2018-19 Departmental Results Report: Operating context and key risks
Operating context: conditions affecting our work
Health research plays an important role in improving health outcomes for Canadians and people around the world, as well as in contributing to the overall societal and economic prosperity of Canada. As the principal federal funder of health research in Canada, CIHR supports innovative research that advances knowledge and provide solutions to Canada’s most complex health challenges.
In 2018–19, Minister of Health announced Dr. Michael Strong’s appointment as CIHR’s President effective October 2018. Under Dr. Strong’s leadership and through consultations with the research community, CIHR implemented changes to address the growing concerns of the health research community concerning the quality and integrity of CIHR’s peer review system and the reform of CIHR’s Open Programs. During this time, the Governing Council recruited three new Institute Scientific Directors and the Governor-in-Council appointed six leading researchers to the Governing Council of CIHR.
CIHR continued to collaborate with its Tri-Agency partners to support shared programs to enhance Canada’s research capacity. In fall 2018, in alignment with the recommendations within the Fundamental Science Review, the agencies worked collaboratively to develop an Equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) action plan that responds to EDI-related recommendations captured through a national consultation led by the Canadian Research Coordinating Committee. The overarching vision of the plan is to facilitate, promote and contribute to culture change on EDI in order to remove systematic barriers faced by underrepresented groups. The plan features three strategic objectives along with a set of actions and initiatives designed to meet each objective: to achieve fair access to funding for all researchers, to make comprehensive data available for Tri-Agency decisions on EDI, and to drive equitable participation in agency funding programs and the overall Canadian research system.
CIHR is committed to a disciplined, integrated risk management process in its daily operations. Based on departmental best practices, the Corporate Risk Profile (CRP) is updated twice annually and provides a proactive response to manage and monitor risks to ensure CIHR's ability to operationalize its activities, achieve outcomes and deliver on its mandate. CIHR is mitigating and monitoring the risks identified in its CRP summarized in the table below.
Key risks: things that could affect our ability to achieve our plans and results
| Risks | Risk response strategy and effectiveness | Link to the department’s Core Responsibilities | Link to mandate letter commitments or to government‑wide and departmental priorities |
|---|---|---|---|
Risk 1 – Effective Governance for Decision-Making: Changing CIHR leadership and an absence of clarity around governance roles, membership, communications, and processes present a risk that CIHR will be unable to maximize functionality or address barriers to effective decision-making. |
Since this risk was identified, a significant number of changes have been implemented to respond to this risk including:
As a result, CIHR is re-examining gaps in governance and best practices to reduce risk and support the design of CIHR’s new strategic plan in 2019–20. |
Funding Health Research and Training |
Government-wide priority:
CIHR Priority:
|
Risk 2 – Effective Strategic and Operational Prioritization: There is a risk that, without meaningful and effective processes to assure effective prioritization, CIHR will be unable to deliver its core business (core responsibility and programs) while also having sufficient reserve capacity to respond to emerging opportunities or threats. |
Since this risk was identified, CIHR has been working with internal stakeholders, its Institutes, partners and the research community to crystalize priorities under the leadership of CIHR's new President by beginning the development of its new strategic plan in direct alignment with business planning activities. The plan is focused on implementing the CIHR Act to improve health systems and/or improve health outcomes in these priority areas for Canadians. |
Funding Health Research and Training |
Government-wide priority:
CIHR Priority:
|
Risk 3 – Optimizing Existing Human Resource Capacity: There is a risk that, without proactive strategies to attract and retain key talent, CIHR will not have the Human Resource capacity required to deliver its current core business and respond to future priorities and will lose its competitive edge as an employer of choice. |
Since this risk was identified, the talent management initiative has been piloted with the goal of enabling CIHR to optimize its plan for human resources (HR), by attracting, engaging, developing, and retaining excellent talent in support of realizing the organization's business objectives. This program will be further refined in 2019–20. A new Director-General of Human Resources has been appointed. Under their leadership, the Human Resources Unit has focused on reviewing their HR service delivery model to develop and implement a three-year HR operational plan. This new approach is expected to ensure that CIHR has the capacity and the resources required to fulfill its mandate. |
Funding Health Research and Training |
Government-wide priority:
CIHR Priority:
|
Risk 4 – Optimizing Technology: There is a risk that CIHR will be unable to have high data quality and modernized business processes and systems if it is unable to upgrade to new technology, leverage existing technology, and integrate these systems to deliver on its core business. |
Since this risk was identified, the three granting agencies agreed to implement a single, shared grants management solution, which will improve CIHR's ability to maintain its ongoing business as well as support new business processes. A new Director-General of Information Management, Technology and Security/Chief Information Officer was appointed. Under their leadership, CIHR has completed its 3-year technology roadmap and is moving to its implementation plan. |
Funding Health Research and Training |
Government-wide priority:
CIHR Priority:
|
In 2018–19, CIHR effectively monitored, assessed, and took actions to mitigate the identified and potential risks that could affect its ability to deliver on its mandate and strategic plan, as well as deliver on the expectations of the research community and Canadians.
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