OECD Survey on the STI policy responses to Covid-19

⇤ OECD Survey on the STI policy responses to Covid-19

Canada

Updated on: 2020-05-08

	Response
Q1A. What arrangements, if any, do you have in place to ensure scientific advice informs national policy and decision making in relation to Covid-19?	The Prime Minister and Cabinet are responsible for national policy-making in areas of federal jurisdiction which include public health emergencies, controlling infectious disease, regulation of pharmaceuticals and medical devices, international travel and immigration, employment and workforce, industry, and scientific research. In response to the pandemic, a Cabinet Committee on the federal response to the coronavirus disease was struck; it is chaired by the Prime Minister. Canada’s Chief Science Advisor (CSA) provides and coordinates expert advice to the Prime Minister and members of Cabinet, as appropriate and as requested, on key scientific issues. In the context of COVID-19, the CSA assembled a panel of experts to assist her in providing rapid access to biomedical expertise ensuring science is available to inform national policies and decisions. https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/063.nsf/en.... The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) monitors and responds to disease outbreaks. PHAC, through Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer (CPHO), advises the Government of Canada and Canadians on the steps they should take to protect their health, working in close collaboration with the chief medical officers of health in the provinces and territories. The Government Operations Centre (GOC) coordinates and gathers information across the national and sub-national levels of government to ensure a national picture. For emergencies that pose a risk to public health, PHAC activates the Health Portfolio Operations Centre (HPOC), which ensures effective planning and coordination of the Agency's response efforts, in collaboration with international, federal, provincial, and territorial partners. The HPOC employs an emergency response structure modelled after the international recommended practices of the Incident Management System (IMS) framework that contains a number of coordinating functions, including research and emerging science, testing, and medical countermeasures. During a public health response, the federal, provincial and territorial governments work collaboratively to establish an overall agreed upon strategy, as per Canada’s Public Health Response Plan for Biological Events (https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/s...). Strategies may include interventions such as: developing/modifying protocols for surveillance and laboratory testing, providing recommendations for public health measures and the use of medical countermeasures, identifying research needs and developing and implementing communication strategies that allows F/P/T governments to develop harmonized communication plans and stakeholder engagement strategies. This is facilitated through the activation of a number of governance structures, for instance: o A Special Advisory Committee (SAC) on novel coronavirus, composed of the CPHO and the chief public health officers in the provinces and territories. The SAC has the mandate to provide advice to the F/P/T Conference of Deputy Ministers of Health (CDMH). o A Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) reviews and approves technical products prior to them going to SAC. In addition to public health, officials in other federal government agencies have set up regular calls with their provincial-territorial counterparts to discuss science-related issues that inform policies. For instance, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) and the provincial government ministries responsible for science and research discuss ways to better coordinate the provincial initiatives with those being undertaken at the federal level. Food safety and security issues are also being discussed among various agencies and industry.
