Systematic analysis of global health research funding in Canada, 2000\u20132016

Steven J Hoffman,Stephanie Nixon,Elliot Gunn,Susan Rogers Van Katwyk

doi:10.17269/s41997-019-00247-8

Abstract

ObjectivesConsidering recent shifts in global funding landscapes, this study analyzes Canada’s long-term global health research funding trends in the hope of informing a new Canadian global health research strategy. Examining past investments can help prioritize limited future resources to either build on Canada’s existing strengths or fill gaps where needed, while simultaneously informing the investments of research funders in other countries.MethodsAdministrative data were analyzed covering all 1584 global health research grants awarded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) to 927 unique principal investigators from 2000 to 2016, totalling C$341 million. Existing metadata associated with each grant was supplemented by additional qualitative coding. Descriptive time-series analyses of global health research grant data were conducted using various measures related to each grant’s recipient (e.g., province, university, sex, distribution) and subject matter (e.g., research theme, area, focus).ResultsCIHR’s total annual global health research funding increased sharply from $3.6 million in FY2000/2001 to $30.3 million in FY2015/2016, with the largest share of research funding now focused on health equity—representing nearly 50% of CIHR’s global health research funding. Past grants have concentrated on infectious disease and public health research. One third of CIHR’s global health grant funding went to 20 principal investigators. Only 42.2% of global health research funding came from CIHR’s open investigator-driven competitions, with the rest coming from strategic priority-driven competitions.ConclusionGlobal health research has seen steady increases in funding from CIHR’s open competitions when preceded by investment in strategic competitions, which suggests the level of a national research funding agency’s strategic investments in global health research may determine the size of the field in their country. The greatest concentration of past investment lies in health equity research, followed by infectious disease research. Future analyses of research funding would benefit from an internationally accepted keyword classification scheme and more granular administrative data.

Highlights

Budget constraints and shifting political priorities have long posed challenges for global health research funding
Public funding of global health research has declined since the global financial crisis of 2008 (Chapman et al 2016); existing analyses show that only a small percentage of global health research funds are allocated towards epidemiology and health policy and systems research, which is context-specific research that is especially important for low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) (Abimbola et al 2017)
As Canada is currently refreshing its global health research strategy, developing its action plan for the Sustainable Development Goals, and implementing a new feminist international development policy, an analysis of long-term global health research funding trends can inform and provide historical context for these efforts. This study presents such an analysis focused on Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), which is unique among Canada’s three primary global health research funders because it supports all kinds of health research and is by far the largest source of funding for such research conducted by researchers based at Canadian academic institutions. (GCC’s annual investment in global health research is larger when combining its domestic and foreign funding activities (Plamondon et al 2017).)

Summary

Introduction

Budget constraints and shifting political priorities have long posed challenges for global health research funding. Many observers worry about continued reductions in research funding opportunities for global health, as populist pressures may encourage countries to shift resources towards domestic priorities (Morrison 2012) This global shortfall runs counter to the “convergence plan” of The Lancet’s Global Health 2035 Commission, which calls for doubling research funding for diseases that disproportionately affect LMICs from US$3 billion to US$6 billion per year so that health status in LMICs can catch up to HICs within a generation (Ramesh 2013). In light of these challenges, other countries, even if smaller in influence and capacity, will increasingly be shaping global health research priorities alongside existing major funders

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