28th Institute Advisory Board Meeting – Institute of Infection and Immunity

September 17-18, 2009

Ivey Spencer Leadership Centre
London, ON

Minutes

Present: L. Barreto, E. Brown, R. Duncan, P. Ernst, M. Grant, J. Guimond, A. Jevnikar, M. Karmali, V. Loo, C. Power (Chair), B. Singh, J. Stankova, B. Ward, G. Wu
Staff: J. Bray, K. Banks-Hart, D. Christin, S. Dos Santos, J. Flamenbaum, J. Gunning, D. Hartell, B. Heinrichs, M. Hume, S. Lalumiere, N. Mason-MacLellan, A. Matejcic, B. Moor, C. Richardson
Guests: M. Loeb (teleconference)
Regrets: R. Hogg, S. Jones

Agenda and Minutes

The agenda was approved.

Following a roundtable introduction of all meeting attendees, new Board members E. Brown, R. Duncan, A. Jevnikar, M. Karmali, and B. Ward were welcomed by C. Power.

Minutes of the January 20-21, 2009 meeting in Vancouver were approved (G. Wu, L. Barreto).
Minutes of May 20-21, 2009 meeting in Edmonton were approved (G. Wu, L. Barreto).

Election of Vice-Chair: G. Wu was nominated (V. Loo, J. Stankova) to serve as Advisory Board Vice-Chair for 2009-10. The nomination received unanimous approval from members of the Board.

IAB Orientation

For the benefit of new Advisory Board members and as a reminder to continuing members, B. Singh reviewed the role and accomplishments of the Institute, highlighting its vision to be an "internationally recognized innovator in support of infection and immunity research and a catalyst for the translation of new knowledge". About 25% ($237 million in 2007-8) of the total granting budget of CIHR falls within the Institute mandate, so the primary challenge for the Institute's strategic programming is one of focus rather than capacity development. In this, the collective wisdom of Board members is critical in identifying research priorities, determining new directions or opportunities, developing partnerships, and providing concrete links to the health research community in a number of domains. Board members are appointed considering the need for a "mosaic" of connections to research and geographical or organizational locations; members do not represent a community in their IAB role, but do bring a constituency perspective to the deliberations of the Board.

With its Institute Strategic Initiative budget, the CIHR HIV/AIDS Research Initiative, the Pandemic Preparedness Strategic Research Initiative, and the Hepatitis C Research Initiative, the Institute manages the largest strategic budget of all CIHR Institutes. This provides a capability for programs with potential for significant impact, but demands a disciplined and balanced, yet responsive approach to meeting the needs of the infection and immunity research community. Hence the Institute has based its programs within the context of its strategic plans and the priorities outlined in those plans, while responding to new opportunities and emerging challenges when feasible. Institute staff are charged with "fostering and sustaining" Institute programs, a task which involves many activities beyond the design and launch of funding opportunities – working with partners, communicating with stakeholders and the public, evaluating and reporting on outcomes, planning and implementing consultations and workshops – to name just a few. The Institute hopes to build a stronger research community which has more capacity to access open competition funding, and can ultimately generate real health and economic impacts.

Scientific Director's Report

CIHR will launch its new strategic plan, the Health Research Roadmap, in October. The product of extensive consultations, the plan has 4 strategic priorities at its core:

  • Invest in world class excellence
  • Set health and health system research priorities
  • Accelerate the capture of health and economic benefits of health research
  • Achieve organizational excellence, foster ethics and demonstrate impact

CIHR Institutes will need to adapt the context of their programming to address the Roadmap, and the CIHR Scientific Council is already discussing implementation strategies. An important role of the Roadmap is to inform other federal departments of CIHR directions.

Faced with challenges in efficiently managing an expanding portfolio of strategic initiative launches in combination with substantially increased application pressure in the open competitions, CIHR is taking proactive measures to better manage the workload associated with delivering high quality research funding programs. Going forward, increased emphasis will be put on launching funding opportunities that are aligned with Institute and CIHR strategic plans, have increased emphasis on collaboration with other federal and provincial agencies, and are achievable with clear timelines, deliverables, performance indicators and solid funding. Clear accountability in terms of conformity to legislation and guidelines must also be demonstrated.