Q1B. In what ways, if any, are you coordinating on Covid-19 STI responses at international level?	At the international level, Canada joins other G7 countries in sharing information and providing scientific expertise and leadership to accelerate research efforts. Government agencies (Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), Health Canada (HC), Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), and the National Research Council (NRC)) are working with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) to enhance global coordination, support transparent global research, enable priority setting, and build common research platforms. Canada's Chief Science Advisor, Dr. Mona Nemer, is in regular contact with the chief science advisors of various countries to exchange information and mobilize global research approaches regarding the COVID-19 response. To help advance research and vaccine development for COVID-19, Canada is participating in the international collaboration, coordinated by the World Health Organization and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations. o Canada, through CIHR and the International Development Research Centre, is a member of the Global Research Collaboration for Infectious Disease Preparedness (GloPID-R), a consortium of funders that facilitates the international rapid response to infectious disease outbreaks such as COVID-19. CIHR's Scientific Director of the Institute of Immunity and Infection is a Vice-Chair of GloPID-R. Canada continues to work with international partners through the GloPID-R and the WHO's R&D Blueprint to leverage global efforts and avoid duplicative activities. CIHR is one of 67 international research funders that are signatories to a statement to rapidly and openly share COVID-19 research data and findings. o Canada is participating in the WHO's SOLIDARITY trial, a multi-national clinical trial to study possible treatment options for COVID-19. The goal is to rapidly generate robust data with the same study protocol applied to multiple sites in order to obtain sufficient numbers of patients enrolled in the clinical trial to ensure statistically sound results. Over 70 countries have now confirmed participation. Canada has invested nearly $1 million through the CIHR to support the Canadian arm of this trial. o The CFIA, in partnership with Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC) and PHAC, established the Biosafety Level 4 Zoonotic Disease Network (BSL4ZNet) which is a network of 15 government organizations from five different countries (Canada, US, UK, Germany and Australia), each with a responsibility over the regulation of human, animal and zoonotic pathogens with pandemic potential. The BSL4ZNet has been conducting COVID-19 emergency meetings since early January with international partners to facilitate the sharing of scientific information and research capacity needs in a secure and trusted platform. Technical points of contact on COVID-19 research from Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States and Canada represented by the BSL4ZNet secretariat have been sharing updates on research priorities and progress. The CFIA has also contributed knowledge towards the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) risk assessments of COVID-19 on its zoonotic potential and in identifying priority research needs on host pathogen interactions. o NRC, PHAC and CFIA regularly engage with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness and Innovation (CEPI), which is a key international funding mechanism for vaccine development. Canada has also provided $14 million to CEPI, which is leading efforts to have COVID-19 vaccine candidates ready for clinical trials by late spring. o HC is engaged with other international regulators to monitor any impacts on the global supply of medicines as a member of the International Pharmaceutical Regulators Programme. PHAC and DRDC are members of the Medical Countermeasures Consortium, in partnership with the Department of National Defence, where they engage with the US, UK and Australian governments to promote collaboration in research, development and acquisition. o In addition, research information is being shared between the 27 regulatory authorities, representing every region in the world, that make up the International Coalition of Medicines Regulatory Authorities. From https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/s... On May 4, the Government of Canada announced its commitment to co-chair the Coronavirus Global Response initiative (CGRI) with Saudi Arabia in their current G20 presidency role, and Italy in their future G20 presidency role. Other co-chair partners include the European Union, France, Germany, Spain, Norway, the United Kingdom, and Japan. The CGRI seeks to kick-start an unprecedented global cooperation between scientists and regulators, industry and governments, international organizations, foundations, and health care professionals. It is hoped that together they can raise more than $8 billion (USD) by the end of the pledging period to support the development of rapid coronavirus diagnostics, treatments, and vaccines. The partners will also work with the World Health Organization to coordinate and prioritize efforts to vulnerable countries. The funds collected will be channelled into three principal strands: diagnostics, treatments, and vaccines and may also be used to strengthen health systems.
