology and innovation are at the core of the government agenda and objective research is needed in crafting evidence-based policy. CIHR is positioned to assist that mission. He would continue to push for additional investment to support a strong creative science base, and CIHR would be examining programs - including the open grants competition, clinical research initiative, commercialization agenda - for ways to improve its program. Institutes are critically important to delivering on the CIHR mission; individually they need to be strengthened by access to additional funding when it is merited, and collectively they contribute to the overall CIHR agenda and priorities. Dr. Beaudet was counting on the counsel of Institute Scientific Directors to determine consistent priorities of CIHR.

Budget Update

Institute Support Grant (ISG)

The Institute receives an annual ISG of $1 million and any unspent balance can be carried forward, resulting in an ISG budget of $1,410,780 in 2008-9. The balance after expenditures is $984,756.77 as of August 31, 2008. The Board was advised that there would be an increase in expenditures this year for institute-led meetings and professional services contracts for reports and facilitation and a reduction in indirect support of conferences and workshops due to the elimination of subgrants from the ISG.

Institute Community Development (ICD)

This funding envelope, new in fiscal 2008-9, has an annual budget of $100,000. Grants from this pool are at the discretion of the Scientific Director. The Institute will use the funds for "Meetings, Planning and Dissemination (MPD)" grants. In the June 2008 MPD competition, the Institute funded 11 MPD grants, totaling $50,500.

Institute Strategic Budget

The nominal annual budget of $8 million per year has been increased by $500,000 pending approval of the increased funding of CIHR described in the federal budget. Additional funds of $900,000 were received from PHAC to support hepatitis C research, and the CIHR Research and Knowledge Translation Committee (RKTC) approved $3.6 million over 5 years in additional support for the Novel Alternatives to Antibiotics initiative and $1.5 million in 2008-9 to support catalyst grants. Strategic investment scenarios/timelines were reviewed, and, in order to make best use of available funds, the need to launch one or two major funding opportunities in June, 2009 was emphasized.

Institute Transition

Institute transitions are conducted under the authority of offices of Institute Affairs (G. Cyr, Director) and the Executive Vice President (C. Fitzgerald). G. Cyr reviewed the tentative timeline for the Institute transition, including the hiring of the new Scientific Director (SD). A representative from the Advisory Board - preferably the Chair or Vice-Chair - will be integral to the SD recruitment process. The transition team will consist of both incoming and outgoing Scientific Directors, selected Institute staff, Institute Affairs representative, CIHR Central and Host staff under the leadership of a Transition Lead (designated Assistant Director). The IAB provides continuity of the Institute mission between incoming and outgoing SD's. IAB members are welcome to propose names, advertise at their institutions, or use their professional affiliations to distribute the call for SD applications. Advertising is national, with posting in the Globe and Mail and various websites.

Safe Use of Biological Agents for Research

The Board held a short discussion on the use of biological agents for research. While there was general agreement on the need for appropriate regulation of the importation and handling of pathogens and toxins, and also a need to protect those working with or potentially exposed to such agents, reporting and restrictions on their use would have had serious impacts on the ability of researchers to work with many agents. R. Clarke indicated that the PHAC group responsible for this area would contact CIHR to help coordinate additional input from researchers prior to the drafting of new regulations.

Strategic Priorities and Initiatives

HIV/AIDS

The HIV/AIDS initiative has a budget of $22.5 million annually under the Federal Initiative. At CIHR this initiative is led by III with the oversight of the CIHR HIV/AIDS Research Advisory Board (CHARAC). CHARAC developed the Strategic Plan for HIV/AIDS 2008-2013 that was approved at the IAB in May 2008. A. Matejcic presented an update on the CIHR HIV/AIDS Research Initiative, complete with a review of the funding breakdown by stream and a summary of competition results for grant and awards.

CHARAC created a Working Group in 2006 to identify solutions to low application/success rates in the Health Services/Population Health stream. To build capacity and stability in this area, a funding opportunity, "Centres for Population Health and Health Services Research Development", was launched in December 2007 in partnership with the CIHR Institute of Aboriginal Peoples' Health (IAPH). A Team Development Workshop was held March 2008 and 9 letters of intent were received in May 2008. Starting in June 2009, three centres will be funded for a 5 year commitment totaling $7.5 million. This funding will mobilize research talent and increase productivity/impact of research by providing core infrastructure funding for multidisciplinary teams.

