The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) is the Government of Canada’s agency responsible for funding health research in Canada. CIHR was created in 2000 under the authority of the CIHR Act and reports to Parliament through the Minister of Health. CIHR’s budget for 2008-09 is $928.6 million, of which $132 million is allocated to administering the Networks of Centres of Excellence and Canada Research Chair programs.
CIHR was created to transform health research in Canada by:
- funding more research on targeted priority areas;
- building research capacity in under-developed areas such as population health and health services research;
- training the next generation of health researchers; and
- focusing on knowledge translation, so that the results of research are transformed into
policies, practices, procedures, products and services.
CIHR’s mandate is to “excel, according to internationally accepted standards of scientific
excellence, in the creation of new knowledge and its translation into improved health for
Canadians, more effective health services and products and a strengthened Canadian health-care
system.”
For more information regarding CIHR, please visit the Canadian Institutes of Health Research website.