Q2.Do you have dedicated arrangements in place for communicating science advice and for refuting misleading information to the public on Covid-19?	The Government of Canada has undertaken significant communications and public education on COVID-19 to inform Canadians of the Government's action, to help them make informed decisions and to enable them to take action to protect their health and their communities. Canadians have access to information, updated daily, through: o The Canada.ca/coronavirus website, which includes information resources that Canadians can download on the novel coronavirus, how to be prepared and how to limit the spread of the virus. o The Government of Canada's coronavirus information line (1-833-784-4397), where members of the community can speak with a public health officials in either French or English to address their questions. This service is available from 7:00 a.m. to midnight (EST) seven days a week. o Regular briefings and information sharing by Canada's Chief Public Health Officer and federal cabinet ministers, including multiple Government of Canada social media accounts. o The Prime Minister provides regular press briefings at 11:00 am almost every morning where he shares the latest information with Canadians. He has been conducting regular briefings since mid-March. o Government of Canada commercials to remind Canadians of the importance of staying home to protect themselves and those around them. Printed materials sent to every household in Canada on proper hygiene and what to do if they suspect they may have COVID-19. As the situation evolves, the Government of Canada will expand existing communications and public education to ensure that Canadians can make informed decisions on how best to protect themselves. To ensure Canadians get trusted and accurate information, the Government of Canada is providing $50 million to the Public Health Agency of Canada's dedicated communications capacity and public education efforts. Provinces and territories are also communicating science advice to their citizens through daily updates from premiers, ministers and chief medical officers. Municipalities are doing the same through their own medical officers of health, and are providing citizens with more specific locally relevant information. Canada’s National Security Agencies are taking aggressive measures to quash malicious cyber campaigns seeking to exploit vulnerable Canadians and promoting false and fake information pertaining to the pandemic. For example, the Communications Security Establishment dismantled fake sites posing as official government sites. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/cse-dis... On April 7, the Government of Canada invested $3M in several organizations to promote a public awareness tool and on-line workshop to help Canadians become more resilient and think critically about COVID-19 disinformation. On April 4, the Government of Canada launched a new COVID-19 situational dashboard for Canada https://phac-aspc.maps.arcgis.com/apps/o... The Canada COVID-19 mobile application allows users to access trusted health resources and track COVID-19 symptoms daily https://ca.thrive.health/ On May 3, the Government of Canada announced a suite of digital tools to help support the physical and mental health and well-being of Canadians during COVID-19. These include: o Wellness Together Canada, an online portal dedicated to mental wellness and substance use support. It connects Canadians to peer support workers, social workers, psychologists, and other professionals for confidential chat sessions or phone calls, and makes it easier to find credible information and help address mental health and substance use issues. o Canada COVID-19, a mobile app that features a symptom tracker, a self-assessment tool, trustworthy up-to-date information on COVID-19, as well as information on mental health and substance use support. o Get Updates on COVID-19, a web-based email service that provides subscribers with critical information related to the pandemic. Subscribers receive emails directing them to important and authoritative content on the Government of Canada’s COVID-19 website.
Q3. What new STI policy measures, if any, is your country taking to respond specifically to the Covid-19 crisis?	A report on Government of Canada's research response to COVID-19 was released on April 23, 2020, which outlines a number of the initiatives below. https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/s... Rapid Research Response to COVID-19: On February 10, 2020, the Government of Canada launched a Rapid Research Funding Opportunity. o Result: 99 research projects ($54.2M over 2 years) funded to provide new evidence on how to address COVID-19 in two broad research areas: 1.Medical countermeasures research (e.g., transmission and zoonotic source of the 2019-nCov, development and evaluation of diagnostic tools for early case detection and surveillance, and development and evaluation of candidate vaccines, among other areas) and 2.Social and policy countermeasures research (e.g., examining how individuals and communities understand and react to the disease, and developing strategies to combat misinformation, stigma, and fear). On March 11, 2020, the Government of Canada announced more than $1 billion for a whole-of-government COVID-19 Response Fund which included $100 million to support federal public health measures such as enhanced surveillance, increased testing at the Public Health Authority of Canada's (PHAC) National Microbiology Laboratory (NML) and ongoing support for preparedness in First Nations and Inuit communities. On March 20, Canada launched its plan to ‘Mobilize Industry’ to fight COVID-19. https://pm.gc.ca/en/news/news-releases/2.... The plan introduced new measures directly supporting businesses to build domestic capacity, find innovative solutions, and speed procurement of essential supplies. It refocuses Canada’s existing industrial and innovation programs (i.e. Strategic Innovation Fund, Innovation Superclusters and Innovative Solutions Canada) by adding to their mandate a requirement that they prioritize the fight against COVID-19. It also directed support to key Canadian companies that are working on large-scale, late-stage R&D projects aiming, in the immediate term, at producing countermeasures to COVID-19. The National Research Council’s Industrial Research Assistance Program also launched a COVID-19 ‘challenge’ program to address a range of medium-term governmental needs, the most promising of which will be selected for procurement, working with Innovative Solutions