Message from Norman Rosenblum, INMD Scientific Director
May 2025
Earlier this month, INMD, the CIHR Institute for Indigenous Peoples’ Health (IIPH) and Breakthrough T1D Canada (formerly JDRF Canada) co-hosted the midterm meeting for the Diabetes Prevention and Treatment in Indigenous Communities: Resilience and Wellness Team Grants and the Diabetes, Psychosocial Health, Prevention and Self-Management Operating Grants in Winnipeg, Manitoba. This meeting was held in conjunction with the 2025 National Indigenous Diabetes Association (NIDA) Conference and brought together 45 researchers, trainees, and persons with lived and living experience from across Canada.
These grants are part of our strategic research initiative: 100 Years of Insulin: Accelerating Canadian Discoveries to Defeat Diabetes. The Diabetes Prevention and Treatment in Indigenous Communities: Resilience and Wellness Team Grants aim to define and integrate models of resilience and wellness into diabetes prevention and treatment approaches among First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples and support Indigenous-led and community-driven efforts to reverse the upward trajectory of diabetes in Indigenous communities. The Diabetes, Psychosocial Health, Prevention and Self-Management Operating Grants aim to support research into approaches that will build on successful models of care, knowledge mobilization, and optimization of self-management.
We were grateful to have Grandmother Helen Robinson-Settee open the meeting, followed by team presentations on the progress of research, lessons learned, and challenges encountered to date. Afterwards, teams participated in small group discussions on knowledge mobilization within their projects. This session was followed by presentations on CIHR’s requirements regarding data management plans (DMPs), and Indigenous data sovereignty and Indigenous data governance, presented by Dr. Jennifer Walker, Associate Professor, McMaster University. The presentations were then followed by a discussion moderated by Dr. Chelsea Gabel, Scientific Director of CIHR-IIPH. To close the meeting, Grandmother Helen Robinson-Settee led a session on community engagement, highlighting what research teams have learned from the communities they are working with and the engagement approaches that have been effective for their teams.
I would like to thank the representatives from our funding partners who participated in this meeting: Dr. Lara Green, National Manager, Research & Training Programs, Breakthrough T1D Canada (formerly JDRF Canada) and Dr. Chelsea Gabel, Scientific Director of the CIHR-IIPH, as well as INMD Institute Advisory Board member Dr. Treena Delormier for co-moderating the knowledge mobilization session. I also want to thank Grandmother Helen Robinson-Settee for starting the meeting in a good way and facilitating our session on engagement.
I wish all the researchers and trainees who participated in the meeting great success as they continue their journey with these projects!
Dr. Norman Rosenblum, MD, FRCPC, FCAHS
Scientific Director
CIHR Institute of Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes
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