Thank you, Madam Chair.
CIHR has helped foster obesity research, turning an expert but very small research community into a large pan-Canadian and internationally recognized research funding group. Indeed, a bibliometric study of CIHR-funded obesity researchers has found that Canadian obesity researchers ranked number five in the world in productivity. The number of grants coming to the competition over the last eight years has increased sixfold. Two Canadian universities--Laval University and the University of Toronto--are ranked in the top 20 institutions in the world publishing obesity-related research.
So targeting research on obesity has been a public health issue that CIHR has addressed in a timely manner.
The point made about early intervention is an important one. There is research being done at the Hospital for Sick Children, where I work part of the time, showing that if you intervene on screening time for children, it has a big impact. That intervention has to take place early in life to really have a meaningful impact on body weight, and it has a long-term impact. So one needs to intervene early in life.
I hope that answers some of your questions.