Canadian HIV Vaccine Initiative (CHVI)

A CHVI operating grants funding opportunity (total budget of $2.25 million) was launched in June of 2008 with an anticipated second launch in June 2009.

A CHVI Catalyst Grant funding opportunity was launched in August 2008 to support new investigators and approaches where there might not be sufficient preliminary data for them to be funded through regular CIHR competitions. The CIHR Catalyst Grant program provides seed money, on a short-term basis, to support health research activities which represent a first step towards the pursuit of more comprehensive funding opportunities. Up to $800,000 is available for this launch.

CIDA and CHVI are planning to launch a team grant funding opportunity in January 2009. CIDA will contribute $12 million and the total budget over 6 years is $17 million. At the AIDS Vaccine 2008 conference in Cape Town in October 2008, 40 participants will gather for a Partnership Development Forum. The session will be moderated by M. Grant and K. Rosenthal and the feedback from the Forum will be used to refine the Team Grant funding opportunity.

Community-based Research Program Evaluation

A program evaluation is currently underway to gauge the success of the integration of the Community-based Research (CBR) Program and gather recommendations for future directions regarding the program and its funding tools. A stakeholder consultation is planned for December 2008 to develop recommendations for the program. IAPH is a partner in the initiative, and a CBR Steering Committee comprised of group of community leaders and CBR researchers is acting in an advisory role.

Systems Biology Approaches to Immunotherapy

A Systems Biology catalyst grant funding opportunity was launched in June to stimulate interest of individuals or small teams of researchers in a systems biology approach to the study of immunotherapy, immune modulation and inflammation. One year catalyst grants are intended to facilitate the planning and preparatory phases of such research. Up to $1 million over 2 fiscal years have been committed to this funding opportunity.

Emerging Infections and Microbial Resistance

Safe Food and Water

III, together with IAPH, have launched a funding opportunity to support research on food- and water-borne infections in northern Aboriginal communities. Areas of investigation might include mechanisms of infection and transmission; innovative methods of diagnosis; the potential impact of global warming on microbial ecology; and the link between microbial infections and chronic disease. Up to $1 million in fiscal 2008-9 has been earmarked for this initiative.

Novel Alternatives to Antibiotics

The Institute of Infection and Immunity, in partnership with the IAPH, have funded 1 proof of principle grant, 2 fellowships, 7 seed grants, 2 collaborative health research projects and 8 emerging team grants under this initiative for a total Institute commitment of $11.6 million over 6 years.

CIHR/MRC UK Joint Initiative

The UK MRC and III continue discussions on how best to move the research agenda forward and jointly support collaborative funding opportunities, building on the recommendations from the workshop held in February 2008.

Canadian Microbiome Initiative

A workshop, organized by the Institute in partnership with Genome Canada, was held on June 15-16, 2008 in Toronto with goals of mobilizing the community, identifying areas where Canada has strengths and creating linkages with international research groups. The Institute also launched a catalyst grant funding opportunity in June 2008 to support pilot projects in the area of the human microbiome with a goal to encourage researchers to generate data and become competitive for national and international human microbiome funding.

Through the Institute, CIHR has joined forces with research funding agencies in the United States, Europe, Australia, Japan, Korea and China to launch the new International Human Microbiome Consortium (IHMC), a coordinated global effort that will help researchers investigate the role of microbes in human health and disease. Through this effort, researchers around the globe will be able to share data and access funding for research projects. B. Singh will attend a meeting of the IMHC in Germany in October 2008.

Pandemic Influenza Preparedness

The Pandemic Preparedness Strategic Research Initiative is in year three of a five year strategy. The majority of the $21.5 million initiative budget has been committed to fund research in the four identified priority areas (vaccines/immunization programs, biology of the influenza virus, prevention/treatment, and ethics/legal/social research). Through partnerships, funding was increased to $41 million with a large portion ($10.6 million over three years) going to an Influenza Research Network grant that will focus on development of methods to evaluate a pandemic vaccine and will be awarded in April 2009. An annual meeting of researchers and knowledge users will be held in Winnipeg on November 6-8, 2008 and a mid-term evaluation of the Initiative is planned for this fiscal year.

