CFN funding from NCE to continue to end of second term in 2022

December 6, 2018

As you may be aware, it was announced today that the Networks of Centres of Excellence (NCE) program is being phased out. Although Canadian Frailty Network (CFN) is disappointed with this news, we appreciate the federal government’s support and have been assured that our funding will continue unchanged to the end of our second term in 2022.

We are proud of our work thus far and the work that we have planned for the rest of this term. We have created a Network of over 3,500 interdisciplinary, geographically diverse individuals/teams across Canada and around the world, thereby catalyzing collaborations that would never have happened without CFN. By directly involving knowledge users and citizens and caregivers as partners, our work reflects real-world situations and we have been able to nimbly address important emerging areas.

We play an important role in raising awareness of frailty across Canada and have created a substantial evidence base regarding frailty and older adults. As an NCE, we fund not just larger research studies, but also innovative, fundamental proof-of-concept discovery work that will make our investigators more competitive for larger transformative research that might be funded under a new program. Importantly, we will continue to mobilize the evidence created such that it is implemented in the real-world. And, our training program will continue to prepare future generations to take on the challenge.

Our Board and leadership will be meeting to discuss next steps and plan our path forward.  We also look forward to further conversations with the federal government, and consultations within our Network and the larger Canadian research community to plan for new opportunities that will arrive to ensure continuance of CFN’s important mission past our current funding cycle. We will continue to seek strategic partnerships to grow our Network since the need for CFN will continue to increase as Canada’s population ages.

We are optimistic that CFN will continue to have an impact going forward and that we will identify new opportunities to ensure continuance of the Network past this term.

Please feel free to contact us if we can answer any questions. We look forward to continuing to work with you.

Russell Williams                             John Muscedere

Chair, Board of Directors             Scientific Director and CEO