In 2000, the Medical Research Council of Canada (MRC) was folded and re-emerged as the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). This was set-up as an organisation with no buildings conducting research; rather it was a group of 13 virtual institutes whose mandates were to tackle important health issues for Canadians (Cancer Biology, Mental Health and Aging are a few examples). Although these institutes were given a budget and a mandate to direct research at their specific interests, the central activity of the MRC (awarding operating grants) continued to be run from the central CIHR organization. Plans were to increase from the old MRC budget of about dollar250 million per year to dollar1 billion per year by 2008. Currently the CIHR budget is about dollar650 million. In sum, the plans as laid out in 2000 for biomedical research have not been met.
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