Recognized as an important international scientific research hub, Québec provides an exceptional environment for the development of public and private health research.

In the public sector, hundreds of research teams are working in universities and hospitals. There are four faculties of medicine in Québec (McGill University, Université de Montréal, Université Laval and Université de Sherbrooke), and research groups, research centres and thematic research networks afford researchers from across Québec the unique opportunity to collaborate in target areas such as cancer, aging, genetics, rehabilitation and more.

In the industrial sector, some twenty multinational pharmaceutical companies have chosen Montréal for their corporate headquarters. Québec is one of the rare places in the world where a company can carry out all of the drug development phases, from fundamental and clinical research to manufacturing and marketing.

The FRQS is the provincial funding agency that plans the development of the health research sector. Supporting students, researchers and research clusters, the Fonds works in close collaboration with its public, private and charity partners in Québec, Canada and abroad.

An all-encompassing mission
The FRQS aims to drive health research in Québec by:

-Planning, coordinating and supporting the development of all public health research sectors and mobilizing the main stakeholders;

-Fostering the emergence of research partnerships between the public sector, the industry and the charitable community;

-Maximizing health research benefits for citizens, economic development and the province’s standing in Canada and around the world.

The ultimate goal of Québec’s health research system is to make Québecers healthier. Through strong synergies between all stakeholders, the system aims to generate the following benefits:

-Many promising discoveries and innovations;

-Health professionals who are better trained and better informed;

-Increasingly effective health care and services;

-Highly-capable decision-makers and administrators;

-More competitive biotechnology and biopharmaceutical companies;

-A province with a strong and active presence in the international arena.

Clientele - FRQS partner interactions and benefits

Until the mid-1960s, there was no formal support for health research in Québec or Canada.

At the time, researchers worked in hospitals to stay in tune with their research issues and close to their patients. Because hospitals budgets did not account for researcher salaries, laboratory equipment or library material, in 1964, the Conseil de recherches médicales du Québec (CRMQ) – which would become the Fonds de recherche du Québec - Santé (FRQS) – was created to support the sector.

Within this general context, for the past 50 years, the federal and provincial governments as well as paragovernmental and private organizations have spearheaded initiatives in Québec to level the playing field in international health research. Public research, which had been carried out by isolated investigators and small groups, was slowly transformed, making way for centres and national and international networks that gained a multisectorial and multidisciplinary dimension.

1964

-Conseil de recherches médicales and the Ministère de l’Éducation du Québec

1966

-Creation of the Science Council of Canada

1969

-Creation of the Medical Research Council of Canada (MRC)
-Creation of the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS)

1974

-The Conseil de recherches médicales becomes the Conseil de la recherche en santé du Québec

1977

-Creation of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council (NSERC)

1979

-Creation of the Conseil québécois de la recherche sociale (CQRS), which would become the Fonds québécois de la recherche sur la société et la culture (FQRSC)

1981

-The Conseil de la recherche en santé du Québec becomes the Fonds de la recherche en santé du Québec (FRSQ)
-Creation of a Fonds to train researchers and support research (Fonds FCAR), which would become the Fonds québécois de la recherche sur la nature et les technologies (FQRNT)

1983

-Bill 19 to support scientific and technological development in Québec

1988

-Implementation of the Networks of Centres of Excellence (Canada)

1997

-Creation of the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI)

1999

-Creation of the Ministère de la Recherche, de la Science et de la Technologie (Québec)

2000

-Launch of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)
-Creation of Genome Canada and Génome Québec

2001

-Tabling of the Politique québécoise de la science et de l’innovation – Savoir changer le monde by the Ministère de la Recherche, de la Science et de la Technologie (MRST)
-Restructuring of the missions of the three Québec funding agencies: the FRSQ becomes responsible for public health research in all sectors in hospitals and academic institutions.

2005

-The FRSQ and the two other Fonds de recherche du Québec report to the Ministère du Développement économique, de l’Innovation et de l’Exportation (MDEIE)

2006

-Launch of the Québec Research and Innovation Strategy (QRIS) by the Ministère du Développement économique, de l’Innovation et de l’Exportation (MDEIE)

2010

-Launch of the 2010-2013 Québec Research and Innovation Strategy (QRIS) by the Ministère du Développement économique, de l’Innovation et de l’Exportation (MDEIE)

2011

-Implementation of Bill 130
The FRSQ becomes the Fonds de recherche du Québec - Santé (FRQS), the FQRSC becomes the Fonds de recherche du Québec - Société et culture (FRQSC) and the FQRNT becomes the Fonds de recherche du Québec - Nature et technologies (FRQNT).
Creation of the Québec Chief Scientist position.

The FRQS: Supporting health research

For almost 50 years, the Fonds de recherche du Québec - Santé (FRQS) has planned, developed and driven Québec’s dynamic public health research sector. The first agency of its kind in Canada, the FRQS is at the heart of a vast research infrastructure network. Its effective model has been emulated elsewhere in Canada and around the world, and it has enabled the agency to:

-Support outstanding researchers and students;

-Value scientific, clinical and ethical excellence;

-Foster knowledge transfer and value and disseminate expertise;

-Promote national and international synergies and partnerships.

The FRQS supports a broad system of 19 centres, 11 groups and 16 networks made up of some 3 000 researchers and 6 000 graduate and postdoctoral students focused on different research themes.

The FRQS research centres are located in university health centres (university hospitals, institutes and affiliated university centres), bringing together a critical research mass and enabling health centres to carry out the research and teaching missions required for recognition as a university institution. The programs of each research centre are in line with the health care and training sectors of excellence of their host institutions, and the FRQS ensures the complementarity of the institutional programs. The research centres facilitate knowledge transfer best practices in health care and services.

The FRQS research groups are located in university institutions and include a smaller number of researchers collaborating on a common theme.

The FRQS research networks serve to virtually link health science researchers (chiefly members of FRQS centres and/or groups) based on a specific issue. Network members may also work in organizations that are not funded by the FRQS, including the Centres locaux de services communautaires (CLSC), regional boards or private businesses. By bringing together experts from across Québec around a specific theme, the networks constitute a unique tool to create national and international research ties.

The FRQS believes that researcher access to adequate human and technological infrastructure is a determining factor in maintaining a competitive edge. It is for this reason that the Fonds invests close to 50% of its financial resources in supporting these three programs through leveraging.

Québec posts an excellent performance in the health research sector. Though it is home to only 23% of the Canadian population, on average, Québec earns 30% of the funding granted by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the nation’s largest health research funding agency.

Québec is a strategic centre for private research in the health sector. By making R&D, tax breaks, labour force training, competitive operational costs and a vision for a knowledge-based economy its priorities, the province has made a name for itself on the world stage. By targeting certain key sectors and creating a synergy between all of the means that are set out, Québec has developed key niches. Along with aerospace and information technologies, the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries constitute one of Québec’s three main economic hubs.

Québec is one of the few places in the world in which pharmaceutical companies can carry out all of the development stages for a new drug, from fundamental and clinical research to manufacturing and marketing.

-Québec boasts 420 life sciences companies.

-The world’s ten largest pharmaceutical companies carry out business in Québec.

-Some twenty multinational drug companies have chosen Montréal for their Canadian headquarters.

-Montréal is ranked sixth in America for pharmaceutical sector employment density and eighth with regards to the total number of positions.

-Businesses can count on an exceptional skills pool of over 32 000 people and a public health research network that mobilizes over 10 500 scientists.

Source: Investissement Québec Web site, October 2010

In an effort to ensure the health of Québecers, the province excels in four priority research areas:

-Aging

-The neurosciences and mental health

-Cancer

-Cardiovascular and metabolic diseases

In fact, in these areas, Québec researchers earn a substantial portion of the funds granted through the competitions of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) (see table below).

In the past five years, on average, Québec has earned 30% of CIHR funding (for all areas) even though it is home to only 23% of the population of Canada.

CIHR funding earned by Québec researchers (2009-2010)

Source : CIHR, March 2010

Québec's solid performance in these priority areas is also reflected in its scientific output.

In the following diagram, circle size represents the number of publications. In most areas, the research community in Québec (blue circles) posts a level of specialization that is higher than the world average (vertical grey arrow) and the average for the rest of Canada (grey circles). In addition, the quality of the work conducted in Québec (measured in average relative citations - MRC) surpasses the world level of excellence (horizontal grey arrow) and Canada’s performance.

