After marking a decade of excellence in brain health, the Ontario Brain Institute is looking to the future. We’re mapping out the next phase of our 30-year vision to improve the lives of the one in three Ontarians impacted by a brain disorder.
A major piece of our go-forward plan is an open call for Integrated Discovery Programs (IDPs).
Our vision of positioning Ontario as a world leader in brain research, commercialization, and care continues to propel us forward. We are fortunate to be at the vanguard of ‘team science’ in Canada and we will build on this success in our next phase.
By uniting the province’s neuroscience community, OBI has accelerated scientific discovery, invested in home-grown neurotechnology, and supported person-centered care in communities. Since our inception in 2010, we have:
- Facilitated the creation of six large, collaborative IDPs that have generated 12 million clinical data points from over 21,000 participants, all standardized and stored on Brain-CODE, our state-of-the-art neuroinformatics platform,
- Engaged in 300 patient partnership activities, such as patient advisory committees and priority setting partnerships, in order to put people first – and keep them there,
- Changed the landscape of care through the development of over 300 of knowledge products, such as guidelines, webinars, podcasts, and toolkits,
- Nurtured the province’s neurotech expertise by supporting close to 90 innovative companies and by bringing 20 new products to market,
- Connected with 17,000 people impacted by or caring for individuals living with a brain disorder at 28 public talks, and
- Played a key role in healthcare advocacy and policy development through ongoing, collaborative work with the Government of Ontario.
In just over a decade, the Ontario Brain Institute has leveraged over $600M investment into Ontario organizations for brain research and innovation.
Now, we’re looking ahead in terms of renewed priorities and goals:
- Establish the clinical research networks today, to support the vision for tomorrow,
- Leverage the success of team science in Ontario to build out national and international expertise,
- Create the environment to connect clinical data sets and provide the technology, skills, and support to get real value out of the data,
- Grow a globally competitive neurotechnology cluster to build a seamless pipeline of support for Ontario companies,
- Transfer the knowledge gained into new policies, practices, and technologies, and
- Keep patients at the centre of what we do.
These goals can only be accomplished by involving the vast expertise in Ontario. So, we are launching an open call for IDPs. We are excited to provide the opportunity to all research networks – new or existing – to apply.
OBI is looking for large-scale scientific programs that have a primary focus on prospective patient cohorts with a focus on deep characterization in a fashion that facilitates hypothesis-driven research, testing and validation of new clinical tools, and open science. Successful IDPs will prioritize partnerships with industry, patients, caregivers, and community organizations that drive patient-level impacts.
For OBI, re-competition presents an exciting opportunity to incorporate lessons learned, engage with the ever-growing expertise across the province, and ensure our focus is trained on maximizing value for people living with brain disorders. Our open call represents an opportunity to develop new pathways towards realizing our vision of positioning Ontario as a world leader in brain research, commercialization, and care.
Interested in connecting with us to learn about how you can join us to improve the lives of people impacted by brain disorders? Visit braininstitute.ca/opencall today.
