Ministry of Research and Innovation

Research Programs

International Society for Computational Biology

July 23, 2008

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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 • Early Researcher Award• Premier’s Discovery Awards• Premier’s Catalyst Awards• Postdoctoral Fellowships

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INFRASTRUCTURE: Ontario Research Fund – Research Infrastructure supports modernization, development and acquisition of new infrastructure (small/individual to large/institutional). Administered in 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.

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-RI: Small Infrastructure Grants to

Attract and Retain Researchers 

Leaders Opportunity Fund (LOF)

Premier Discovery Award (PDA)Premier Catalyst Award (PCA)

 Canada Research Chairs (CRC)

Tier 1

Post-Doctoral Fellow Program (PDF)

Early Researcher Awards (ERA) 

Canada Research Chairs (CRC) Tier 2

ORF-RE Builds research teams (graduate students, PDFs)

led by established scientists (principal investigators and co-investigators)

Tri-Council Grants (CIHR; NSERC; SSHRC)

 ORF-RI: Large-Scale Infrastructure Grants for Transformative Research

 Leading Edge Fund (LEF)

Talent development/capacity building continuum

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Research Excellence (ORF-RE)

• ORF-RE provides operational support for the large-scale, 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:– $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 AwardsPostdoctoral Fellowships

• 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:– Life sciences and medicine ($0.5M)– Natural sciences and engineering ($0.5M)– Social sciences and humanities ($0.25M)– Innovation leadership ($0.25M)

• 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

• 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 Jane.Kirkwood@Ontario.ca

Allison Barr

Director, Research Branch

416-212-6990 or Allison.Barr@Ontario.ca