Grant: Training Grant

Respiratory diseases are the third most important source of health burden, after cardiovascular disease and cancers. They reflect a complex interplay between genetic factors, biological exposures, inflammatory responses, psychosocial determinants, and health services. Future research must combine focused questions and abilities with broader understanding of respiratory disease, in both biological and societal context. Future researchers will require key crosscutting competencies to take projects from great ideas to successful completion. They will need to develop research questions with diverse colleagues and "consumers." They will need to disseminate the resulting new knowledge effectively, so as to improve relevant health outcomes. As a first step, in 2003 the CIHR funded a Quebec- wide multidisciplinary research training program in respiratory disease. We now aim to broaden the scope of our program, to secure its long-term viability, and to further increase the impact of Canadian respiratory research.