Canada. https://nrc.canada.ca/en/research-develo... On March 23, 2020, $275 million was announced as part of the $1 billion investment (from March 11) to support research and large-scale efforts towards countermeasures to combat COVID-19. The funding is facilitating partnerships among various Canadian stakeholders including other government departments, industry and academia to respond to COVID-19 and build Canadian capacity to produce a domestic supply of potential vaccines and treatments. https://pm.gc.ca/en/news/news-releases/2.... Funding will be used to advance projects already underway by university researchers and others, including: prioritizing projects under the new Strategic Innovation Fund COVID-19 stream ($192M) for companies including: AbCellera in Vancouver and Medicago in Quebec City. The Government also committed to invest $23M in the University of Saskatchewan’s Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization - International Vaccine Centre (VIDO-InterVac) ($11M from CFI, $12M from WD) to strengthen research expertise, help develop a vaccine, and expand clinical trials and bio-manufacturing capacity in the facility. The National Research Council will receive $15M to upgrade its Human Health Therapeutics facility in Montreal to develop, test and scale up promising vaccine candidates. The Government will also support BlueDot, a Toronto-based technology firm, and use its disease analytics platform to support modelling and monitoring of the spread of COVID-19, and to inform government decision-making as the situation evolves. On March 31, 2020, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council announced it is providing up to $15 million, as part of its Alliance COVID-19 Grants Initiative, to support academic researchers to contribute their expertise and their research results to address challenges and questions raised by the public and not-for-profit sectors, as well as industry in the context of the pandemic. https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/Innovate-I... In late March, Canada became a participant in "SOLIDARITY”, the WHO-led international clinical trial to help find an effective treatment for COVID-19. By enrolling patients in multiple countries, the SOLIDARITY trial aims to rapidly discover whether any of the drugs slow disease progression or improve survival. WHO has secured access to all treatments so as to obviate the supply issues that may be associated with other trials. The Canadian arm of the global trial, dubbed CATCO (Canadian Treatments for COVID-19), is being funded by the CIHR, which provided nearly $1 million. https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/s... https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases... On April 23, 2020 the Government of Canada announced further investments of $1.1B in new medical countermeasures to better understand COVID-19, and develop the infrastructure needed to fight the virus here in Canada. This includes: o The establishment of the COVID-19 Immunity Task Force that will establish priorities and oversee the coordination of a series of country-wide blood test surveys that will tell us how widely the virus has spread in Canada and provide reliable estimates of potential immunity and vulnerabilities in Canadian populations. o $40 million for the Canadian COVID-19 Genomics Network (CanCOGeN), led by Genome Canada, to coordinate a COVID-19 viral and host genome sequencing effort across Canada. This research will help track the virus, its different strains, and how it makes people sick in different ways, providing valuable information to public health authorities and decision-makers as they put in place measures to control the pandemic. The results of this work will be available to researchers globally to support additional research, including Canadian vaccine development efforts. o $23 million for the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization-International Vaccine Centre (VIDO-InterVac) to accelerate development of a vaccine against COVID-19. This funding will support pre-clinical testing and clinical trials of a potential COVID-19 vaccine, essential steps to ensuring that vaccines are effective and safe for human use. o $29 million for the National Research Council of Canada to begin the second phase of critical upgrades to its Human Health Therapeutics facility in Montréal. Building on ongoing work to ready the facility for the production of vaccines for clinical trials, this funding will support operations to maintain the facility, as well as provide infrastructure to prepare vials for individual doses as soon as a vaccine becomes available. o $600 million, through the Strategic Innovation Fund, over two years to support COVID-19 vaccine and therapy clinical trials led by the private sector, and Canadian biomanufacturing opportunities. o $10 million for a Canadian data monitoring initiative so we can coordinate and share pandemic-related data across the country to enhance Canada’s response to COVID-19. o $10.3 million over two years, and $5 million ongoing, to support the Canadian Immunization Research Network in conducting vaccine-related research and clinical trials, and to enhance Canada’s capacity to monitor vaccine safety and effectiveness. o $114.9 million through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research for research projects that will accelerate the development, testing, and implementation of medical and social countermeasures to mitigate the rapid spread of COVID-19, as well as its social and health impacts. o Separately, the Government of Canada is providing over $675,000 through the Stem Cell Network to support two new research projects and one clinical trial. The clinical trial will evaluate the safety of a potential cell therapy to reduce the impacts and severity of acute respiratory distress associated with COVID-19, and the two projects will generate critical information about how cells in the airway and brain are affected by the virus. https://pm.gc.ca/en/news/news-releases/2...