To achieve these goals, a five-level structure for strategic initiative launches has been implemented effective Sept.1, 2009.

  • Level I Single Institute (priority announcements)
  • Level II Single Institute (off-cycle RFA)
  • Level III Multi-Institute (small initiatives)
  • Level IV Multi-Institute (large initiatives)
  • Level V Pan-CIHR

Priority announcements using open competition funding tools can be launched in concert with the regular cycle of such competitions, and will not be limited in number. Level II and III initiatives can be launched off cycle if they are sufficiently developed and resources are in place, but the annual number of such launches will be limited; it is proposed that an Institute will only launch one level II initiative annually, and a sub-committee of Scientific Council will prioritize the Level III launches. Level IV initiatives will entail comprehensive development with multiple participating Institutes and external partners a factor in the process; it is anticipated that only 1-2 of these will be launched in any one year. Central CIHR matching funds would enable Level IV initiatives to be relatively large in scope. Level V initiatives would be flagship programs incorporating most CIHR divisions and partners with substantial resources to invest; these longer term and potentially high value programs would be externally reviewed prior to launch.

Although details remain to be elucidated, it is anticipated that the Institute of Infection and Immunity will not have significant issues adapting to this regime. Dedicated funding streams with a suite of established programs (e.g. HIV, HepC) are expected to be exempt from the restriction on Level II launches, although the number of non-recurring launches will be controlled. Existing agreements with external partners will also be honoured if the planning is sufficiently advanced (e.g. UK-Canada partnership). Other initiatives in development (vaccines, systems biology) will need to be prioritized by the Institute or possibly integrated into Level III programs. The expertise of the Board may be required to identify mutually beneficial inter-Institute connections.

Institute Affairs

Budget

The 6 funding pools managed by the Institute include the Institute Strategic Initiative (ISI) budget ($9.1 million in 2009-10), CIHR HIV/AIDS Research Initiative ($22.5 million annually), CIHR Pandemic Preparedness Strategic Research Initiative (PPSRI), CIHR Hepatitis C Initiative, the Institute Support Grant (ISG) and the Institute Community Development (ICD) funds. Expenditures under the HIV, PPSRI, and ICD are described in the updates below.

The ISG had an opening balance of $1.25 million in April 2009. As of August 31, 2009, expenditures of $477,318 had been incurred, leaving a balance of about $771,269. Anticipated expenditures and reprofiling within CIHR of a portion of the grant will reduce the balance to approximately $200,000; these funds will be returned for reallocation within CIHR if the Institute moves to a new location.

Commitments made since May from the Institute Strategic Initiative (ISI) budget included the following:

  • Priority Announcement – Bridge Funding, March 2009 Competition: $400,000 (4 grants)
  • NSERC/CIHR Initiative – Systems Biology: $508,495 over 3 years (2 grants)
  • Canada-China Joint Health Research Initiative 2009: $300,000 over 3 years (2 grants)
  • Catalyst Grants – Vaccines of the 21st Century: $989,546 over 2 years (10 grants; 3 additional grants will be funded by the HIV budget)
  • Catalyst (Development) Grants – Canada-UK Program on Antibiotic Resistance: $120,000 (2 grants)

Confirmed ISI commitments for 2009-10 are $8.1 million in total. Additional anticipated commitments are estimated at $1.23 million, resulting in an estimated projected deficit of about $214,000 from a budget of $9.1 million. The actual surplus or deficit will depend on grants funded in the September 2009 priority announcement competition and the New Investigator catalyst grant competition.

MPD program review

The Institute has had 5 competitions of the Meetings, Planning and Dissemination (MPD) grants since the program was first launched in February, 2008. The MPD program was developed to replace ISG-funded grants when the Treasury Board ruled that grants could not be made from the ISG. The primary funding source for MPD grants is currently the ICD budget of $100,000 annually; other Institute funding streams (HIV, PPSRI, HepC) also contribute to the program, with 25 separate grants made (a total of $303,051) over the 5 intakes to date.

Institute transition

When the next Scientific Director (SD) and location of the Institute is determined, the Institute funding model will change. The recipient of the ISG will be the host institution, not the SD, and the SD will be responsible for negotiating the appropriate infrastructure, support and services with the Host Institution (HI). Three separate documents (CIHR-HI grant, SD-CIHR agreement, and SD-HI agreement) will govern the arrangement. HI policies on expenditures from the ISG will apply, although guidelines will be suggested by CIHR. A corollary of this transition is that the current projected surplus in the ISG cannot be carried over to the next incarnation of the Institute and will be returned to CIHR general funds; this was of some concern to members of the Board.

Institute directions in KT

In 2008, the Institute undertook a project to review knowledge translation (KT) programming of the Institute and develop recommendations for KT-related activities going forward. Overseen by an IAB subcommittee (W. Hill, J. Guimond, L. Jurkovic (CIHR KT branch), C. Richardson), a consultant was hired to do a survey, draft a KT framework, organize a meeting, and prepare an outcome report. Reports on these activities have been published on the Institute website.

Major recommendations of the outcome report focus on KT capacity building, supporting knowledge brokers to increase the accessibility of research outcomes, and facilitating translational research. Although some of these elements can be incorporated in current Institute programs such as the New Investigator Forum, mechanisms for funding KT brokers or stimulating translational research remain to be developed. Board members observed that making research outcomes accessible to a wider audience may be best done by people trained in journalism or business, and perhaps incorporating funding for this in research project funding would stimulate better KT. End of grant funding tools are also available for this purpose. Others suggested that a significant barrier to translation of discovery research exists at the stage of scaling up to a commercial product, and limited funding to assist with that transition might be an effective use of Institute resources. Dissemination of results derived from population health or health outcomes research tends to be more direct and less expensive than biomedical or clinical research outcomes, and the prevailing opinion was that Institute supported efforts should be feasible and focused on specific knowledge users; attempting to support KT for all infection and immunity research would be impractical and have little impact. Ultimately, this remains an area of concern for the Institute, with no specific programming approaches identified.

SARS Impact Report

A CIHR working group facilitated by C. Richardson has completed an evaluation of the impact of the various funding tools launched in response to the SARS outbreak, and the resultant report will be published shortly. The group used surveys of funded SARS researchers, project lay summaries, media analysis, bibliometric data and interviews with researchers applying for patents in an attempt to assess impact of the SARS funding programs. While the outbreak itself catalyzed the creation of new public health agencies, research funding had a demonstrable impact on the development of new assays and vaccines, on various levels of capacity building, on informed decision making, and even on health and health systems. It was noted that while publishing and distributing the report itself may be useful in demonstrating the impact of SARS research, having the CIHR Communications group or another contractor develop extracts aimed at specific audiences would aid in effectively disseminating this information.

Update on Strategic Priorities and Initiatives

Pandemic Preparedness Strategic Research Initiative (PPSRI)

Developed as a result of an Institute/PHAC sponsored meeting in September 2005, the PPSRI has grown to a $44.7 million initiative with 31 funding opportunities launched, 82 funded applications and 60 principal applicants supported since receiving federal funding in mid 2006. The initiative has already gone through 3 phases of research programming – prepandemic planning, outbreak response and KT-related activities – with a few more activities in development. A mid-term evaluation of the initiative has been completed and published, providing a comprehensive picture of what has been accomplished by the funding tools, with the most demonstrable impact being the impressive increase in research capacity.

The recently funded PHAC/CIHR Influenza Research Network (PCIRN), led by S. Halperin at Dalhousie University, is unique in the world; it is the only research network which exists to systematically evaluate the implementation of mass vaccination for the anticipated H1N1 influenza pandemic. Its findings will be used to inform planning for the current outbreak and for other public health interventions in the future, and it includes an integrated PHAC component for KT. PCIRN laboratories are working with the National Microbiology Laboratory to standardize testing and PCIRN has established links to European researchers and GlaxoSmithKline.

Another unique program – the catalyst grants for Pandemic Outbreak Team Leaders – has now provided enhanced funding for 2 projects. One team will establish a network to characterize influenza virus evolution and antiviral drug susceptibility; another will develop predictive mathematical modeling using data from the outbreak. Most recently, a Pandemic Outbreak Research Response catalyst grant program has been launched with multiple partners, and will provide up to $2.3 million over 2 years; decisions are expected in October.

