Scientific Medical Research in Canada

"The government recognizes that Networks of Centres for Excellence have made significant contributions to the research and innovation landscape."
"The federal government remains committed to collaborative teams of Canadian researchers."
Nyree St-Denis, spokesperson for Science Minister Kirsty Duncan, Ottawa

"I think the one thing Canadians are really good at is working together in a collaborative way. This program [the BioCanRx network] brought together people with different interests to solve problems -- and what is a bigger problem than cancer?"
"I think it is a shame that program is discontinued with no clear answer what it is going to be replaced with."
Dr. John Bell, scientific director, BioCanRx, senior scientist, cancer therapeutics, The Ottawa Hospital

"Canada is a leader in stem cell research. Our scientists are incredibly well-regarded. So many of the people we have trained have become leaders."
"Many say this would not have happened without the Stem Cell Network."
Dr. Michael Rudnicki, senior scientist, director, regenerative medicine program, Sprott Centre for Stem Cell Research, The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute

The Canadian government under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is ending the Networks of Centres of Excellence Program and replacing it with the New Frontiers in Research Fund, designed to support research that is "interdisciplinary, fast-breaking and high-risk". An investment of $275-million over the next five years and $65-million on an ongoing basis has been committed. One can only wonder whether this 'progressive' government that has delighted since coming to power in 2015 in changing the names of government departments to suit its 'gender-inclusive and alt-gender'
message has gone drunk on the power of interference in everything and anything.

"It is disappointing to be cut off a the knees", stated Dr. John Bell, with the devastating news that his groundbreaking immunotherapy research program designed to bring research from the laboratory directly to patients is now in jeopardy, not knowing where its funds will now come from and whether the program can survive at all. There was an anticipated commitment of 15 years of stable funding from its inception in 2014, suddenly swept away on a whim of the federal government to place its obliterating stamp on a program that pre-dated its administration.

Those Networks of Centres of Excellence that are currently practising what they know best remain eligible to apply for three-year funding renewals, after which their funding applications will be cut off since the new fund is specifically directed toward academic researchers, and not meant to fund networks. The shift in the federal government funding of scientific research will impact deleteriously on many such networks.

Established 17 years ago, the Stem Cell Network based in Ottawa also faces uncertainty in financial stability to underwrite its critical work.

The network will be forced, according to officials there, to close by the end of March should no new source of federal support be forthcoming, delivering a dead-end to stem-cell research across the country. The House of Commons Finance Committee has recommended that the next federal budget contain "stable and predictable funding for the Stem Cell Network to maintain operations after March 31, 2019", but this is clearly not the Trudeau administration's order of business.

Ottawa has been recognized as a hotbed for stem cell research with clinical trials using stem-cell therapy to treat heart failure, sepsis and to improve lung function in premature babies.  The director of the Stem Cell Network comments that cutting off funding will create difficulties for researchers to collaborate on precisely this kind of work that has distinguished Canada as a leader in stem cell research.

The use of stem cells and chemotherapy to successfully treat early, aggressive MS, considered a leading breakthrough in treatment of MS, was pioneered by Drs. Harold Atkins and Mark Freedman of The Ottawa Hospital and the University of Ottawa.

According to Dr. Michael Rudnicki, scientific director of the Stem Cell Network, it now becomes impossible to make any commitments for next year, or to sign contracts -- inclusive of agreements with partners for jointly funded programs. Typically, the network's partners would match any amount that would be funded by the federal government in the past. The work of the network is to support researchers, partnering with companies and health charities to bring together people working on stem cell research.

As for BioCanRx which has manufacturing facilities in Ottawa, Victoria and Vancouver, now poised to begin treatment of patients with CAR T-cell therapy where a patient's T cells (a type of immune system cell) are engineered to attack cancer cells, the program's future is now in doubt. Scheduled to produce the first made-in-Canada CAR T-cells that trial is set to proceed irrespective of the funding situation but the uncertainty over funds will impact on future innovation.

Almost thirty years ago, a previous, Conservative-led government had introduced the National Centres of Excellence as a joint funding venture of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), and Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, as a mechanism to fund university-based research centres that operating jointly with private sector companies.

Whatever a Conservative government in Canada can initiate, a Liberal government can dismantle.