1. science
2. medicine
3. medical research

Overview: CFRI’s New Research Structure & Strategic Planning Timelines
CFRI investigators have achieved tremendous success and made significant contributions to improving
the health of children and families in British Columbia and around the world. For the next phase in
CFRI’s evolution, our aim is to grow the organization to become one of the top research institutes in
North America dedicated to child and family health research, and to make it easier for our researchers
to achieve success.
We have a lot of strengths to build upon:
 Our investigators, many of whom are faculty at the University of British Columbia, who have
achieved tremendous success and are Leaders nationally and internationally.
 Our partnership with BC Children’s Hospital, which serves the province’s one-million children and
their families.
 BC Children’s Hospital Foundation and the people of British Columbia who generously support the
Foundation.
Our aim is to be one of the top pediatric research centres in North America. To realize this aim, we are
putting in place a new research structure at CFRI that allows us to grow, and carrying out a strategic
planning process that will produce a 5-year strategic plan for the research institute.
CFRI’s New Research Structure
Over the next year, we will transition CFRI to four research Themes represented by Theme Leads
working with research Groups and Group Leads within each Theme.
The purpose of a Theme is to identify and enable strategic research directions. Examples of Theme level
activities include seeking and responding to new large-scale funding opportunities, facilitating
collaborations and interactions between groups, optimizing use and awareness of existing and new
research infrastructure, and responding to unmet needs for BC’s children and families.
Groups are intended to bring together smaller numbers of investigators (e.g. 10-20) in a way that
increases research capacity and collaboration, optimizes the potential for translational research, and
makes CFRI a dynamic and exciting place to work. Groups may form around new, large-scale funding
opportunities, common areas of research interest, or a shared technology. It is anticipated that there
will be 15-20 groups will be active at any one time.
This new structure will help us profile our research to support fundraising, external funding
opportunities, and obtaining matching contributions for large scale grant applications. CFRI’s new
research structure will provide us with the ability to:
 Strategically use our resources
 Develop new research Groups, address unmet needs for BC children, and respond to opportunities
 Engage directly with BC Children’s Hospital Foundation and the CHIPS Committee
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CFRI’s Research Themes and Theme Leads are:
1. Childhood Disorders – Lead: Dr. Megan Levings
Childhood Disorders includes Groups that are focused
on studying childhood diseases and disorders. There is
a specific focus on understanding mechanisms of
health versus disease, as well as identifying and
testing new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches.
2. Healthy Starts – Lead: Dr. Michael Kobor
Healthy Starts is aimed at keeping children and
families healthy and out of hospital, preventing
lifelong health disparities that are rooted in early
childhood, and promoting healthy life trajectories.
Research in this Theme includes work in the areas of
the developmental origins of health and disease,
healthy pregnancy, social and environmental
determinants of child health, and biological
mechanisms underpinning child development.
3. Evidence to Innovation – Co-Leads: Dr. Kishore Mulpuri & Dr. Ian Pike
Evidence to Innovation encompasses research in the data, clinical and community environments,
along with population and community research. This Theme will leverage opportunities that are
underway with the electronic health records project, the development of an integrated data
infrastructure environment, the potential for clinical informatics to empower clinical research, and
our clinician researchers who are driving innovations in technology and transforming outcomes for
children and their families. Activities in this Theme will leverage the knowledge translation work that
affects policy, practice, societal awareness and behaviour.
4. The Mind – Initial Leadership will be provided by a Planning Committee
The Mind is an exciting new area of strategic focus that brings together our research strengths in
areas such as autism, clinical neurosciences, mental health, brain and behaviour research. It
leverages our leadership in areas such as NeuroDevNet and the Child & Family Research Imaging
Facility 3T MRI, and it anticipates the move of Sunny Hill Health Centre for Children onto the Oak
Street campus in 2019. Because The Mind is a new strategic focus for CFRI, it is in a development
phase, and a Planning Committee will help get it established as a research Theme. The Planning
Committee will ultimately work with the CFRI Research Leadership Council to identify a Theme Lead.
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How the New Structure Works
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There are four research Themes, and within each Theme there are a small number of Groups.
CFRI will have 15-20 Groups that will be active at any one time.
Each investigator will become a member of one Theme.
An investigator can participate in multiple Groups, which
Executive Director
may span Themes. The Group Leads will confirm the Group
membership to ensure there is a fit with the research.
