Message from Norman Rosenblum, INMD Scientific Director
October 2025

I find nothing more inspiring than spending time with early career investigators who thirst for ways to solve major problems that stand in the way of better health. Just a few weeks ago, I experienced such inspiration by participating in the Kidney Research Scientist Core Education and Training (KRESCENT) Program Fall Workshop, which was dedicated to kidney development and the genetics of kidney disease – subjects near and dear to my heart!

This year, KRESCENT is celebrating its 20th anniversary. KRESCENT was established in 2004, at a time when the Canadian kidney community recognized the increasing prevalence of kidney disease, an impending need to develop new generations of investigators, and when CIHR did the same through its Strategic Initiatives in Health Research (STIHRs) program. Partnering with the Kidney Foundation of Canada (KFOC) and the Canadian Society of Nephrology (CSN) with support from CIHR-INMD and other stakeholders, KRESCENT 1.0 fulfilled its original objectives to enhance kidney research capacity in Canada by training the next generation of leading investigators and to improve collaborations and knowledge translation (KT) across the 4 themes of health research: biomedical, clinical, health systems and services, and social, cultural, and environmental factors that affect the health of populations. Recent program outcomes revealed that 88% of KRESCENT-funded new investigators have competed successfully for CIHR funding and 90% of trainees have remained in kidney research. Remarkable outcomes, indeed!

KRESCENT 2.0 was funded through the CIHR Health Research Training Pilot Program (HRTP) initiative launched in 2021. With the KRESCENT 2.0 program leaders, Drs. Mathieu Lemaire, Sunny Hartwig and Adeera Levin, the Fall Workshop program featured research presentations by incoming postdoctoral fellows, new investigators, and summer students, as well as by featured senior investigators and those with lived experience. The engagement and insight brought by the awardees to these discussions was remarkable. In the spirit of community building, KRESCENT 2.0 honored its past Program Director, Dr. Kevin Burns, a senior nephrology clinician scientist at the University of Ottawa. A true trailblazer, Kevin brought a historical perspective to the discussions providing a lens into the past that has informed the path to the present.  

Such is the power of programmatic approaches to capacity development. I offer my appreciation and congratulations to our colleagues in KRESCENT and to our funding partners, KFOC and CSN, who work in such a committed and innovative fashion to ensure that research is harnessed to overcome our most vexing challenges to kidney health.

Dr. Norman Rosenblum, MD, FRCPC, FCAHS
Scientific Director
CIHR Institute of Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes

Date modified:

2025-10-20