Mr. Chair, thank you for having me before the committee once again to speak about the continued importance of research and the ongoing role of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research in Canada's response to COVID-19.
Before we begin, I want to reiterate my sincere appreciation and gratitude to all of the health care professionals—the front-line and essential workers who are working tirelessly to support the health, safety and well-being of Canadians.
I would also like to extend my sincere condolences to the members of the Canadian Snowbirds for the tragedy of this past weekend. My wife, Wendy, and I had the opportunity to see the Snowbirds in London on Mother's Day. It was a real treat. They are, and always will be, a symbol of the pride that we as Canadians have in this great country. Our thoughts are with them at this time.
As I am sure many of my colleagues here today will echo, I also wish to commend the incredible and continued efforts of the Canadian research community. Our researchers are among the very best in the world, and they continue to play a critical role in the global and domestic research response on COVID-19.
I am pleased to be with you today to provide an update on the research initiatives that CIHR has recently implemented as part of Canada's efforts to address the pandemic. Before doing so, I wish to emphasize that CIHR's efforts to address the COVID-19 outbreak continue to be undertaken in very close collaboration with federal partners—including my colleagues who are appearing with me today—at Health Canada; Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada; the National Research Council, and many others.
I also wish to highlight the recently established COVID-19 immunity task force that Dr. Nemer referred to. I am pleased to say that two of CIHR's scientific directors, Dr. Charu Kaushic and Dr. Carrie Bourassa, are lending their expertise on immunity and infection and indigenous health respectively to this important initiative. CIHR also continues to work hard hand in hand with such international partners as the WHO and the Global Research Collaboration for Infectious Disease Preparedness, otherwise known as GloPID-R, to enable Canadian researchers to help in the global research efforts.
Additionally, CIHR supports the calls made by the chief scientific advisers around the world, as noted by Dr. Nemer, to ensure that such research outputs as data and publications are publicly available to support the ongoing global emergency response efforts.
As I shared with you at my previous committee appearance, CIHR moved quickly in February to efficiently mobilize the research community through the launch of a rapid research response to COVID-19. In just a few weeks, CIHR was able to select, through a rigorous peer review process, 99 COVID-19 research projects focused on developing and testing medical, social and policy countermeasures to address this public health crisis.
Given the uncertain nature of vaccine development and therapeutics and the need for additional preventive measures, Canada's response to the COVID-19 pandemic also requires sustained research investment to ensure a rich pipeline of innovations. That is why on April 23 the Prime Minister announced an additional $1.1 billion in support of a national medical research strategy for COVID-19, including close to $115 million in funding for CIHR.
This new investment builds on CIHR's initial rapid research response and will enable us to support researchers working on projects related to the development of vaccines, therapeutics, new diagnostics and public health interventions to move to the next critical stage in their research. It will also help to secure Canadian participation in domestic and international clinical trials responsive to WHO priorities that will increase the understanding of the efficacy and effectiveness of vaccines, therapeutics, mental health supports and clinical management approaches to COVID-19.
For instance, through this investment, we were able to provide Dr. Srinivas Murthy and his team from UBC with an additional $3.5 million to support the Canadian treatments for COVID-19 trial, otherwise known as CATCO, the Canadian arm of the WHO “solidarity” trial. This will enable Dr. Murthy and his team to expand the trial to include additional hospital sites and more study of participants across Canada to study the effectiveness of different drug treatments for COVID-19. We are confident that this type of research will greatly contribute to our efforts to rapidly find effective treatments for the benefit of all Canadians.
A portion of the investment will also be dedicated to working with Health Canada to improve ethics research review processes and structures. This will help accelerate the launch of promising multi-site, multi-jurisdictional research, including clinical trials across Canada. Further, these funds will also allow the Government of Canada, under the leadership of CIHR, to set up a centre for pandemic preparedness and health emergencies research that will lay the groundwork towards more nimble domestic and global pandemic research coordination.
Finally, we have heard loud and clear from Canadians and health care providers that more support is needed to help understand and mitigate the mental health and substance use impacts of the COVID-19 crisis. As such, CIHR, in partnership with the Public Health Agency of Canada and Health Canada, has established an expert advisory panel on mental health and substance use and will support research to facilitate the rapid synthesis and translation of evidence on effective virtual service delivery models for the benefit of all Canadians.
We are pleased to share that the second phase of CIHR's rapid research response is currently under way, and we have received a staggering number of applications. This underscores the incredible and widespread mobilization of the Canadian research community in response to COVID-19. Applications for the second phase are currently under review, and funds will be provided to successful applicants in a few weeks.
In the meantime, CIHR continues to coordinate and support the sharing and translation of ideas, data and innovative solutions across all levels of government to enhance timely and effective responses to the COVID-19 crisis. Since we last met, CIHR has rolled out a number of virtual knowledge mobilization meetings to strengthen connections between researchers funded through the COVID-19 rapid response competition and Government of Canada departments and agencies in order to accelerate research and knowledge translation.
I want to reiterate that these investments in research provide the crucial high-level evidence needed to inform policies and clinical and public health responses to mitigate the rapid spread of COVID-19 and save the lives of Canadians.
The critical importance of the work generated by CIHR's research community brings me to my last point. As you may well be aware, CIHR has postponed this year's spring project grant competition. Given the growing interest in this decision, expressed both publicly and within the scope of this very committee, I would like to take a moment to explain the reasons for this decision, which was made in close consultation with our trusted partners.
As a result of the COVID-19 outbreak and the redirection of government priorities to address the pandemic, CIHR placed a moratorium on all existing and any new strategic funding opportunities, with the exception of those related to COVID-19. At the time, CIHR could not be certain about the reliability of critical infrastructure required to deliver the project grant competition, which requires the review of thousands of applications in a short period of time, just after all CIHR employees had been directed to work from home.
We made the very difficult decision to ensure that these funds would be saved for the fall of 2020 project grant competition, but at the same time, we also began exploring options to support both the researchers and the trainees impacted by this decision, as well as those impacted by the shutdown stemming from COVID-19 of the broader research programs.
For instance, to support lead applicants whose work was impacted by the postponement of the spring competition, CIHR will provide prolonged financial support for existing grant holders for some and extend bridge grants for others. To support trainees, including students and post-doctoral fellows, the government recently announced new funding of $291 million to maintain income support for these individuals while the majority of academic research programs are closed.
On May 15, the Prime Minister announced an additional $450 million in funding to help Canada's academic research community during the COVID-19 pandemic. This funding will support universities and health research institutions to maintain essential research-related activities during the crisis and then ramp back up to full research operations once physical distancing measures are lifted. Further details on these supports can be found in the written brief we provided the committee in advance of this meeting.
To conclude, I would like to re-emphasize that CIHR recognizes the dual importance of supporting both Canada's response to COVID-19 and the broader research community that has been adversely impacted by this pandemic. Investments such as those recently announced are critical to sustaining Canada's research excellence, talent and knowledge.
To ensure that we are doing our utmost to support our researchers through the COVID-19 response and the post-pandemic economic recovery, CIHR continues to work closely with our federal partners, the research community and health charities to explore additional ways to support our researchers in these difficult times.
Again, thank you for inviting me to provide an update on CIHR's continuing efforts to support COVID-19 research. I am happy to answer any questions you may have.