Q4A. At national level, what mechanisms are you developing or relying upon to bring together different STI actors (researchers, industry, government, health sector, foundations, etc.) to effectively collaborate on responses to Covid-19?	Please refer to collaborations outlined in answers to questions on scientific advice and new STI funding initiatives. The Government of Canada has been approached by a vast number of companies and academics, and has been engaging with them to gain insights on possible research and applications that could assist in the COVID-19 response. Canada’s Chief Science Advisor launched CanCOVID, a platform to support an experts network on COVID-19. The purpose is to expedite communication and collaboration of Canadian COVID-19 researchers, clinical collaborators, and healthcare stakeholders from across the country. https://cancovid.ca The Government of Canada (GoC), through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and partners, mobilized to launch a COVID-19 rapid response call for proposals intended to solicit investigator-led research focused on both medical and social/policy countermeasures. CIHR is organizing a series of knowledge mobilization events to maximize the impact of these investments, support coordination, and bring the best available evidence forward to support decision-making and action. This includes a small number of targeted virtual investigator meetings to foster meaningful engagement between federally-funded researchers and relevant federal departments and agencies actively engaged in the response to COVID-19. Canada's academic research community responded overwhelmingly to the CIHR COVID-19 Rapid Research Funding Opportunity in early 2020, but is also stepping up on other fronts like supplying critical consumables for laboratory testing in public health laboratories across Canada. Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) has a range of programs and agencies providing targeted funding to support research and manufacturing capabilities. These include the Strategic Innovation Fund (https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/125.nsf/en...), Innovative Solutions Canada (ISC), granting councils and regional development agencies programs. The ISC's Challenge and Testing Stream has launched challenges to Canadian innovators to develop new and improved pre-market medical countermeasures. http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/101.nsf/eng... The National Research Council's (NRC) Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP) provides advice, connections, and funding to help Canadian small and medium-sized businesses increase their innovation capacity and take ideas to market. The program is focused on expediting funding support to get money in place with its recipient firms as quickly as possible. NRC IRAP has funded three COVID-19 projects to date. Several others under discussion are at various stages of development, focused on short and medium term responses to COVID-19 and aligned with priority areas (PPE, sanitization, diagnostics, etc.). https://nrc.canada.ca/en/research-develo... To bring about transformative, high-risk, high-reward research with the potential for game-changing scientific discoveries and technological breakthroughs, the Government of Canada has provided $150 million over 5 years, with $30 million per year ongoing, to the NRC to fund its researchers to work with innovators from post-secondary institutions and businesses on multi-party research and development programs. In addition, the NRC is receiving $15 million in funding for a Pandemic Response Challenge Program, to form dedicated teams to address R&D needs in the fight against COVID-19. The Challenge Program is focusing on three main research themes: 1) rapid detection and diagnosis; 2) therapeutics and vaccine development; and 3) digital health. https://nrc.canada.ca/en/research-develo... The Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) New Frontiers in Research Fund - $275M over 5 years (starting in 2018-19) + $65M ongoing to fund international, interdisciplinary, fast-breaking and high-risk research. Three streams: o Exploration stream https://www.sshrc-crsh.gc.ca/funding-fin... o Transformation https://www.sshrc-crsh.gc.ca/funding-fin... o International https://www.sshrc-crsh.gc.ca/funding-fin... (not yet launched) Global Affairs Canada in collaboration with the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) has launched the International Policy Ideas Challenge 2020 https://www.international.gc.ca/world-mo... SSHRC announced the PEG COVID-19 Special Initiative https://www.sshrc-crsh.gc.ca/funding-fin... a $1.5M envelope that provides short-term and timely support for small-scale, stakeholder-driven partnerships through Partnership Engage Grants (PEG). This Special Initiative will allow researchers and their partners the possibility to address urgent and specific needs, as well as challenges or opportunities through collaborations. It will also provide an opportunity to foster knowledge exchange between researchers and different sectors of society. Grants are valued at a maximum amount of $25K per project for duration of one year.
