It's often said, what's the use of knowing something if people don't know about it. In the fields of science and technology, this statement is all-too-often true. Highly-specialized language and terminology mean that interesting and useful information is essentially invisible to the general public. During the month of November, universities across Canada took steps to address this challenge head-on. Using special supplements in papers such as the St. John's Evening Telegram, Le Soleil and Le Devoir, public lectures, poster sessions, websites and other tools, a number of universities reached out to Canadians to tell them more about important health research funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) taking place in their communities.

These public outreach efforts are part of a pilot program aimed at improving how health research results are communicated to Canadians and to make important information accessible.

"Informing the public about the benefits of health research is an important part of our accountability to Canadians for the tax dollars we invest on their behalf," said Mark Bisby, CIHR's Vice-President of Research. "Learning first-hand about local research has an impact that is difficult to capture in an annual report, and also allows the universities, CIHR's most important partners, to highlight their relevance and importance to their communities."

According to those who participated, the communications provided a good start towards continuing public outreach efforts.

At the University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI), Dr. Cathy Chan decided to take health research directly to Canadians by holding an event at a local mall. On Nov. 19, Dr. Chan organized, along with the communications representatives at UPEI, hosted the first-ever P.E.I. Health Research Fair at the Charlottetown Mall. She recruited CIHR-funded science students from the university, to set up 11 poster demonstrations of their respective work in stroke, epilepsy, Alzheimer's disease, health of teenagers, and population studies in the risk factors surrounding diabetes. As for selecting a mall for the fair, Dr. Chan says it was appropriate to hold the fair at a popular environment so that "people can feel that what they're funding is important to them." Notices of the fair were sent out to school boards, and advertisements and press releases were distributed to local media. The results were quite successful. Over the course of the day, people visited the poster presentations; some drawn specifically by preliminary coverage provided by the Charlottetown Guardian, while others had been encouraged to attend by school teachers.

The University of Manitoba (U of M) took a different approach, developing materials about health research that can be used as part of the high-school curriculum in Manitoba. According to Dr. Peter Cattini, part of the U of M team who worked on the project, the materials help to demonstrate how health research contributes to an improved health care system. On Nov. 25, Dr. Cattini launched educational project at Winnipeg's Grant Park High School. The Honourable Anita Neville, Liberal federal representative for Winnipeg South and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Canadian Heritage, was in attendance as was Ms. Diane McGifford, provincial minister of Advanced Education and Training for the New Democratic Party and Dr. Harvey M. Chochinov, CIHR Governing Council member. Over 300 high-schools in the province now have access to a series of comprehensive fact sheets on important health subjects, such as research into asthma/allergies, cancer research, cardiovascular disease, infectious diseases, and diabetes. Dr. Cattini also sees this project, in his own words, as way engage and recruit young scientific minds by allowing "high school students to start working their way into universities."

Representatives from the Université de Montréal (U de M) opted to share information through a major daily. Bernard Motulsky of U de M arranged to have a supplement included in the November 16 edition of Le Devoir. Readers of the supplement could find profiles and stories on CIHR-funded researchers working in a number of areas, including: AIDS, heart disease, hypertension Alzheimer's disease and the nature of sleep. Mr. Motulsky, who is Director of Communications and Recruitment branch, negotiated the collaboration with Le Devoir's editorial staff as a way of increasing visibility of research taking place at the university. "It was something that I had always wanted to do," says Mr. Motulsky. "(The PEP grant) allowed me the chance to maximize the visibility of the research and have a positive impact on the population."

As an organization, CIHR has a mandate not only to fund health research in Canada, but to make every effort to effectively translate the knowledge generated by this research. In some cases, this means getting policy-makers and other potential users of the research involved as the research is taking place. In other cases, this involves gathering and documenting best practices in health research so that this information can be shared with others who may be planning similar work. CIHR's knowledge translation efforts also include programs focused on helping commercialize research taking place. As CIHR continues to fund important health research, as research projects are completed and as new and promising results appear, efforts to help translate this knowledge will continue to gain in importance as will the need to effectively communicate this information to Canadians.