Main Menu
Main Menu
Menu

Disruptive Innovations in Genomics (DIG) Competition

by

Genome Canada’s Disruptive Innovations in Genomics (DIG) competition seeks to support research projects that focus on disruptive innovations with the potential to advance the field of genomics and eventually lead to social and/or economic benefits to Canada. For the purposes of this competition, a disruptive innovation is defined as either a new genomics technology or the application of an existing technology from another field, applied to the field of genomics. These Innovations must be truly transformative in that they have the potential to either displace an existing technology, disrupt an existing market, or create a new market.

Launched on June 11, 2015, the DIG initiative exists to capture true disruptive innovation and translate it to improve human health, agriculture, and natural resources.

Funded Ontario DIG Projects

On February 4, 2019, The Honourable Kirsty Duncan, Minister of Science and Sport, announced the funding recipients from Genome Canada’s Disruptive Innovations in Genomics (DIG) Phase 2 competition to improve human health, agriculture, natural resources. Ontario Genomics led five (5) of the seven (7) awarded projects – driving $4.4 million of federal funding into the province and an additional $9.5 million in investments by industry, the Ontario government and other funding partners, for a total of $13.9 million. This investment will support the development of prototypes of the disruptive innovations developed in Phase 1 of the program.

On December 09, 2016, the Government of Canada announced the investment of $9.1 million in Disruptive Innovation in Genomics to improve human health, agriculture, natural resources. Ontario Genomics led twelve (12) of the awarded early-stage feasibility (Phase 1) projects:

Ontario Genomics led two (2) of the awarded prototype development (Phase 2) projects:

Competition I

by

In April 4, 2001, Genome Canada announced its first investment (Competition I) of $136 million to support 17 large-scale research projects and five science and technology platforms across the country with applications in health, forestry, fisheries, agriculture, the environment as well as the social, legal and ethical aspects of genomics.

Competition II

by

In July 19, 2001, Genome Canada announced the beginning of a second national competition (Competition II) aimed at funding several large-scale genomics research projects and their related science and technology platforms. Results for Competition II were announced during the first week of April 2002 – and $155.5 million was invested in 34 innovative and exciting research projects with application in health, forestry, agriculture, bioinformatics, technology development, the environment and GE3LS. Twelve (12) of these projects were funded through Ontario Genomic.

Competition III

by

In July 2004, Genome Canada launched Competition III, in an effort to support world-leading genomics and proteomics research at the highest level of scientific excellence.
Results for Competition III were announced on August 25th, 2005 and $346 million was invested in 33 innovative and exciting large-scale projects for a duration of 3 to 4 years.

Advancing Technology Innovation through Discovery

by

In July 2010, Genome Canada launched the Advancing Technology Innovation through Discovery (ATID) Program. This joint collaborative program was developed by Genome Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) to bring together Genome Canada-funded Science and Technology Innovation Centres with Canadian researchers to focus on applying the latest genomics technologies to identify the genetic causes of childhood diseases. This funding opportunity will specifically focus on diseases where such identification can be achieved rapidly with the potential for important novel biological, clinical and commercial discoveries.

Results were announced on February 22, 2011. Two (2) research teams were supported for a total budget of $6,497,354 over two years with a maximum of $2 million from Genome Canada, $2.5 million from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, $600,000 from Genome British Columbia and $500,000 from Genome Quebec. Researchers from the two teams are based in British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia.

Genoma España and Genome Canada Joint R+D+I Projects in Human Health, Plants and Aquaculture

by

On January 21, 2004 three large-scale genomics research projects were funded for a total value of $17 million, half of which was provided by Genome Canada and the other half by Genoma España. The Competition was the result of the Framework Agreement to Promote Scientific and Industrial Cooperation between Canada and Spain, which was signed in May 2002. One of these projects was funded through Ontario Genomics

Advancing Big Data Science in Genomics Research

by

In 2013, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), Genome Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) partnered on a 2013 Discovery Frontiers call for proposals, focused on advancing big data science in genomics research. This initiative was designed to support the development of tools and methodologies to integrate currently available complex data sets in the fields of ‘omics sciences with each other, as well as with phenotypic data and data from other related fields of biological sciences. It was aimed at building on past and ongoing investments in this area, the most recent being the Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Request for Applications launched in June 2012 by Genome Canada and CIHR.

The result of the Competition was announced April 30, 2014. Federal funding totaling $5.6 million was awarded to the Ontario-led project to support an unprecedented collaboration – both in Canada and internationally – to develop tools that can effectively manipulate vast amounts of data to help find cures for cancer.

Competition for Science and Technology Innovation Centre Operations Support

by

As part of its commitment to leading-edge research, Genome Canada supported a number of Science and Technology Innovation Centres across Canada. (As of fiscal year 2014-2015 the Science and Technology Innovation Centre model was replaced with the Genomics Innovation Network.). These Centres provided researchers with access to cutting-edge technologies such as DNA sequencing, RNA expression analysis, protein identification, metabolite analysis, bioinformatics and large-scale data analysis, as well as access to new methods and protocols.

Genome Canada provided approximately $24 million in funding to the Science and Technology Innovation Centres from 2010 to 2011, and another $28.6 million in renewed funding for five Centres from 2013 to 2014.

The Centre for Applied Genomics (TCAG)

by

Overview

Affiliated with the world-renowned SickKids Hospital in Toronto, The Centre for Applied Genomics conducts groundbreaking research in genomics including service and training support for academic, government, and private sector scientists worldwide. It provides a wide variety of services including biobanking (a facility that stores biological samples (usually human) for use in research), informatics, microarray analysis (analyzing many genes in a single experiment quickly and efficiently) and DNA sequencing.

The Cancer Genome Collaboratory

by

Overview

This project will set up a unique cloud computing facility which will enable research on the world’s largest and most comprehensive cancer genome dataset. Using the facilities of the Cancer Genome Collaboratory, researchers will be able run complex data mining and analysis operations across 10 to 15 petabytes of cancer genome sequences and their associated donor clinical information.

Using advanced metadata tagging, provenance tracking, and workflow management software, researchers will be able to execute complex analytic pipelines, create reproducible traces of each computational step, and share methods and results. This represents a fundamental reversal in the current practice of genome analysis. Rather than requiring researchers to spend weeks downloading hundreds of terabytes of data from a central repository before computations can begin, researchers will upload their analytic software into the Collaboratory cloud, run it, and download the compiled results in a secure fashion.

Since the genetic data used in the Collaboratory is so detailed as to permit personal identification, privacy issues are central to the project’s design. A special team of computer scientists will investigate ways to guard the privacy of everyone whose data are analyzed. These will include techniques to make genetic profiles anonymous without the loss of details that would render the profiles overly vague, and techniques to structure queries from health researchers so they can be processed via secure data storage sites.