Q4B. At international level, what mechanisms are you developing or relying upon to bring together different STI actors (researchers, industry, government, health sector, foundations, etc.) to effectively collaborate on responses to Covid-19?	Please refer to collaborations outlined in answers to the question on coordinating on Covid-19 STI responses at international level.
Q5. What novel approaches, if any, is your country using to address the coronavirus crisis (e.g. use of machine learning, open science initiatives boosting access and sharing of data and research results, development and use of prediction models, etc.)?	The Government of Canada (GoC), through the Canadian Institutes of Health (CIHR) and partners, mobilized to launch a COVID-19 rapid response call for proposals intended to solicit investigator-led research focused on both medical and social/policy countermeasures. CIHR is organizing a series of knowledge mobilization events to maximize the impact of these investments, support coordination, and bring the best available evidence forward to support decision-making and action. This includes a small number of targeted virtual investigator meetings to foster meaningful engagement between federally-funded researchers and relevant federal departments and agencies actively engaged in the response to COVID-19. Within the CIHR funded projects, AI is being used to scan through thousands of approved drugs for the identification of candidates to explore further their utility and safety for treating COVID-19. To improve the provision of public health care, a CIHR funded project is developing a tool to provide precision public health. Other funded projects will be developing AI-driven tools to conduct surveillance coupled with real-time human mobility data and use social media/news data to understand how misinformation and information is provided to Canadians. The National Collaborating Centres for Public Health synthesize, translate and share knowledge, making it useful and accessible to policy-makers, program managers and practitioners. They identify knowledge gaps, stimulate research in priority areas, and link public health researchers with practitioners to build strong practice-based networks across Canada. https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/s.... The National Collaborating Centre for Methods and Tools hosts a repository of COVID-19 Rapid Evidence Reviews: https://www.nccmt.ca/knowledge-repositor... Within the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), AI methodologies are being used for the extraction of surveillance data from the web and posted in the Federal Dashboard. Social media is being analysed using machine learning to detect clusters of COVID-19 outbreaks; while the Global Public Health Intelligence Network (GPHIN) continues to use natural language processing to monitor news information to detect emerging risks. This methodology is also starting to be explored for conducting literature reviews, to assist with the tagging of pertinent articles
Q6A. What impact on the STI system do you anticipate in the short-, medium- and long-term, and what measures are you implementing to address those?	Canada supports the statement of the ‘Global Preparedness Monitoring Board on COVID-19’ that called on countries, institutions, communities and partners to ensure that all relevant information about the outbreak is shared openly and rapidly, and that information should be made available for both human and machine-readable format to allow for full text and data-mining using AI with rights accorded for research re-use and secondary analysis. Open research was a requirement for funding under Canada’s Rapid Research Funding Opportunity on COVID-19. In the short term, Canada is committed to fast-track and mobilize Canadian researchers and life sciences companies and support large-scale efforts towards medical countermeasures to combat COVID-19, including potential vaccines and treatments. In the medium and longer-term, Canada aims to better understand and respond to emerging pathogens, while ensuring scientific excellence and leveraging novel technologies.
Q6B. Is support of the STI system part of planned stimulus packages aimed at supporting the economy?	See answers to question on new STI policy measures taken in response to the Covid-19 crisis.
Q7. Is there anything else regarding the STI policy response to Covid-19 in your country you would like to mention?	On April 22, the Government of Canada has committed $291.6 million to support student researchers and post-doctoral fellows through the federal granting councils. Funding would support a one-semester extension for eligible students whose research scholarships or fellowships end between March and August 2020 and who intend to continue their studies. It would also provide a 3-month extension in funding for holders of federal research grants to support eligible trainees and staff paid out of these awards.