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Genomic Applications Partnership Program (GAPP)

August 15, 2023 by

The Genomic Applications Partnership Program (GAPP) funds downstream research and development (R&D) projects that address real-world opportunities and challenges defined by “Receptor” organizations such as industry, government, or not-for-profit entities. These organizations should have the expertise, resources and commitment to commercialize or implement the project’s outcomes. Projects must be active collaborations between the Receptor organization (Canadian or international) and a Canadian academic researcher. Both must play an integral role in the project. These projects are co-funded by Receptors and other stakeholders and must have the potential to generate significant social and/or economic benefits for Canada. The GAPP aims to:

Accelerate the application of Canadian genomics-derived solutions from academia to real-world opportunities and challenges defined by industry, not-for-profit and public-sector Receptors.
Channel Canada’s genomics capacity into sustainable innovations that benefit Canadians.
Enhance the value of Canadian genomics technologies by de-risking and incentivizing follow-on investment from industry and other partners.
Foster mutually beneficial collaboration and knowledge exchange between Canadian academia and technology receptors.

GAPP is open to projects across all sectors. For examples of previously funded projects, see Funded GAPP Projects

Key Parameters of the Program:

Total project size: $300,000 to $6 million.
Co-Funding: Up to 1/3 investment from Genome Canada; Receptor co-funding (cash and/or in-kind) that is equal to or greater than Genome Canada’s contribution; and any remaining co-funding from other eligible sources. For more information, see Section 4 and Appendix 2 of the GAPP Investment Strategy and Guidelines.
Project term: 2 – 3 years. Shorter or longer terms will be considered only if strong rationale is provided.
Project stage: Small-scale proof-of-concept / pilot projects through to large-scale projects will be accepted. Projects should not be in discovery phase.

Project Eligibility:

To be eligible for the GAPP, a project must:

Develop and apply a genomics-derived or genomics-enabling tool, product or process to an opportunity or challenge defined by the Receptor(s);
Focus on late stage R&D that will position the innovation for near-term implementation/commercialization;
Be co-led by an academic and a Receptor organization in partnership, with active and necessary roles for both; and
Demonstrate the potential to generate significant social and/or economic benefits for Canada.

Receptor Definition

A Receptor is defined as an organization that intends to put the resulting innovation into practice (in internal operations, by commercialization, or otherwise making it available to its ultimate users). Eligible Receptors include:

Companies (private / public, Canadian / foreign-owned);
Industry consortia;
Government departments and agencies (federal, provincial and municipal);
Healthcare organizations; and
Not-for-profit organizations

Small or start-up companies may be considered, as per the Investment Strategy Guidelines.

Application Process:

There is a three-stage, gated application process for this program:

Expression of Interest (EOI)
Project Pitch
Supplementary Proposal

Note that the EOI and Project Pitch content resembles a business case for the proposed project. At each of the above stages, Ontario Genomics has developed a review process, where a panel of industry experts and entrepreneurs provide feedback to help teams navigate the application and increase their competitiveness. These reviews are mandatory for all Ontario projects. Applicants should anticipate the following phases in the application process:

Register your intent to apply to Ontario Genomics and obtain EOI form.
Complete a draft EOI and submit to Ontario Genomics.
Present a face-to-face business pitch to Ontario Genomics’ GAPP Review Panel.
Develop the final EOI through active collaboration with Ontario Genomics.
Submit EOI to Genome Canada via Ontario Genomics.
For teams invited to Project Pitch stage:
- Present practice pitch to Ontario Genomics before official pitch to Genome Canada.
For teams invited to Supplementary Proposal stage:
- Submit draft applications to Ontario Genomics for panel review before submission to Genome Canada.

Climate Action Genomics Initiative Climate-Smart Agriculture and Food Systems

August 13, 2023 by

Ontario Genomics is pleased to announce that Genome Canada has launched the Climate Action Genomics Initiative.
Climate change poses a significant risk to our agricultural systems, impacting the availability of food and other vital resources, from fuels to the raw materials used to develop everyday products. In response to this major challenge, Genome Canada’s latest large-scale genomics initiative supports climate change mitigation, and adaptation that leads to mitigation, through strategic investments in climate-smart agriculture and food systems.

