34th Advisory Board Meeting – Institute of Infection and Immunity
September 27-28, 2011Grand Times Hotel
Sherbrooke, QC
Executive Summary
Present: P. Allibert, J. Angel, R. Duncan, P. Ernst, A. Fernandes, R. Hogg, A. Jevnikar, C. Kaposy, M. Karmali, M. Levings, M. Mulvey, B. Ward, G. Wu
Staff: J. Bray, S. Desnoyers, J. Gunning, D. Hartell, P. Kirton, M. Ouellette, M. Perrault, J. Raven
Regrets: E. Brown
Introduction of New Members
The chair of the Institute Advisory Board introduced the new members of the council: Mike Mulvey, Patrice Allibert, Megan Levings and Jonathan Angel. Each new member gave a brief autobiography. M. Ouellette gave a short overview of the Institute structure, function and role, and role of the board.
Scientific Director's Report
M. Ouellette gave an overview of his III-related activities and key issues from the past four months. Topics included: the development of a formal conflict of interest policy for IABs as well as Governing Council; a potential link between the transplantation initiative and the imaging initiative; the Canadian HIV Vaccine Initiative (CHVI) advisory board meeting; reform of the peer-review and open programs at CIHR; the International Forum for Acute Care Trialists (InFACT) and International Severe Acute Respiratory Infection Consortium (ISARIC) colloquium; the III Transplantation Initiative; the Inflammation in Chronic Disease Signature Initiative; the response to the International Review; and the strategic review of the federal budget. Dr. Ouellette also gave an overview of CIHR's peer-review activities during the 2010-11 fiscal year.
Budget
D. Hartell presented the updated Institute Strategic Initiatives budget, and detailed the projects that will be, or have been recently funded. Since the last IAB meeting, 2 Network Catalyst Grants were funded ($1.2 million over 3 years) and one will be funded in the current competition ($200,000 per year). Funding for the Transplantation Initiative is scheduled to start in 2012-13, and run until 2016-17 ($1.5 million per year starting in 2013-14). The Inflammation in Chronic Disease Initiative (ICDI) will also begin in 2012-13($1 million per year reached in 2013-14). $1 million is budgeted in 2012-13 for the Emerging Threats initiative, and $2 million in each of the 3 subsequent years.
Current Business
Emerging Threats
A. Jevnikar gave an introduction to the session on Emerging Threats, highlighting the goals of the CIHR Health Research Roadmap, the concept paper that III prepared in 2010, and the overall goals of the initiative. E. Di Ruggiero, Assistant Director of the Institute of Population and Public Health (IPPH), gave a presentation on Global Health Research (GHR), and outlined the current activities of IPPH and CIHR related to this topic. J. Bray, D. Hartell and J. Raven presented various subject options for the new III strategic initiative on Emerging Threats. They were: antimicrobial resistance and infection control; childhood vaccination; immunosenescence; influenza; emerging pathogens and climate change; vulnerable populations; and food and water safety. The board then engaged in discussions on the pros and cons of each topic. From the 7 suggested topic areas, 3 more refined topics were proposed: zoonotic diseases and animal reservoirs; respiratory infections; and antimicrobial resistance and nosocomial infections. This will be further discussed at a later date and time.
International Review Response
M. Ouellette gave a summary of the CIHR and III response to the 2nd International Review reports. There were 15 specific recommendations stemming from the CIHR Corporate Review. Overall, the review of III was very favorable. III has been transformative in a number of areas, including training and capacity building, researcher career development in all pillars, recruitment of partners to cross-cutting Institute initiatives to address research priorities, engagement with a wide range of stakeholders to determine priorities, rapid response to emerging infections, and the development and roll out of specific community-based research activities. Recently, pillars 3 and 4 have generated positive and productive outcomes. The challenge for the upcoming funding periods is to increase cooperation across all four pillars and effectively prioritize research so that III continues to be transformative.
Inflammation in Chronic Disease Initiative
S. Desnoyers presented the current progress of the Inflammation in Chronic Disease Initiative. The overall goal of the initiative is to develop a unified Canadian strategy on inflammation that will support health research for the discovery and validation of common biomarkers, therapeutic targets, and inflammatory mechanisms among chronic diseases, with the ultimate goal to prevent and /or treat chronic disease by reducing inflammation and pain through novel interventions. A consensus conference was held on this topic in May, and the community provided a lot of feedback regarding what they would like to see from this initiative. III is co-lead on this initiative with IMHA, and the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), the Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health (ICRH), and the Institute of Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes (INMD) are also participating.
HIV/AIDS Research Initiative
J. Gunning and P. Kirton presented an update of the HIV/AIDS Initiative, which is supported with an envelope of targeted funds from the Government of Canada. In the 2011-12 fiscal year, funding for the initiative was allocated into 5 different priority areas: the Canadian HIV Vaccine Initiative ($1.5 million), Community-based Research Program ($3.1 million), CIHR Canadian HIV Trials Network ($4.5 million), Health Services and Population Health ($5.7 million), and biomedical/clinical research ($7.9 million). A PA was launched for the co-morbidity research agenda in June 2011 for operating grants, and another for team grants in July 2011. The Community-based Primary Healthcare Team Grants will be launched in October. The renewed funds for the CHVI will be invested in advancing the basic science of HIV Vaccines in Canada and LMICs and the CHVI Research Alliance.
Transplantation Initiative
J. Bray presented an update on the Transplantation Initiative. The current commitment by III is $2 million per year, but additional funds will be committed by INMD, Canadian Blood Services, the Kidney Foundation of Canada, and Cystic Fibrosis Canada. The current goal is to fund a single research program, ideally with a large portion of the community collaborating on the application. Within the program, there must be a minimum of 4 projects, located in multiple centres, in 5 provinces, that cover at least 3 of the 4 health research pillars. Each component of the program must be deemed fundable on its own merits; then if one of the components does not receive the minimum funding score, the program will still be able to function without it. After the first 2 years of funding, the investigators will be brought back before the original peer-review committee, to determine if they are functioning well as a group. If not, funding may be terminated. The investigators will also be required to submit annual reports, and to hold annual meetings.
Hepatitis C Research Initiative
J. Raven updated the board on recent activities of the Hepatitis C Research Initiative. The program has been running since 1999; however the current funding for this initiative stems from an MOU signed with PHAC in 2008. 5 multi-year operating grants were funded from the December 2010 competition, and there is $200,000 available in 2011-12 for Knowledge Synthesis Grants and $75,000 available for Dissemination Events. A strategic review was conducted for the initiative in March 2011, in order to help guide the strategic planning of the initiative in the future. The full report including the key recommendations stemming from this review are available on a website.
New Investigator Forum
The 4th III New Investigator Forum will be held October 14-16, at Manoir du Lac Delage, just outside of Quebec City. The goal of this symposium is to facilitate the career development of new investigators. It aims to strengthen infection and immunity research by establishing peer networks of new investigators working in related or overlapping areas of research. The planned meeting program includes plenary presentations about knowledge translation, research commercialization, application preparation, and graduate supervisory relationships, as well as 2 poster sessions for the delegates. The highlight of these meetings in the past has been the mock peer-review committees, in which the meeting delegates are able to participate in review sessions of actual grant applications, guided by seasoned researches and peer-review committee chairs. The "donated" grants represent all of the health research pillars.
Roadmap Signature Initiatives
M. Ouellette gave an overview of the Roadmap Signature Initiatives that III has currently committed to supporting. The Evidence-Informed Healthcare Renewal Initiative has been fast tracked, and will be launched within the next year. We are committed to ICDI at the level of $1 million per year. The HIV/AIDS branch will partner on the Community-Based Primary Healthcare Initiative if a relevant application is received. Marc will be attending the Personalized Medicine workshop in the near future, to determine whether or not infectious diseases are something that they are interested in pursuing. He is also on the Steering Committee for the Pathways to Health Equity for Aboriginals Initiative; however it is unlikely to be launched anytime soon.
New Business
Presentations from the Local Community
Two members of the research community at Université Sherbrooke presented their research to the IAB.
- Louis-Charles Fortier: Pathogenesis of Clostridium difficile infections and development of novel antimicrobial agents.
- Sheela Ramanathan: T lymphocyte survival and activation in autoimmune type 1 diabetes.
Institute Strategic Plan
III is preparing its next Institute Strategic Plan, for the years 2012-2017. The strategic goals of the Institute need to align with the research priorities laid out in the CIHR Health Research Roadmap, and then we will be able to identify the key initiatives moving on from there. The IAB is being asked to frame the approach that the Institute uses to develop the strategic plan. This is one of the key roles of the IAB, and it has a significant impact on our community. The goal is to have the plan developed by fall 2012, which gives 14 months for process development and implementation. S. Desnoyers proposed a 7-month consultation process beginning in October, after which the data generated by the consultation would be reviewed during the May 2012 IAB meeting. A committee to develop the strategic plan will be struck, comprised of the Scientific Director, both Assistant Directors, the IAB chair, multiple IAB members, and key stakeholders. The committee will refine the plan, which will be discussed in more detail during the January 2012 IAB meeting. At that point, a draft document will be prepared and presented to the community for their feedback.
Meeting Adjourned: 3:10 p.m.