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CCRA
is an alliance of cancer research funding
organizations and affiliated partners working
together to enhance the overall state of cancer
research funding in Canada through improved
communication, cooperation and coordination.
CCRA started within the context of the Canadian Strategy
for Cancer Control (CSCC), which
represents a very broad partnership of Canada's
leading cancer organizations that has worked since
the late 1990s to create an inclusive, integrated
and comprehensive strategy to address the increasing
number of new cancer cases and cancer deaths in
Canada. The coordinating council of CSCC established
eight networks of experts, known as action groups,
to identify key strategies and needed initiatives
specific to different parts of the cancer control
continuum. One of the action groups focused on
research, the Research Advisory Group (formerly the
Research Action Group), that was
first chaired by Dr. Philip Branton.
The Research Advisory Group was originally composed of
researchers from each of the four pillars of health
research (that is, biomedical, population health,
applied clinical, and health services/health systems
research) as well as selected members of a few
organizations that fund cancer research in Canada.
Following the initial few meetings, members of the
Research Advisory Group perceived a compelling
need to create a much stronger voice, one that could
address research issues across the spectrum of
cancer control. To this end, more of the leading
funders of cancer research in Canada were invited to
an open forum in December of 2003 at which, inspired
by the momentum of the CSCC, they discussed a new
vision for a nationally coordinated research effort.
This group became the CCRA and is now composed of
many of the major cancer research funding
organizations from the federal and provincial
governments, and the voluntary sector as well as
other key stakeholders within the Canadian research
scene.
In its 2006 budget, the federal government committed
$260 million to the Canadian Strategy for Cancer
Control over the next five years. In November 2006,
the government announced that implementation of the
strategy would be overseen by
The
Canadian Partnership Against Cancer (CPAC).
CCRA provides advice to The Partnership through its
role as the Research Advisory Group.
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