The dynamism of Québec researchers in the health sector is indisputable. Through the years, they have made important discoveries that have yielded tangible positive impacts on the health of Québecers and people around the world.

The 1930s
Québec researchers have been pioneers since as early as the 1930s. Wilder Penfield founded the Montreal Neurological Institute in 1934 and developed a surgical method to treat epilepsy. In 1936, Hans Selye, a researcher at Université de Montréal, described stress, or general adaptation syndrome, for the very first time. In 1938, Armand Frappier, a pioneer in the field of vaccines founded the first French-Canadian medical research centre, the Institut de microbiologie et d’hygiène de Montréal, which, in 1975, would become the Institut Armand-Frappier. At the same time, Félix d'Herelle veered off the beaten track and discovered bacteriophages. He is believed by many to be the founder of modern molecular biology and made a world-class contribution to the field.

1950s-1980s
Later in the 1950s at the Montreal Neurological Institute, Brenda Milner demonstrated the important role of the hippocampus (a brain structure located in the temporal lobes) in memorizing new events and past experiences. In 1954, Paul David founded the Montréal Heart Institute – a leading cardiology centre where, in 1968, doctors performed Canada’s first heart transplant. Jacques Genest, who made the greatest contributions to the advancement of biomedical research of the past 40 years founded the Club de recherches cliniques du Québec in 1959, the Conseil de recherches médicales in 1964 (which, in 1981, would become the Fonds de la recherche en santé du Québec) and the Institut de recherches cliniques de Montréal (IRCM) in 1967.

In 1961 at Université de Montréal, André Barbeau linked dopamine (a substance found in the brain) deficiencies to Parkinson’s disease. The application of his finding led to the development of the first medication derived from DOPA, a natural dopamine precursor. Barbeau also discovered one of the factors that cause ataxia (biochemical glutamine acid deficiency) and characterized some twenty types of the disease. In 1972 at the Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal Hospital, André Roch Lecours founded a research group that would become a beacon for interdisciplinary research into language and the brain.

Certain treatments and processes to enhance human health and which are still in use today stem from discoveries made in the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s. For example, in 1969, Québec began adding vitamin D to milk based on the research findings of Dr. Charles Scriver at McGill University, and the incidence of rickets plummeted from 1 case in 200 newborns to 1 in 20 000. At Université Laval in 1972, Dr. Jean-H. Dussault developed a screening test for congenital hypothyroidism that is still used around the world. In fact, in 2000, it was estimated that 150 million newborns had undergone the test. In 1989, Bernard Belleau developed 3TC (or lamivudine) – an anti-HIV treatment that is now used in combination with other drugs.

The past 30 years
Researchers have made significant breakthroughs in the past 30 years: the isolation of mutations causing familial hypercholesterolemia in French-Canadians, the development of a theory to better understand pain mechanisms, the discovery of breast cancer genes, a better understanding of Alzheimer’s disease, the detection of neural regeneration in the central nervous system, the development of a test for the early diagnosis of scoliosis and of rapid tests to diagnose devastating bacterial infections as well as many more.

Since its creation in 1964, the FRQS has been part of these discoveries through the support it provides to the research centres, groups and networks to which most health researchers belong and the annual attribution of grants and scholarships to some 400 scholars and 500 graduate students. The FRQS also supports over 200 research projects.

The media regularly covers the discoveries made in Québec laboratories. Research centres and universities also publicize their breakthroughs on various channels including their institutional Web sites. Please visit these sites for further details (see the More information section at the top of this page). Here are a few examples:

Discoveries in FRQS centres

-Du laboratoire au patient : 15 percées réalisées dans nos centres de recherche / From the lab to the patient: 15 breakthroughs by our research centres
(Report published in Recherche en santé, n^o.41, November 2008, in French only)

-Pleins feux sur les centres de recherche : percées scientifiques récentes / Research centre spotlight: recent scientific discoveries
(Report published in Recherche en santé n^o 23, June 2000, in French only)

Québec Science’s annual list of health science discoveries

Each year, Québec Science magazine highlights the most significant scientific discoveries made in Québec universities and research institutions between November and October, as selected by a panel of experts. For the finding to be featured, the research results must have been published in a leading journal. Here are the most recent discoveries in the health sciences to have made the annual lists:

2011

2010

2009

2008