Major Investment to Strengthen Capacity for Hospital-Based Research in St. John’s, NLFD

ST. JOHN`S, August 21 , 2008— The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) announced today support for large-scale research infrastructure, under its Research Hospital Fund (RHF), for research in founder population effect in Newfoundland with a focus on human genetics at the Memorial University of Newfoundland.

Suzanne Corbeil, Vice-President, External Relations and Communications for the CFI, was joined at Memorial University of Newfoundland by Fabian Manning, Member of Parliament for Avalon, to make the announcement.

“The importance of the Research Hospital Fund cannot be overstated,” said Suzanne Corbeil, Vice-President, External Relations and Communications for the CFI. “It provides a once-in-a-generation opportunity to ensure that Canadian research hospitals remain at the forefront of health research in the highly competitive international research environment, and will assist them in retaining their world-class scientists, and in training the next generation of health researchers.”

“The science and technology advancements of Canada’s research hospitals increase our research capacity and provide us with more effective products and services,” said Fabian Manning, Member of Parliament for Avalon. “The investment we are making today will help us to improve the health and overall quality of life of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians and all Canadians.”

“At Eastern Health, we are delighted to be partners in this groundbreaking scientific venture, involving researchers, clinicians, graduate students and our communities as a whole,” said Joan Dawe, Chair of the Board of Trustees, Eastern Health. “Our vision is ‘Healthy People. Healthy Communities.’ And that is the objective of this fundamentally important research. A greater understanding of genetic predisposition – intervention and prevention rather than treatment after the fact – these are our common goals.”

“The Newfoundland and Labrador Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Human Genetics will mean improved health for our province’s communities and communities around the world affected by genetic disease,” said Dr. Eddy Campbell, acting president and vice-chancellor of Memorial University of Newfoundland. “In addition, opportunities for commercial and economic benefit include the development of novel therapeutic drugs based on unique genetic discoveries, job creation and development of a skilled labour force. I would like to thank CFI for its support in these efforts.”

The Large-Scale Institutional Endeavours component of the RHF is designed for large-scale research hospital-based projects that require mostly space and other research infrastructure to support excellent research, training, and knowledge translation in one or more research themes of strategic importance to the hospital.

A complete list of the projects approved by the CFI to date is available here.

The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) is an independent corporation created in 1997 by the Government of Canada to fund research infrastructure. The CFI's mandate is to strengthen the ability of Canadian universities, colleges, research hospitals, and non-profit research institutions to carry out world-class research and technology development that will benefit Canadians.

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