Research Leadership Council
Each Theme has a Theme Lead and each Group has a Group
Childhood
Healthy
Evidence to
The Mind
Lead. A Group’s Lead must be in the Theme that is
Disorders
Starts
Innovation
championing the Group. The Theme Lead and the CFRI
Group
Group
Group
Group
Research Leadership Council will confirm Groups and Group
Leads.
Group
Group
Group
Group
CFRI resources to the Groups will flow through the Themes.
While research Groups can change, the Theme structure
Group
Group
Group
Group
will endure.
...
...
...
...
In the future, there will be a process for proposing new
Groups, and a process for celebrating and decommissioning
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Groups that have completed their work.
*It is possible that a few people may choose to opt out of being in a Group, and while that is
acceptable, they will still be in a Theme and relating to a Theme Lead. However, CFRI is unable to
support an infinite number of Groups. The Theme resources will be strategically allocated through
the Theme structure to research Groups. We expect only a few people would choose not to join a
formal Group.
Example: Childhood Disorders is a Theme. Cancer is a Group within the Childhood Disorders Theme.
The Cancer Group Lead is an investigator in the Childhood Disorders Theme. The Childhood Disorders
Theme Lead is a champion for the Cancer Group, and the Cancer Group Lead works closely with the
Childhood Disorders Theme Lead. Investigators from any of the four Themes can become members of
the Cancer Group with the approval of the Cancer Group Lead to ensure there is a fit with the
research.
The CMMT will continue as a UBC Centre, and each CMMT investigator will also be a member of a
CFRI Theme.
Getting Started
CFRI and CMMT investigators are invited to fill out a web form where they can identify their Theme. This
information will help the Theme Leads coordinate the Theme strategic planning sessions, which will take
place in May-June 2015. The Themes will discuss and finalize their Groups during the Theme strategic
planning process. The Groups and Group Leads will be confirmed by the Theme Leads and the CFRI
Research Leadership Council.
Strategic Planning Process
There will be a series of strategic planning sessions with each Theme over May-June 2015. These
sessions will be an important opportunity for our investigators to participate in shaping what they need
for their success. The aim is to develop a 5-year strategic plan for CFRI.
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Timeline – Strategic Planning and Implementation Process
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APPENDIX: Overview of Key Inputs into CFRI’s New Research Structure
CFRI Executive Director, Dr. Wyeth Wasserman, engaged with the CFRI community to obtain input into a
new structure for the research institute. The new structure was informed by the CFRI’s Visioning
Sessions in winter 2014, the survey distributed to CFRI investigators in fall 2014, and consultation with
CFRI’s scientific Leadership, our partners BC Children’s Hospital and the Provincial Health Services
Authority, BC Children’s Hospital Foundation, the University of British Columbia, as well as input from
the CFRI Scientific Advisory Board in fall 2014 and winter 2015.
It was clear from the feedback that while a lot of success had been achieved with CFRI’s research cluster
structure, a new model was required for the next era in CFRI’s development that would accommodate
future growth.
1. CFRI Visioning Sessions – winter 2014
Nearly 100 people participated in the CFRI facilitated visioning sessions in winter 2014 and told us they
want a structure that allows Groups to interact dynamically, provides access to resources for preliminary
work to extract dollars from outside, and creates a system to promote research and enable researchers
to become even more successful.
2. CFRI Survey – fall 2014
In a survey in fall 2014, we asked our investigators about the areas of research with which they identify.
Nearly 90 people completed the survey. Over half of our investigators said there was only one research
Group with which they’d affiliate. We heard that investigators are already functioning in Groups, Groups
have to be flexible, and some clusters need to be change.
3. Consultation with CFRI’s Partners – 2014-2015
Throughout 2014-2015, CFRI’s Executive Director, Dr. Wyeth Wasserman, consulted with CFRI’s partners
and key stakeholders and obtained their input:
 CFRI’s scientific Leadership through the CFRI Research Leadership Council
 CFRI Scientific Advisory Board
 The CHIPS (Child Health Integrated Partnership Strategy) Committee at BC Children’s Hospital
 BC Children’s Hospital Foundation
 BC Children’s Hospital
 Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA)
 University of British Columbia (UBC)
April 13, 2015 at 9:00 a.m.
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