The new opportunity, called the Climate-Smart Agriculture and Food Systems initiative, is investing $30 million in cutting-edge genomics research and innovation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the carbon footprint of Canada’s food production systems—building their resiliency, environmental sustainability and economic viability.

A distinguishing feature of the Initiative is that it will fund a portfolio of interdisciplinary projects and helps coordinate and connect their efforts with cross-cutting programs for knowledge mobilization, data coordination and implementation across Canada. This portfolio approach allows benefits from one solution to translate into other food production systems or supply chains and cascade impact throughout the broader food system.

The Initiative will deploy a number of funding opportunities that will make up the portfolio.

At the outset, these will include:

Funding for Interdisciplinary Challenge Teams – Funding Opportunity available now.
Funding for a Data Coordination Centre, coming in Summer 2022.
Funding for a Knowledge Mobilization and Implementation Coordination Centre, coming in Summer 2022.

Interdisciplinary Challenge Teams 2023 (ICT) Funding Opportunity

August 12, 2023 by

Ontario Genomics is pleased to announce Genome Canada’s new Climate Action Genomics Initiative – Climate-Smart Agriculture and Food Systems funding opportunity, launched in May 2022. Interdisciplinary Challenge Teams (ICTs) represent the largest, key component of the initiative. ICTs are integrated teams of researchers from different disciplines and users who work together to address specific questions, achieve relevant deliverables and, ultimately, reduce the carbon footprint and greenhouse gas emissions of Canada’s agriculture and food systems. As part of the Initiative portfolio, the teams will work toward broader national impacts that manifest value beyond each individual project. The ICTs will provide genomic solutions to help implement agriculture and food production systems that are climate-resilient, socially responsible, economically viable and environmentally sustainable, and that contribute to the mitigation of climate change impacts.

Objectives

The ICT funding opportunity aims to support teams that use genomic approaches to achieve the overall objective of the Initiative, which is to develop and apply genomic tools and technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate the carbon footprint of Canada’s food systems to ensure they are resilient, economically viable and environmentally sustainable.

The scope of this funding opportunity will include areas where genomic technologies are used to help achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 and reduce the carbon footprint of Canada’s agriculture and food production system. Projects should seek solutions that will increase the value created by production systems without increasing greenhouse gas emissions or amplifying negative impacts on the natural environment. Furthermore, projects should demonstrate how their outputs could be translated into reduced emissions by taking into account the various dimensions of the food system value chain, including production, processing, distribution and consumption.

Applicants must demonstrate how their proposal has significant potential to achieve concrete deliverables by the end of the funding period. Proposals that make a strong case that their deliverables will translate into significant social and/or economic benefits that align with the Initiative’s overall intended impact (i.e., the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to lessen the carbon footprint of Canada’s agriculture and food production systems) within the shortest time frame possible after the end of the project are particularly encouraged. Consideration will be given to what is reasonable for different research areas.

See example projects here.

To ensure that the objectives of the funding opportunity are met, all applications must address the evaluation criteria established for the competition (see Appendix 1 of funding opportunity).

Available funding and term

There is approximately $24 million available for the ICTs from Genome Canada.
Genome Canada’s maximum contribution to an approved project will be $3 million.
There must be a minimum contribution of $1 million from Genome Canada to each approved project.
A project’s eligible costs must be co-funded from eligible sources such that the co-funding is at least equal to the Genome Canada contribution. See the Genome Canada Guidelines for Funding for more details.
Successful teams will be awarded funding for a term of up to four years.

It is anticipated that eight to ten ICTs will be funded as part of this Initiative portfolio. The portfolio will also include a Data Coordinating Centre (DCC) as well as a Knowledge Mobilization and Implementation Coordinating Centre (KMICC).

Eligibility

Genome Canada funds can only be awarded to individuals affiliated with one or more of the following types of organizations:

Canadian universities, colleges and affiliated institutions including research hospitals and research institutes
Not-for-profit organizations (including community or charitable organizations) with an explicit research mandate
Canadian non-federal government departments or agencies

See ICT Funding Opportunity and Guidelines for Funding Research Projects for complete eligibility requirements.