Federation Research Fund Overview

The Federation Research Fund is an important part of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada (HSFC)'s research enterprise. The Fund has supported multidisciplinary, strategic research in partnership with other organizations and health charities since 2000.

In a few short years, the Fund has become an important part of HSFC's overall contribution to heart and stroke research in Canada. In the Fund’s first five years, the Foundation allocated more than $20 million to support 35 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 HSFC board of directors, chaired by Dr. Andreas Wielgosz, led the development of that intellectual framework.

The intellectual framework

Key components of the intellectual framework include:

• an analysis of existing Federation Research Fund strengths and current opportunities within the current health research landscape,
• a new focus and strategic positioning for the Federation 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 HSFC’s mission, 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.

Federation 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 Foundation and the accelerated translation of research results into policy and practice.

The Fund’s new focus addresses 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 seeking to draw value from some uniquely Canadian research strengths and opportunities, and
• integrating knowledge exchange into the managed research cycle.

The Managed Research Cycle

The managed research cycle is an approach to funding research that truly links the research outcomes to the end users and vice versa. 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 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.

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.