Celebrating 15 Years of Impact · 2018. 4. 3. · Our mission is to discover solutions to our greatest health challenges, connect knowledge and action on provincial priorities, and

15YEARS2001 – 2016

Celebrating 15 Years of Impact

In March 2001, the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research (MSFHR) was officially founded by the Government of British Columbia with a mandate to enhance our province’s capacity for world-class health research.

Over the past 15 years, we have delivered on that mandate. With the support of the provincial government, we have invested more than $330 million in award programs that nurture talent, advance new treatments and cures, and respond to health system priorities. To date, we have supported nearly 1,600 individual researchers and more than 80 teams. The result has been a remarkable transformation of BC’s health research landscape.

At the time of MSFHR’s founding, BC’s health research enterprise was at a crossroads. Despite the success of Nobel Laureate Dr. Michael Smith and other leaders, the province was under-performing in its ability to attract federal grant funding and faced the loss of top scientists to other jurisdictions. MSFHR has played a central role in reversing this trend and creating a vibrant research community that is now recognized worldwide.

Celebrating

15YEARSof Impact in British Columbia

Our mission is to discover solutions to our greatest health challenges, connect knowledge and action on provincial priorities, and engage partners to improve the research enterprise.

The following pages celebrate some of our successes over the past 15 years and highlight how MSFHR’s activities have helped create a vibrant health research community in BC.*

*All figures in this document current to end of fiscal 2015/16 unless otherwise noted.

MSFHR is dedicated to the memory of Nobel Prize recipient

a pre-eminent BC scientist with a long-standing commitment to support researchers throughout their careers.

Dr. Michael Smith,

“

“

We are at the forefront of the

global effort to confront HIV/AIDS

and ready to transfer the success

of the 'Treatment as Prevention'

strategy to other diseases

because of investments made by the BC government and MSFHR.

Dr. Julio Montaner 2010 Aubrey J. Tingle Prize

The establishment of the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research in 2001 was a game changer. It meant

we could recruit, grow and retain

researchers of global stature and

build teams focused on important

health problems.

Dr. David Huntsman 2002 & 2007 Scholar 2004 Research Unit

“

“

These awards have been

extremely important to my career development. As I was

training, I began to make strong

links to the world-leading cancer

genomics community here in BC,

and it allowed me to foster a lot of key collaborations

that continue to underpin my

research program.

Dr. Sohrab Shah 2006 & 2008 Trainee 2011 Scholar

MSFHR has been critical in enabling

my research. In summer 2000, I met Michael Smith outside UBC’s

Wesbrook building. I remember him as an incredibly kind and inspiring person — a great role

model who knew that successful

research requires collaboration,

teamwork and perseverance.

Dr. Colin Ross 2001 Trainee & 2016 Scholar

Since 2001, we have given:

1,586 AWARDS

valued at:

$179.7 MILLION

$

Impact: BC’s health research enterprise is highly competitive in many areas, including genomics, cancer, HIV/AIDS, and health services research.

Excellent People

370SCHOLARS

1,216TRAINEES

$134.9MILLION

$44.8MILLION

$

$

$

ON AVERAGEeach MSFHR Scholar trains

TENnext generation

innovators

Excellent People

Post-Doc Doctorate Masters

Scholar

1/4of scholars & traineeswere recruited from outside BC

Excellent People

approx.

Trainee Scholar

1/4

Trained as a physiotherapist, Dr. Li is exploring how digital tools can help people adopt new treatments and behaviors.

She recently launched an app that helps older adults reach their activity goals and improve their quality of life.

Dr. Nielsen developed a breast cancer test that helps patients avoid unnecessary chemotherapy by identifying tumours that are of a low-risk subtype.

The test is commercially available and used throughout the world.

Dr. Torsten Nielsen2003 & 2008 Scholar

Excellent People

Dr. Linda Li2011 Scholar

>90%retention

MSFHR-funded Scholars remain in BC as health research leaders

From 2002 to 2012, we gave:

78 TEAM-BASEDAWARDS

valued at:

$48.5 MILLION

$

Impact: MSFHR supported teamwork in a variety of forms, from small teams of researchers and clinicians solving focused problems and generating innovations with commercial potential to large networks of researchers and practitioners working on multi-dimensional challenges like rural and remote health.