The Institute organized a "Canadian Pandemic Preparedness Meeting: H1N1 Outbreak Research Response" on July 8, 2009 in Toronto, and hosted 185 participants from 75 organizations in a program of selected plenary sessions and several concurrent workshops. Participants valued the ability to obtain perspectives on the current status of the H1N1 outbreak, and attending researchers appreciated the integration of clinical overviews and current research in specific areas. The meeting constitutes just one of several KT components that have been integrated into the PPSRI.

HIV/AIDS

CIHR receives targeted funding of $22.5 million annually through the "Federal Initiative to Address HIV/AIDS in Canada" and the Canadian HIV Vaccine Initiative (CHVI). These funds are managed by the Institute for CIHR under the title "CIHR HIV/AIDS Research Initiative" and are committed for strategic programs in 5 funding streams: biomedical/clinical ($8.73 million); health services and population health ($5.22 million); community-based research (CBR) program ($2.77 million); Canadian HIV Trials Network ($4.55 million); CHVI ($1.23 million). In addition, about $17 million annually is granted from open competitions.

The CIHR HIV/AIDS Research Initiative relies on the advice of the CIHR HIV/AIDS Research Advisory Committee (CHARAC), a subcommittee of the Institute Advisory Board chaired by a member of the Board (currently M. Grant) and comprised of members drawn from a range of stakeholder sectors. Under the leadership of this group, the Initiative recently completed a strategic plan to guide CHARAC in applying funding to programs consistent with identified priorities. The strategic plan covers the period 2008-2013, and is available on the Institute website.

Board members were provided with a detailed update on recent activity in all the funding streams of the Initiative. Many of the CIHR funding tools (operating grants, personnel awards, MPD grants, bridge funding priority announcements) are used by the Initiative to maximize use of the available funds. Highlighted was the recent launch of a funding opportunity in "Aboriginal Health Intervention", to support innovative and effective health intervention research in aboriginal communities. Funded research groups will be expected to link with previously funded "HIV/AIDS Centres for Population Health and Health Services Research Development". Also featured in the update was the CBR program, which was formally evaluated in 2008. The evaluation concluded that the CBR Program is helping communities and academia respond to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, building research capacity at the community level and in academic circles, and made a number of recommendations for improvement; these recommendations are being addressed by an implementation plan approved by CHARAC and the IAB in the spring. Finally, a status report on the CIHR component of the CHVI was provided. Three operating grants and 3 catalyst grants have been funded, and an emerging team grant program has been launched. The major team grant program with CIDA as a partner has been delayed from the summer of 2008 to at least late in the fall of 2009, in part because of uncertainty of the availability of CIDA funding.

Although the goals and strategic plans of the IAB and CHARAC are integrated through reporting structure and strategic plans, it was suggested that the 2 committees hold a joint meeting to consider how selected parts of their respective strategic agendas might benefit from increased synergy. With the naming of the new Scientific Director imminent, such a meeting might also provide an opportunity for a beneficial exchange of information and perspectives as the Institute transitions. Board members supported this plan, and a joint meeting of the 2 committees will be organized in December if most committee members can attend.

Institute Strategic Partnerships

Medical isotopes funding opportunity/Imaging workshop

Biomarkers and radioactive labeling are critical diagnostic aids in medical imaging. Until recently, Canada's Chalk River reactor provided 35% of the world's technetium-99 production, but the aging reactor has been shut down and may never be restarted, with major impacts on medical isotope supply and accompanying political ramifications. Responding to the situation, CIHR launched a funding opportunity "Alternative Radiopharmaceuticals for Medical Imaging" in June. The initiative is led by the Institute of Cancer Research and is supported by III and 4 other Institutes for a total value of $6 million from CIHR; an additional $3 million will be contributed by NSERC. No new government money was targeted for this. Of the 20 applications received, two are for projects relevant to III. Results will be announced in late October.

Biomarker workshop; Inflammation workshop

The Institute is collaborating on two multi-Institute initiatives currently in the early stages of development. The "Biomarkers for Precision Medicine" workshop will be held Nov. 19-20, 2009 in Toronto. It is being led by the Institute of Cardiovascular and Respiratory Health (ICRH) and has III, 6 other Institutes and the Canadian Longitudinal Study in Aging supporting it. III will be represented by B. Singh, J. Bray, J. Wilkins and A. Bar-Or.

III has agreed to be co-lead with ICRH and the Institute of Cancer Research on a workshop addressing the general theme of inflammation, to be held in the spring of 2010. The Institute's report from the "Systems Biology Workshop on Immmunotherapy and Inflammation" held in January 2008 will provide some of the background for the proposed workshop. The Institute's aim in supporting the workshop is to develop a funding opportunity for the investigation of immune mechanisms involved in chronic inflammation and to identify novel biomarkers, therapeutic targets and prevention strategies.

UK MRC-CIHR Partnership in Antibiotic Resistance

As discussed in the May meeting of the Board, the UK MRC-CIHR Partnership had garnered the early support of CIHR President A. Beaudet and the chief executive of the UK-MRC, Sir L. Borysiewicz, who reached agreement in principle to fund up to 2 Canada/UK consortium grants valued at $8 million over 4 years. When this proposal was tabled at CIHR Scientific Council however, there was initial resistance to approve central CIHR funding for the initiative, potentially leaving the Institute to provide the $4 million CIHR commitment from its ISI budget. After a presentation by B. Singh at the May Scientific Council meeting, the central funding match of $2 million was approved, conditional upon the incorporation of a component in the consortium grant funding opportunity, suggested by the Institute of Health Services and Policy Research, which would link antibiotic resistance to health, health care and the economy. This constitutes a problem for the Institute, since the agreement with the UK MRC doesn't reference the requirement, and the MRC is not able to fund health services research. A solution may be to stipulate that only the Canadian researchers receiving CIHR funding address the health services issue in their proposals. The launch of the consortium grants has been postponed to June 2010 to give the recently awarded catalyst grant recipients time to develop their frameworks and connections.

Board members stressed the importance of maintaining the UK relationship, and also identified a pending government report on anti-microbial resistance due to be published in 2010 by the Public Health Agency of Canada. The latter may be useful to inform the drafting of the funding opportunity.

Forward Strategic Planning

The role of the Institute of Infection and Immunity in championing research, engaging the research community within its mandate, developing partnerships, supporting strategic programs and promoting knowledge translation was reviewed. The Board was reminded of the need to align the Institute's strategic priorities with the new CIHR Health Research Roadmap, while being prepared to seize opportunities to address challenges and gaps in the health research landscape.

Two of the Institute strategic priorities outlined in the strategic plan – HIV and Pandemic Preparedness – testify to the Institute's willingness to take on the challenge of crafting comprehensive research programs around significant federal funding sources. A third priority – Emerging Infections and Microbial Resistance – has been the focus for a number of the Institute's strategic initiatives over the last 8 years, with the Canadian Microbiome Initiative and the Canada-UK Program on Antibiotic Resistance (in development) being the latest programs under this banner.

Developmental work has been undertaken on the remaining 2 priorities – Immunotherapy and Vaccines of the 21st Century – but implementation of significant research programs addressing these areas remains to be done. Systems biology approaches were proposed as ways to catalyze innovation in immunotherapy research, but distilling the input received to date in a new research program remains a challenge. It was suggested that the systems biology rubric might be more productively focused on the human immune system as a whole, potentially incorporating a number of inter-related areas including the biology of infections, inflammation, chronic diseases, biomarkers and vaccines.

Vaccine development for use in humans is still an empirical science, and much remains to be learned about human immune responses to pathogens and protective immunity. There is a real potential to facilitate research partnerships between the public and private sector and some significant opportunities for both basic and translational research in vaccines, such as new targets for prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines, innovative formulations and delivery systems, and vaccination as a therapeutic approach for some chronic diseases.

The Institute hosted the "Systems Biology Approaches to Immune Modulation and Inflammation" in 2008, and will partner with other CIHR Institutes in a "Biomarkers" workshop in November 2009 and an "Inflammation and Chronic Disease" workshop in the spring of 2010. Incorporating a human immunology lens for programs that might result from these workshops might be the best opportunity to deliver on the III priorities not yet addressed.

