Changing and challenging times for Canadian kidney health and disease research.

Abstract

The issues In many ways, the Canadian renal researcher lives in privileged times. Never before has she or he enjoyed such remarkable access to the tools of the trade. Unprecedented advances in biotechnology, genomics, molecular biology, regenerative medicine, tissue banking, and computer databases along with the implementation of numerous infrastructure projects on a scale unparalleled in our history have together luxuriously equipped our scientific community. We stand poised for breakthroughs that will significantly impact the renal health of Canadians both tomorrow and well into the future. Thanks to initiatives such as the federally funded Canada Foundation for Innovation along with its provincial and local partners, it is not uncommon for both basic and clinician scientists specializing in nephrology to be employing state-of-the-art equipment, housed in dozens of newly minted laboratories and research buildings across our country. Moreover, training programs such as the Kidney Foundation of Canada (KFoC)/Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) supported Kidney Research Scientist Core Education and National Training Program (KRESCENT) initiative have fostered the development of the next generation of investigators, each eager to contribute to the advancement of knowledge. However, the times wherein the Canadian renal researcher lives are also defined by enormous challenges. Despite the wealth of research infrastructure and an abundance of well-trained investigators, as in the USA, our national research endeavor seems to have been designed however, inadvertently, in anticipation of unlimited growth. Over the past 15 years, universities, hospitals, and research institutes have continued to hire into new positions in order to fill expanding wet and dry lab space to capacity. Despite this increase in the hiring of principal investigators, our system continues to train far more graduate students and postdoctoral fellows than there are positions in academia, industry, and government. Competition for new investigator spots is fierce, forcing many individuals to remain in training positions during their most creative years until either obtaining their first independent position or leaving research for other career options. These issues have imposed stress upon the system and together with an unchanging pool of funds available to investigators, have driven down funding success for many individual research operations. Not long ago, CIHR funding levels hovered at the 20–27 % range; on some peer-review committees, this was as high as 40 %, allowing for most applications ranked in the excellent range (i.e., ≥4.0 on the CIHR scale) to be approved. Recent open operating grant competitions have seen application pressure steadily increase, placing greater burdens on both reviewers and their committees. This has created a vicious cycle where highly ranked proposals line up in the queue, often requiring several resubmissions before being funded, if at all. With the declining success rates for CIHR applications, more applicants have sought funding from other agencies, similarly driving up application pressures and decreasing success rates. The net effect has been that funding rates with most sources are now at historic lows. Correspondence: ckennedy@uottawa.ca Kidney Research Centre, Chronic Disease Program, Department of Medicine, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Full list of author information is available at the end of the article