Health Research Institutions and Research Networks

Canada's extensive network of academic health institutions and research centres includes 17 medical schools, over 45 groupings of academic healthcare organizations and about 13,600 researchers, as well as strategically focussed research networks. Canada's research excellence is recognized in many therapeutic areas, including cardiovascular, metabolic disorders, neuroscience, oncology, and infectious diseases and vaccines. Canada ranks amongst the top 10 countries worldwide in terms of the number of biopharmaceutical research papers published, specialization of research, and impact output and scientific impact. Canada is a leader in the development of key technology platforms including stem cells and regenerative medicine, genomics and antibody technologies.

Health Research Networks

Federal Research Networks

The federal government's Networks of Centres of Excellence Secretariat fosters world-class national research networks focused on key strategic areas of research interest. Three types of networks supporting health-related research and commercialization have been established under the Secretariat, namely, the original Networks of Centres of Excellence, the Centres of Excellence for Commercialization and Research, as well as Business-led Networks of Centres of Excellence.

• Networks of Centres of Excellence (NCEs)
  The original NCEs are large-scale, academically-led virtual research networks involving partners from academia, industry, government and non-profit organizations. There are seven biomedical-related NCEs:
  1. AllerGen
  2. Canadian Arthritis Network
  3. Canadian Obesity Network
  4. Canadian Stroke Network
  5. NeuroDevNet
  6. PrioNet Canada
  7. Stem Cell Network
• Centres of Excellence for Commercialization and Research (CECRs)
  Aim to create world-class centres to advance research and facilitate commercialization of technologies. There are eleven biomedical-related CECRs:
  1. Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine
  2. Centre for Drug Research and Development
  3. Centre for Imaging Technology Commercialization
  4. Centre for Probe Development and Commercialization
  5. Centre for Surgical Invention & Innovation
  6. Cepmed
  7. Institut de recherche en immunologie et en cancérologie (in French only)
  8. MaRS Innovation
  9. PREVENT (Pan-Provincial Vaccine Enterprise)
  10. Prevention of Organ Failure Centre of Excellence
  11. Prostate Centre's Translational Research Initiative for Accelerated Discovery and Development
• Business-led Networks of Centres of Excellence (BL-NCE)
  Large-scale, collaborative research networks led by the private sector, focussed on specific research needs of industry. There is one biomedical-related BL-NCE:
  1. Québec Consortium for Drug Discovery

International Research Networks

Canadian research institutions and researchers participate in international research networks, including the following:

• Brain Network Recovery Group (Headquartered in Toronto)
• Canada — Mexico Battling Childhood Obesity (Canadian headquarters located in Kingston, Ontario)
• International Cancer Genome Consortium (Headquartered in Toronto)
• International Centre for Infectious Diseases (Headquartered in Winnipeg)
• International Consortium of Stem Cell Networks (Canadian headquarters located in Ottawa)
• SGC (Structural Genomics Consortium) (Canadian headquarters located in Toronto)
• Type 1 Diabetes TrialNet (Research conducted in Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba, Alberta and British Columbia)
• Virtual Coordinating Center for Global Collaborative Cardiovascular Research (Canadian coordinating office located in Edmonton)

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Canadian Health Research Institutions

Federal Laboratories

The National Research Council is the Government of Canada's leading organizations for research, development and technology-based innovation. Six NRC institutes are dedicated to biotechnology, of which four are health related, namely:

1. Biotechnology Research Institute
2. Institute for Biodiagnostics
3. Institute for Biological Sciences

In addition to institutes, the NRC has state-of-the-art research facilities across the country, from which Canadian companies and universities can access and benefit. The NRC research facilities of interest to life science companies include:

• CARSLab (multimodal imaging)
• Magnetoencephalography system(Halifax) (a laboratory for clinical magnetoencephalography)