Review of the Institute of Human Development, Child and Youth Health
About the Review
The review of the Institute of Human Development, Child and Youth Health (IHDCYH) assessed the relevance and performance of the Institute to support CIHR's Governing Council's responsibilities regarding the role and functioning of the Institute, and meet requirements of the Policy on Results. The review was completed by CIHR in 2018-19 and overseen by an independent panel of experts in the Institute's mandate areas (IHDCYH Review Panel) who reviewed and interpreted the findings and made the final recommendations.
What is an Institute?
CIHR currently integrates research through a unique interdisciplinary structure made up of 13 "virtual" institutes. CIHR's Institutes bring together researchers, health professionals and policy-makers from voluntary health organizations, provincial government agencies, international research organizations and industry and patient groups from across the country to focus on important health problems. The Institute's virtual structure encourages partnership and collaboration across sectors, disciplines and regions. Each Institute is dedicated to a specific area of focus, linking and supporting researchers pursuing common goals.
About IHDCYH
IHDCYH's mandate is to support research to enhance maternal, child, and youth health and to address causes, prevention, screening, diagnosis, treatment, short- and long-term support needs, and palliation for a wide range of health concerns associated with reproduction, early development, childhood, and adolescence.
Results and Recommendations
The Panel concludes that the mandate would benefit from an update reflecting the shift towards a life-cycle approach and an emphasis on prevention. The Panel observes the need to increase awareness of how CIHR supports interdisciplinary research and improve peer review culture.
- Recommendation 1: The Panel recommends that Governing Council review the current mandate and consider integrating a life-cycle approach thereby embracing and contributing to a paradigm shift in the scientific landscape. This would include an emphasis on parental and not just maternal health and on the psychosocial and biological causes of disease.
- Recommendation 2: The Panel recommends that IHDCYH engage its broad researcher and stakeholder communities to identify ways to address current research gaps, emerging areas of research, and novel research approaches as well as new and developing tools.
- Recommendation 3: The Panel recommends that IHDCYH enhance partnerships related to the health of Indigenous children and families to increase capacity especially focused on Indigenous researchers and communities.
- Recommendation 4: The Panel recommends that IHDCYH and CIHR develop a predictable and sustainable funding pipeline across all career stages by continuing to embed capacity-building activities in all of its funding opportunities. Specifically, this would include financial, mentorship, and training components in capacity-building activities and leveraging other capacity building programs.
- Recommendation 5: The Panel recommends that CIHR, in collaboration with Institutes, address the challenges associated with the peer review of interdisciplinary research across CIHR's four research themes, and emerging and high-risk areas of research.
- Recommendation 6: The Panel recommends that IHDCYH continue to build capacity to develop innovative ways to translate knowledge to clinicians, policy makers, organizations, and the public in order to develop more effective therapeutics, practices, policies and services to improve the health of Canadians and the health care system.
The Panel recognizes the current SD's strong ability to engage, collaborate, and partner with a wide range of stakeholders. An important area for the next SD and Institute should be to advocate for the life-cycle approach and child health research within CIHR and with other Institutes.
- Recommendation 7: The Panel recommends that IHDCYH's next SD continue to work hard to mainstream the life-cycle concept and to highlight and embed the importance of children and parents within CIHR and its Institutes and, more broadly, with its national and international research partners and stakeholder communities.
- Recommendation 8: The panel recommends that IHDCYH's SD continue to work collaboratively with CIHR to build awareness of large national and international platforms like HeLTI, leverage partnerships that help sustain and promote the use of such platforms, and engage with other national cohorts, pediatric trial networks, biobanks, and databases.
- Recommendation 9: The Panel recommends that IHDCYH incorporate sustainability planning at the time of the design of funding opportunities (e.g., phase two funding, wind-down, or knowledge translation funding) to provide more predictable and sustainable funding mechanisms, and monitor key performance measures related to the impacts of funding opportunities.
- Date modified: