Canadian Institutes of Health Research

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) is the Government of Canada's agency responsible for funding health research in Canada. CIHR was created in 2000 under the authority of the CIHR Act and reports to Parliament through the Minister of Health. CIHR's budget for 2008-09 is $928.6 million, of which $132 million is allocated to administering the Networks of Centres of Excellence and Canada Research Chair programs.

CIHR was created to transform health research in Canada by:

• funding more research on targeted priority areas;
• building research capacity in under-developed areas such as population health and health services research;
• training the next generation of health researchers; and
• focusing on knowledge translation, so that the results of research are transformed into policies, practices, procedures, products and services.

CIHR's mandate is to "excel, according to internationally accepted standards of scientific excellence, in the creation of new knowledge and its translation into improved health for Canadians, more effective health services and products and a strengthened Canadian health-care system."

CIHR consists of 13 "virtual" institutes, a structure that is unique in the world. These innovative institutes bring together all partners in the research process - the people who fund research, those who carry it out and those who use its results - to share ideas and focus on what Canadians need: good health and the means to prevent disease and fight it when it happens. Each institute supports a broad spectrum of research in its topic areas and, in consultation with its stakeholders, sets priorities for research in those areas.