Transcript Ministry of Research and Innovation Research Programs International Society for Computational Biology July 23, 2008

Ministry of Research and Innovation
Research Programs
International Society
for Computational Biology
July 23, 2008
Ministry of Research and Innovation
• The Ministry of Research and Innovation (MRI)
was established three years ago to:
– Develop and lead an integrated and coherent
research and innovation agenda
– Deliver research and commercialization
programs to support the innovation agenda
– Foster a culture of innovation and showcase
Ontario’s innovation excellence nationally and
internationally
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The Ontario Innovation Agenda
• The Ontario Innovation Agenda (OIA), supported by close
to $3 billion in spending over eight years, is a long-term
view, “living agenda” designed to respond to changing
needs, emerging issues and new opportunities
• The agenda supports industry-academia partnerships in
areas of Ontario’s global leadership:
– Bio-economy and clean technologies
– Advanced health technologies
– Pharmaceutical research and manufacturing
– Digital media and information and communication
technologies
• The Ministry currently is in the process of aligning its
research, commercialization and outreach programs to
meet the objectives of the agenda
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Research Programs
•MRI Research Programs are:
– Open to Ontario’s publicly supported research institutions on a
competitive basis
– Internationally peer reviewed for excellence
– Aligned with Ontario’s priorities
•Program area incorporates three funding streams:
– Operations
• Ontario Research Fund – Research Excellence
– Equipment and Facilities
• Ontario Research Fund – Research Infrastructure
– Research Talent
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Early Researcher Award
Premier’s Discovery Awards
Premier’s Catalyst Awards
Postdoctoral Fellowships
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Alignment of Research Programs
Talent development/capacity building continuum
INFRASTRUCTURE: Ontario Research
ORF-RI: Small Infrastructure
Grants to
Attract and Retain Researchers
Leaders Opportunity Fund (LOF)
ORF-RI: Large-Scale
Infrastructure Grants for
Transformative Research
Research Programs complement each other
Fund – Research Infrastructure
supports modernization,
development and acquisition of new
infrastructure (small/individual to
large/institutional). Administered in
Leading Edge Fund (LEF)
concert with federal counterparts.
PEOPLE: Research talent programs, a
central part of the knowledge
creation ecosystem, support
attraction and retention of
researchers throughout their career
development.
The programs complement the
federal CRC initiative.
Post-Doctoral
Fellow Program (PDF)
Early Researcher Awards (ERA)
Canada Research Chairs (CRC)
Tier 2
Premier Discovery Award (PDA)
Premier Catalyst Award (PCA)
Canada Research Chairs (CRC)
Tier 1
OPERATIONS: Ontario Research Fund
–Research Excellence (ORF-RE)
supports transformative,
internationally significant research
projects.
While the federal tri-council grants
complement ORF-RE, they are
generally much smaller in scale.
ORF-RE
Builds research teams (graduate students, PDFs)
led by established scientists (principal investigators and co-investigators)
Tri-Council Grants (CIHR; NSERC; SSHRC)
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Research Excellence (ORF-RE)
• ORF-RE provides operational support for the largescale, leading-edge research initiatives:
– Focuses on scientific excellence and strong
commercialization
– At least one call for proposals per year
• To date, MRI has committed $230 million for 45
projects committed through 2 rounds of funding:
– This investment leveraged $460 million from 280 industry
and other partners
– RE projects will train and/or provide capacity for
approximately 7000 HQPs to develop Ontario’s research
talent
– ORF-RE Round 3 is currently underway
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Research Infrastructure (ORF-RI)
• ORF-RI provides grants to match awards made
by Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) for:
– Major research infrastructure funding
(LEF/NIF)
– Grants to attract and retain researchers (LOF)
• Since 2004, MRI has announced 727 projects
totalling over $271 million in ORF-RI grants:
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$400 million in leveraged partner funding
over 2,300 HQPs
8 spin-off companies
246 private or public sector jobs
94 patents and licensing agreements
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Early Researcher Award Program
• The $68 million ERA program aims to attract and retain
research talent by helping promising, recently-appointed
Ontario researchers build their research teams of
graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and research
associates
• To date, the Ministry has committed $47.2 million for 337
projects through 4 rounds of awards
– This investment leveraged a commitment of $14.2 million
from 24 institutional partners
– ERA projects will train approximately 1250 highly qualified
people (HQP) and will reach 88,200 students
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Premier’s Discovery and Catalyst Awards
Postdoctoral Fellowships
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The Premier’s Discovery Awards (PDA) celebrate the excellence
of Ontario’s finest researchers. Four annual awards totaling $1.5
million to recognize and profile achievement in:
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Life sciences and medicine ($0.5M)
Natural sciences and engineering ($0.5M)
Social sciences and humanities ($0.25M)
Innovation leadership ($0.25M)
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The Premier’s Catalyst Awards provide five awards of $200,000
annually for developing a commercially successful product or
service based on a breakthrough technology
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To date, the Ministry has committed:
– $4.8 million committed through two rounds of PDA and PCA funding,
supporting 17 leading researchers and entrepreneurs in variety of
fields ranging from healthcare to a cleaner environment
– $4.8 million committed through 2 rounds of Postdoctoral Fellowships
funding , supporting 96 outstanding scientists with two-year
fellowships at Ontario’s research institutions
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MRI Investments in Bioinformatics
• Since 2003, MRI has invested close to $50 million in
approximately 30 projects related to bioinformatics
• In addition, Ontario continues support number initiatives
that provide platforms for advancing the science of
bioinformatics, including:
– High Performance Computing
• The High Performance Computing Virtual Laboratory (HPCVL),
Queen's University ($11.5 million)
• Shared Hierarchical Academic Research Computing Network
(SHARCNET), University of Western Ontario ($11 million)
• SciNet, University of Toronto ($8 million)
– Genomics/Proteomics
• Structural Genomics Consortium ($25 million)
• Barcode of Life ($6 million)
• Genome Canada matching ($20 million)
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Contact Information
Jane Kirkwood
Manager, Research Branch
416-314-0629 or [email protected]
Allison Barr
Director, Research Branch
416-212-6990 or [email protected]
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