Connecting Researchers to Health Priorities

TEAM START-UP

RESEARCHUNIT

TEAM PLANNING

23 AWARDS$721K

31 AWARDS$30.4M

13 AWARDS$15.1M

11 AWARDS$2.3M

HEALTH OF POPULATION NETWORKS

Spin-off company start-ups

Summary of Team Outputs

4

Connecting Researchers to Health Priorities

Provisional, pending or

issued patents

7PATENTED

Contributions to product licenses

Note: During the period of their awards, approximately half of the teams indicated commercialization and industry-related activities. These are illustrated in this diagram.Summary of

Team Outputs

Research contracts in collaboration with

companies and industry sponsorship12

10

2x 3xdose dose

vs.

provided the same protection against HPV

In 2013, BC-led research into human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine found that:

amonggirls

aged 9 – 13

among young women aged 16 – 26

Connecting Researchers to Health Priorities

Six months after publication of these findings, many countries adopted a policy of two doses, down from three, saving money for health systems around the world.

Provincial Government Partners

on HPV Vaccine Study

$

1 Day

6 Days

In 2003, BC researchers were among the first to respond, decoding the SARS genome in:

This work had international impact on the global response to this disease

Connecting Researchers to Health Priorities

< 365 Days

And in less than a year, they developed three vaccine candidates:

This work had international impact on the global response to this disease

44AWARDS

MSFHR'S INFRASTRUCTURE SUPPORT PROGRAMS

Institutional infrastructure awards

Supporting Health Innovation and Change

SPOR Primary and Integrative

HealthCare Network

Technology /methodology

platforms

$41MILLION

IMPACT: Infrastructure support programs allowed universities to establish research support offices. Technology/methodology platforms provided key infrastructure to BC and beyond.

Monitoring, evaluation and learning system for Integrated Primary and Community Care

Technology/Methodology

Platforms

BC Clinical Genomics Network

BC Proteomics

Network

PopDataBC

BC BioLibrary

CDRD

Supporting Health Innovation and Change

Rx

010111001010110100001010111010100010100111100010011010110010110101010110

PopData BC

PopData BC is a shared resource database that grants researchers access to multiple linkable health-care datasets through a secure channel. It has made significant progress in developing data resources, and as a result, other entities are using this shared service instead of building their own capacity.

Centre for Drug Research and Development

CDRD connects innovative researchers working on products with commercial potential to industry partners. Since its inception, it has advanced drug technology development and commercialization, resulting in 14 technologies out-licensed to the private sector or under current development and seven new spin-off companies.

&G e n e rat e d by M S F H R S c h o l a r s

PATENTSINTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

of scholars own intellectual property

21%

PATENTED

patents were filed during a scholar award

91

Supporting Health Innovation and Change

*

of all biomedical research scholars own intellectual property

1/3

PATENTED

patents were filed subsequent to a scholar award

48

- Copyrights

- Invention disclosures

- Licenses

- Spin-off companies

- Technology transfer agreements

- Trademarks

*based on a sample of 214 scholars; collected in 2014

Other intellectual property reported:

MSFHR invested

$3.1M

Partners invested

$3.3M

COMBINED investments made possible148trainee

and scholar awards

MSFHR partners with organizations to co-fund individual research awards for MSFHR Scholars and Trainees, maximizing BC’s investment in health research.

Fostering Partnerships

$600K MSFHR

investment

$1.9 millionadditional funding secured

In addition to attracting partners to our programs, MSFHR partners with other organizations to allow BC researchers to compete for funding from federal programs that require matching funds.

BC Alzheimer's Research Award

Brain Canada$3,750,000

In 2013, MSFHR received a $1.5 million investment from the Government of BC earmarked for research into biological causes and therapeutic treatments for Alzheimer’s disease. Working with partners, we were able to multiply BC’s initial investment fivefold and increase the scope of what we can achieve in addressing Alzheimer’s disease.

5x

Fostering Partnerships

5x Genome BC$1,000,000

Pacific Alzheimer Research Foundation

$1,250,000

BC Government via MSFHR

$1,500,000

[email protected] | www.msfhr.org | Twitter: @msfhr | YouTube: themsfhr

© MICHAEL SMITH FOUNDATION FOR HEALTH RESEARCH

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