Vaccines of the 21st Century

The involvement of the Institute in developing a strategy for supporting vaccine research in Canada was described including reference to both historical (i.e.. CANVAC) and current external (i.e.. the PREVENT) Networks of Centres of Excellence that have been directly engaged in this area. The Institute has commissioned a report "Vaccines for the 21st Century: Taking Canada to the Next Level" which summarizes Canadian accomplishments and strengths in vaccine and immunization research and features input from the research community on challenges and recommendations in advancing the vaccine research agenda. Although an early meeting of vaccine stakeholders organized in part by the Institute was held in 2004, and CIHR funding related to vaccines has risen from $2 million in 2000-2001 to $9.5 million in 2007-2008 (not counting NCE funds), the area remains fragmented. Significant new funding ($4.4 million annually) for HIV-related vaccines is coming on stream this year with the advent of the Canadian HIV Vaccines Initiative, and $3.6 million annually will be invested in the Influenza Research Network (IRN) starting in 2009-2010. The IRN, a joint PHAC/CIHR funding opportunity, will focus on developing methods to evaluate a pandemic vaccine.

With the vaccines report in hand, the Institute plans to hold a meeting of potential funders in early 2009. It is recognized that partnership with vaccine-related organizations, federal and provincial government departments, and industry will likely be needed in order to launch an initiative that might effectively address some of the fundamental knowledge and funding gaps in vaccines research.

Knowledge Translation (KT) in Infection and Immunity

With input from an IAB subcommittee comprised of W. Hill, J. Guimond, L. Jurkovic (CIHR KT Branch) and C. Richardson, the Institute commissioned a consultant to conduct a document review and survey key informants, prepare a framework document ("A Framework for Doing Knowledge Translation in Infection and Immunity Research") and organize a workshop to be held in Ottawa on September 24-25, 2008. Supporting documents for the workshop were provided to members of the Board. Goals of the workshop are to develop recommendations for Institute KT priority areas and actions to address these priorities. A report will be generated following the meeting and recommendations will be brought back to the Board for consideration of next steps.

Institute Directions in Ethics

A discussion of how the Institute might directly incorporate elements of the CIHR ethics mission in its programming was led by J. Lavery. The CIHR Act includes the following objectives:

• fostering the discussion of ethical issues and the application of ethical principles to health research; and
• promoting the dissemination of knowledge and the application of health research to improve the health of Canadians;

To achieve these objectives, the powers and functions of CIHR include:

• monitor, analyze and evaluate issues, including ethical issues, pertaining to health or health research

Health inequity constitutes an important domestic and global ethical issue and it is not clear what the overall impact of CIHR funded research is on health disparities. Even if there are improvements in health derived from research, disparities may increase because of uneven access to health-care. Further, there is systematic under-emphasis on interventional research to test the effectiveness of various interventions to reduce health disparities.

Although the Institute has included ethics components as target areas in several funding opportunities, J. Lavery proposed four concrete actions that could be taken to explicitly address the CIHR Act requires it to:

1. A funding opportunity (joint with the Ethics Office and other Institutes) to enable knowledge translation of existing research ethics literature
2. A joint funding opportunity to conduct empirical research on ethics review
3. Fund/create/sponsor a core course on research ethics similar to an existing NIH course
4. Hold a session on research ethics for the New Investigator Forum in April 2009

Funding opportunities could be mapped to the four priorities of the CIHR Standing Committee on Ethics:

1. Diverse communities and populations - Ethics issues related directly to e.g. Aboriginals, children
2. Governance of ethics - guidelines and policies related to research, link between concepts and practice
3. Health in a globalized world
4. Capacity building in ethics

B. Singh suggested that discussion on 'equity' with other CIHR Institutes shall be explored to develop joint initiatives. J. Lavery and J. Flamenbaum offered their assistance when the opportunity for that discussion arises.

Institute Affairs

New Investigator Forum

III will hold its third New Investigator Forum on April 17-19, 2009 at the Kingbridge Conference Centre north of Toronto. Jana Stankova and Gillian Wu will represent the Board at the Forum. More details will be available for the January IAB.

Impact of Institute

M. Bisby and M. Campbell have been contracted to prepare a report on the Impact of the Institute of Infection and Immunity. The report will be written in plain language for the informed layperson, with decision-makers as the primary audience, and researchers as the secondary audience.

The report's focus will be on the outcomes and impacts of the Institute's activities since its inception, differentiated as much as possible from the impact of generally increased CIHR funding. It will not be a formal evaluation of the Institute. Data will be collected through analysis of key Institute and CIHR documents, the CIHR databases and public documents, and interviews with Institute stakeholders, particularly IAB members and staff, partners and key researchers involved in Institute-led strategic activities.

Next IAB meeting

The next meeting will be held on January 20-21, 2009 in Vancouver.

Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 12:15 p.m.