Major Investment to Strengthen Capacity for Hospital-Based Research in Ottawa

Market Wire, August, 2008

The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) announced today support for large-scale research infrastructure, under its Research Hospital Fund (RHF), to support a collaborative project to develop new therapies and innovative approaches for improving health at Ottawa's research hospitals. The project is a partnership between the Ottawa Health Research Institute (research arm of The Ottawa Hospital), the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, the University of Ottawa Heart Institute and the University of Ottawa.

Dr. Eliot Phillipson, President and CEO of the CFI, was joined at The Ottawa Hospital by the Honourable John Baird, Minister of the Environment, to make the announcement.

"The importance of the Research Hospital Fund cannot be overstated," said

Dr. Eliot Phillipson, of 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 investment we are making today will help us to make key therapeutic advances and discover new approaches for chronic diseases and cancer therapy," said Minister Baird. "Investing in Canada's research hospitals is an investment in improved health care and quality of life for all Canadians."

"This is the largest and most important health research project ever undertaken in Ottawa and it will have an enormous impact on our city," said Dr. Duncan Stewart, CEO and Scientific Director of the Ottawa Health Research Institute, Vice President of Research at the Ottawa Hospital and Professor of Medicine at the University of Ottawa.

"This project leverages Ottawa's strongest research groups - in areas such as stem cells, cancer, cardiovascular disease and clinical epidemiology - and will enable them to translate their best science into novel approaches for improving health."

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 on our Website ( http://www.innovation.ca/ ).

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.

Contacts: Canada Foundation for Innovation Yves Melanson Coordinator, Media relations 613-996-3160 Cell.: 613-447-1723 yves.melanson@innovation.ca Ottawa Health Research Institute Jennifer Paterson Director, Communications and Public Relations 613-798-5555, ext.19691 Cell.: 613-614-5253 jpaterson@ohri.ca