Background

The Newfoundland and Labrador Centre for Applied Health Research was established in 1999 with initial core funding from the Department of Health and Community Services of Newfoundland and Labrador, Memorial University, and Eastern Health. NLCAHR is constituted as a research centre within Memorial University under the auspices of the Board of Regents and is led by a Director and a Board. The Centre is funded primarily through an annual grant from the Department of Health and Community Services of the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador. NLCAHR also receives project funding from various granting agencies and essential financial support and administrative services from the Faculty of Medicine at Memorial University.

Mission

NLCAHR’s mission is to contribute to the effectiveness of the health and community services system of Newfoundland and Labrador and to the physical, social, and psychological health and well-being of the province’s population by supporting the development and use of applied health research in this province. NLCAHR works with an inclusive and flexible conception of the term 'applied health research' in a spirit of openness to the widest possible range of disciplinary and methodological approaches. It also seeks to collaborate fully with other local, provincial, regional, and national organizations that have similar objectives.

Goals

NLCAHR has three principal goals:

• to help build human capacity and organizational resources to undertake and support high-quality applied health research in Newfoundland and Labrador;
• to increase the amount and impact of high-quality applied health research undertaken on priority research themes in the province; and
• to facilitate the more effective and efficient use of research evidence in the province’s health and community services system.

These goals are achieved through our funding programs, our collaborative activities, our research and knowledge exchange activities (including the Contextualized Health Research Synthesis Program), and our capacity development activities.