The Heart and Stroke Foundation Research Fund

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1 The Heart and Stroke Foundation Research Fund Framing our success, and our future The HSF Research Fund is an important part of the Heart and Stroke Foundation s research enterprise. The Fund has been supporting multidisciplinary, strategic research in partnership with other organizations, including the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and other health charities, since The Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada is a national voluntary non-profit organization whose mission is to improve the health of Canadians by preventing and reducing disability and death from heart disease and stroke through research, health promotion, and advocacy. The Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada is a federation of 10 provincial Foundations, led and supported by a force of more than 130,000 volunteers. In a few short years, the Fund has become an important part of the Foundation s overall contribution to heart and stroke research in Canada. In the Fund s first five years, the Foundation allocated over $20 million to support 34 strategic partnered initiatives. These initiatives supported large interdisciplinary teams, built capacity in under-researched fields, and brought researchers together to discuss potential research collaborations. The Fund complements the Foundation s grants-in-aid (GIA) and personnel awards. The Foundation invests over $51 million in heart and stroke research every year. A review of the first four years of the Fund by an external panel of experts, chaired by renowned health policy and research consultant Steven Lewis, applauded the Heart and Stroke Foundation s innovative approach to research funding. The panel recommended the Foundation further focus its strategic direction in research by developing an intellectual framework for the Fund. Following the Lewis Report, a task force of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada (HSFC) board of directors, chaired by Dr. Andreas Wielgosz, led the development of that intellectual framework.

2 The intellectual framework A new focus Key components of the intellectual framework include: an analysis of existing HSF Research Fund strengths and current opportunities within the current health research landscape, a new focus and strategic positioning for the HSF Research Fund, an outline of a managed research cycle, and guiding principles for the Fund. Strengths and opportunities An environmental scan of the current health and cardiovascular research landscape informed the task force as they worked to refine the Fund s focus. The scan identified a trend toward increased strategic research funding, the growing importance of interdisciplinary research and funding across the continuum of research, the relevance of population health and health promotion to the mission of the federation, the advantageous characteristics of Canada that hold particular opportunities for research (such as the richness of health databases), and the potential for HSFC to take a leadership role in knowledge translation and exchange. HSF Research Fund Vision Cardio/cerebrovascular health of Canadians is improved through the synergistic alignment of the research and strategic mission priorities of the Heart and Stroke federation and the accelerated translation of research results into policy and practice. The Fund s new focus will address questions related to specific knowledge gaps and opportunities in areas of mission priority as defined by the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada s strategic plan. In the next two to three years the Fund will therefore focus on strategic research in obesity, stroke, and resuscitation. Funding considerations within this focus will include: fostering interdisciplinary and multipillar research while encouraging a focus on health behaviour and population health, including contextual determinants of health, supporting interprovincial collaboration in seeking answers to complex heart and stroke issues and capitalizing on some uniquely Canadian research strengths and opportunities, and integrating knowledge exchange into the managed research cycle.

3 The managed research cycle The managed research cycle is an approach to funding research that truly links the research outcomes to the end users. The goal is to accelerate the translation of research results into policy and practice. Research initiatives can potentially enter the cycle at multiple points but most will likely follow the complete cycle. The HSFC Research Policy and Planning Advisory Committee (RPPAC) oversees the Fund and the managed research cycle. RPPAC will also work with the Foundation s Health Promotion and Policy Advisory Committee (HPPAC) at various points in the cycle, particularly in relation to knowledge exchange. The managed research cycle strengthens the alignment of the Fund s research priorities with the strategic mission priorities of the Foundation, and facilitates knowledge exchange between research and practice.

4 Guiding principles A number of principles have shaped the way the Foundation has managed its strategic initiatives through the HSF Research Fund. Working through strategic partnerships, emphasizing innovation and interdisciplinary research, and maintaining the HSFC standards of scientific excellence for peer review will remain important parts of the Fund s new guiding principles. Guiding principles for the Fund The Fund will Be a mechanism to drive innovation by identifying opportunities to encourage innovation in research related to strategic mission priorities, through a managed research cycle. Be focused in scope by targeting initiatives in areas related to the Foundation s strategic mission priorities as identified through HSFC strategic planning. Position HSFC as a leader in CVD research by developing a leadership niche in strategic research and knowledge exchange through a managed research process, and taking the lead or playing a significant role in each initiative. Be positioned to improve the national CVD research environment and inter-provincial collaboration on research by fostering collaboration, interdisciplinarity, and knowledge exchange between researchers as well as from research to practice. Be mindful of and complementary with the total HSFC research enterprise by building synergistic linkages with the personnel awards and GIA programs. Support the HSFC mission by: Ensuring research priorities inform and are informed by the Foundation s strategic mission priorities Facilitating linkage of relevant research results to programs, polices, and strategic planning through knowledge translation Be mindful of the Lewis Report and learn from the experience of the current Fund by positioning HSFC as a leader in CVD research, building on the Fund s current strengths, and fostering interdisciplinary approaches. Be a tool for better knowledge exchange between research and practice by: Building knowledge translation and knowledge exchange into the managed research cycle Requiring researchers to outline plans for dissemination of results in their proposals Foster an interdisciplinary approach to seeking answers to complex CVD issues by: Inviting multiple approaches to the research questions in requests for applications (RFAs) Ensuring the right mix of expertise at consensus conferences Encouraging projects that are interdisciplinary and multipillar Proactively facilitating teams coming together Include mechanisms to support research capacity development by identifying capacity gaps through consensus conferences and proposing strategic personnel award initiatives to address these.

5 The Heart and Stroke Foundation Research Fund Guiding principles con t Be evaluated systematically to assess effectiveness by integrating evaluation into the managed research cycle. Support CVD research that is based on scientific excellence by maintaining HSFC standards of peer review. Usually but not always involve partners and seek to optimize resources wherever possible. Ensure appropriate recognition for HSFC in all research collaborations whether they are people, projects, or programs by taking the lead or a significant role in partnered initiatives, and through active engagement in the research and knowledge translation process through the managed research cycle. Looking ahead HSFC is now working to implement the intellectual framework and apply the managed research cycle to new strategic funding initiatives. We will also work to bring currently supported initiatives into the cycle to facilitate knowledge translation. In the next two to three years, there will be an emphasis on initiatives in the priority areas of obesity, stroke, and resuscitation. The intellectual framework will ensure HSFC delivers on the new vision for the HSF Research Fund. It will continue to expand the Heart and Stroke Foundation s research horizons, build new partnerships, and multiply the Foundation s contributions to research funding. More information on the HSF Research Fund and its funding and partnership opportunities is available online at and in the monthly HSF research e-newsletter (to subscribe, contact research@hsf.ca). Be value-added for each member of the HSF federation by making Foundation strategic mission priorities the focus for Fund initiatives and linking research results with Foundation programs, policies, and practices where relevant.

6 A Heart and Stroke Foundation success story I am pleased to present the new intellectual framework for the Heart and Stroke Foundation (HSF) Research Fund. We are proud of the Fund s success to date and are excited about its future potential to improve the cardiovascular (CVD) health of Canadians through strategic research. The intellectual framework that we have developed for the HSF Research Fund will provide a strong focus and strategic direction in the years ahead. Our future research partnerships will focus on specific areas related directly to the Foundation s mission priorities. Through our innovative managed research cycle, which will facilitate knowledge translation and link research outcomes with end users, we plan to see an even greater impact on the health of Canadians from our research investments. Cleve Myers, CA Chair, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada