End-of-year message from the Scientific Director
Dear colleagues,
As 2018 comes to a close, I would like to take this opportunity to first acknowledge and thank all of our partners – both within CIHR and externally – for what has been a tremendous and productive year for the institute. Together, we have made great progress in areas of critical need in Canada and I look forward to continuing to develop and enhance these collaborations in 2019.
Below are some highlights from 2018, and a brief glimpse into what we’re working on for the new year.
Responding to the Opioid Crisis
I have mentioned previously that supporting the national mandate to address the opioid crisis is a top priority for CIHR-INMHA. This year saw some excellent progress in this area, including the publication of a new national clinical practice guideline for the management of opioid use disorders that promotes the use of evidence-based interventions for treatment of opioid use disorder across the addiction care continuum in Canada.
In addition, CIHR announced this year the recipients of 22 Opioid Crisis Knowledge Synthesis operating grants, and launched a new funding opportunity that will support up to 15 evaluation grants to rapidly assess interventions and practices that have been put in place to address the most urgent elements of the opioid crisis. These funding opportunities serve to quickly inform practices and policies on opioids and we are looking forward to the announcement of the evaluation grant recipients in early 2019, and to working with researchers to facilitate knowledge translation, which is a key component built into these strategic projects.
I was also asked to present at a number of events this year, including Health Canada’s Opioid Symposium in September, where I spoke about how CIHR is using knowledge to inform actions in response to the opioid crisis. You can find my slides from that presentation online here [ PDF (1.0 MB) - external link ], and the remaining presentations are linked on the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction website here. Events such as this one are a great reminder that there is still much to be done in this area, but I remain encouraged by our progress and by the willingness of stakeholders across the country to work together and share information.
Meeting the Urgent Need for Evidence through the Integrated Cannabis Research Strategy
The legalization and regulation of non-medical cannabis in Canada has policy makers, employers, medical professionals and Canadians from all corners of the country calling loudly for more information on the impacts of cannabis use. This year, CIHR-INMHA took the lead on developing CIHR’s innovative and collaborative cannabis research initiative, now known as the Integrated Cannabis Research Strategy (ICRS).
I provided an update on CIHR’s cannabis research in the summer and I am pleased to report that we have continued to build momentum on this important initiative in the second half of 2018. Following the announcement of 14 research projects early in the year, CIHR launched a second catalyst competition to fund cannabis research in urgent priority areas, with $3 million available further build cannabis research capacity, made possible by partnerships with the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction, the Mental Health Commission of Canada and collaborating CIHR Institutes.
In addition, we have begun the challenging process of starting to define consensus measures for cannabis in order to guide future research and surveillance. This work started in November, when we convened government, researchers and key experts for a two-day workshop where we discussed how to best measure cannabis use at the population level. We hope to be able to publicly share some of the outcomes of this meeting in the new year.
The cannabis initiative will continue to build into 2019, as we expect to launch scalable multi-year funding opportunities, and to further develop stakeholder partnerships, multi-sectoral collaborations and knowledge translation opportunities.
Growing a Post-traumatic Stress Initiative at CIHR
Post-traumatic stress (PTS) is an emerging priority area for the institute, and I have been pleased by the rapid development of this initiative over the course of the last several months. This summer, CIHR launched a catalyst competition focused on post-traumatic stress injuries among public safety personnel to address an identified knowledge gap in this area in Canada. In addition, and as I have mentioned previously, we are also working to establish a new national research consortium between CIHR and the Canadian Institute for Public Safety Research and Treatment (CIPSRT), which I will share more about in the new year.
Lastly, I recently had the privilege of hosting fundamental and clinical researchers at a roundtable meeting in Ottawa to share knowledge and engage in open, thoughtful and productive discussion about PTS. The outcomes of this meeting, as well as new opportunities and activities in PTS will be forthcoming in 2019 and I am very much looking forward to sharing more about what we've been working on as part of this important initiative.
Developing CIHR-INMHA’s Strategic Plan
As we wrap up 2018, we have been working very closely with our Institute Advisory Board on the creation of a new strategic plan to guide our activities over the next three years. Our institute has both the privilege and the enormous responsibility to support an incredibly broad mandate of research – not to mention one that also carries with it some of the most urgent health needs of Canadians today.
Our strategy will define how we are supporting the urgent brain and mental health needs of Canadians, as well as how we aim to catalyze opportunities to support research in emerging areas of need and facilitate the development of the Canadian Brain Research Strategy.
I am very excited by the progress we have made on our strategic plan thus far and I look forward to officially launching it in 2019, as well as to making my way across the country to engage with the community and share our bold strategy for brain and mental health research in Canada.
In closing, and on behalf of everyone here at CIHR-INMHA, I wish you a fun-filled and restful holiday season with friends and family and I look forward to reconnecting with you in the new year.
Best,
Samuel Weiss, PhD, FRSC, FCAHS
Scientific Director
CIHR Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction
- Date modified: