Research Manitoba

About

Research Manitoba provides financial grants and awards for research in the province, publishes and distributes scientific, technical and economic research and information related to research it funds and advises and makes recommendations to the provincial government on matters related to its mandated areas of research. Research Manitoba has also been tasked to develop, coordinate and implement a provincial research strategy and major funding programs on behalf of the province.

Background

Research Manitoba was established by the Manitoba government on June 19, 2014 as a way to bring several major provincial research funding programs together into a single, coordinated organization and to make more focused and effective use of research funding. The earlier programs included the Manitoba Health Research Council (MHRC), the Manitoba Research and Innovation Fund (MRIF), the Health Research Initiative (HRI) and the Manitoba Centres of Excellence Fund (MCEF).

Dr. Brian Postl was appointed the organization’s inaugural chair and Research Manitoba received $17-million in funding for 2014-2015. Its board of directors consist of at least nine, but not more than 17 directors, who are appointed by the lieutenant-governor in council upon the recommendation of the Minister.

Research Manitoba was built on the staff and board structure of the former Manitoba Health Research Council (MHRC), but while the MHRC funded only health-related research, Research Manitoba has broadened its mandate to fund natural sciences, social sciences, engineering and the humanities.

The MHRC was created in the early 1980s when Dr. Arnold Naimark, Dr. Henry Friesen and Dr. Lyonel Israels met with the then Provincial Minister of Health, Bud Sherman and his Acting Deputy Minister, Dr. George Johnson, to express concern about the absence of provincial funding to support and recruit young scientific investigators to Manitoba and the inability to retain established scientists.

Several other provinces had allocated funding to health research by this time, including Quebec, Ontario, Saskatchewan and Alberta, and the doctors suggested that Manitoba needed a competitive edge to both recruit and retain scientists in the province.

When the Ministry of Health agreed, the MHRC was born, but it was not until 1982 that the MHRC was officially established, after the Manitoba Health Research Council Act was passed. (See more historical details at Manitoba Health Research Council).

Over the next three decades, the size and the scope of the MHRC expanded dramatically. According to Research Media, it more than doubled the number of funded applications between 2005 and 2011, and since its inception, it has supported more than 1,300 health researchers with their projects.

Funding

Research Manitoba is a provincial organization that supports new and experienced researchers, as well as trainees, for research in health, natural and social sciences, engineering and the humanities. In 2016/2017, the provincial government pledged $17 million towards funding research in the province.

Research Manitoba’s core funding programs and peer/merit review processes were adopted from Manitoba Health Research Council practices, and expanded to include programming to support the organization’s expanded mandate in natural and social sciences, engineering and the humanities. Funding takes the form of project operating grants, team/cluster funding for large multidisciplinary research programs, trainee salary awards, indirect costs of research, as well as critical funding to support such federal programs/initiatives as the National Centres of Excellence, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, Genome Canada, and the CIHR Strategy for Patient Oriented Research.

Research Manitoba offers a peer-reviewed competition for its grants and awards to researchers, which support research in four distinct health research categories: biomedical; clinical; health systems and services; and the social, cultural and environmental factors that affect the health of populations.

They also invest in multi-disciplinary research clusters. In April 2015, $5.95 million was invested to support three multidisciplinary health research clusters, which are encourage investment from partners, such as post-secondary institutions, hospitals and foundations, research institutes and health charities.

In 2014, Research Manitoba also invested in five Applied Health Services Research Grants. Some wide-ranging examples include research on promoting mental health and well-being, assessing, improving and supporting effective health services delivery, particularly primary care renewal; improving the access and quality of mental health services for youth; optimizing colonoscopy procedures to reduce unnecessary (and over) use; and investigating “risk based triage” and the transition from primary to nephrology care.

Research Manitoba’s Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) Matching Funds program provides matching funds (40 percent of project total) for proposals that have been awarded grants elsewhere. The Research Connections Program provides matching funding to support research conferences, workshops, research days and events and promote exchange between and among researchers and others. And The Health Research Initiative (HRI) Program provides $2 million annually to assist Manitoba health research centres in meeting a portion of their operational expenses.

Select publications

Partner organizations

The following is a list of organizations with which Research Manitoba partner or work closely (from 2015):