The need to secure extended funding for infection and immunity research priorities was also discussed. Pandemic influenza research funds have all been committed, and availability of new funding for outbreak research is very limited. The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) has ongoing funding relating to influenza, but no new commitments to fund research have been made. With the unique opportunities afforded by the H1N1 outbreak (e.g. cohorts receiving adjuvant+vaccine vs vaccine with no adjuvant) and the need to establish long-term strategies for data and sample collection, the lack of a defined funding stream makes research planning difficult. The newly funded Influenza Research Network may be able to investigate some aspects of the H1N1 "natural experiment", but does not have complete freedom to prioritize systematic investigations. The Canadian Association for Immunization Research and Evaluation has expertise in vaccine adjuvants, and is aware of the interest of the Gates Foundation in this aspect of vaccine development; it was thought that a better understanding of the role of adjuvant may fundamentally alter our conception of vaccine biology. But concrete data for the impact of both adjuvant and vaccines on the human immune response is needed, and partnerships with agencies like the Gates Foundation or private sector companies may be the best source of new funding streams.

PHAC has a Memorandum to Cabinet (MC) in development in collaboration with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and other federal departments (One World, One Health) which deals with zoonotic infections and the relationships between animals, environmental factors and human health. A CIHR MC, with Infectious Disease as a major focus, has been proposed, but the success of this strategy is doubtful, at least in the absence of partnership with other federal departments. Success in generating additional federal funding may hinge on leveraging the connections made in implementing the PPSRI.

Identification of biomarkers – for defining the interaction between infectious organism and host, for quantifying the human immune response, for assessing the efficacy of vaccines, for defining gene-environment interactions – was proposed as a focus for strategic research investment. The methodology of choice for discovering useful biomarkers may be metabolomics, but the Canadian research capacity in this discipline is limited.

Update on Strategic Priorities and Initiatives

Vaccines of the 21st Century

Developmental work on this strategic plan priority has included the major report "Vaccines for the 21st Century: Taking Canada to the Next Level" and an invitational funders meeting held January 16, 2009 in Ottawa. Using the report as input, the meeting sought to identify strategic opportunities for vaccine research and lay foundations for new collaborative vaccine research investment opportunities. The meeting was attended by over 20 different organizations from the private sector, federal departments, Networks of Centres of Excellence and provincial funding agencies. The meeting report is available on the Institute website. To assess the capacity and interest of the Canadian vaccine research community in research areas highlighted in the "Vaccines for the 21st Century ... " report, a catalyst grant funding opportunity was launched in December, 2008. Twenty-five applications were received, and 13 were funded, with supporting funds from the PPSRI and the CHVI.

A major funding opportunity in this domain remains to be developed. It was proposed that the focus of that opportunity could be "systems biology approaches for rational vaccine design" and include funding for discovery of novel adjuvants, new methods of vaccine delivery, modulation of host immune responses and elucidation of correlates of protection.

Emerging Infections and Microbial Resistance: Canadian Microbiome Initiative

After several developmental meetings and a catalyst grant competition which funded 12 projects, the Canadian Microbiome Initiative (CMI) of the Institute launched an emerging team grant competition in July, 2009. Funding commitments for these grants from the Institute and 9 partners total $13.275 million. Letters of intent are due November 1, 2009 and teams should be funded in September, 2010.

To maintain the momentum generated for the CMI, members of the Board were asked to consider how the funded teams should be supported by the Institute, and what inter-team interactions should be expected. Additionally, facilitating the relationship of all CMI-funded researchers to the International Human Microbiome Consortium (IHMC) may be important for the long-term viability of these research projects, and enabling mechanisms for this purpose may need to be implemented by the Institute once the teams are established. It was noted that B. Finlay, a member of CIHR Governing Council with microbiome-related research interests, has been asked to represent CIHR in place of B. Singh at the March 2010 IHMC meeting.

Other Business

Clinical Autoimmunity

The Institute funded 6 teams in 2007-8 under its Clinical Autoimmunity research program. One of these grants will end in 2010-11 with the others slated to end in 2012-13. In the interests of capturing early research outputs, catalyzing interactions between the teams and improving their ability to obtain longer term funding support, it was suggested that the Institute, with the assistance of a working group of Board members, organize a meeting of selected members of the teams in late 2010 or early 2011.

Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 11:00 a.m.