Canada recently revealed $6.6 million in federal support for two new hubs in British Columbia, with over $9M in additional investment from provincial government and business partners.
The Climate-Smart Data Collaboration Centre and the Agricultural Genomics in Action Centre will operate out of Simon Fraser University, an institution with a history of advancing agtech.
“Genomics research is instrumental in responding to national and global challenges, such as climate change and food insecurity,” stated federal minister Francois Champagne. “These hubs are critical to ensuring Canadian research remains at the forefront globally, advancing innovative solutions to reduce the carbon footprint of our food production systems.”
The Climate-Smart Data Collaboration Centre will bring together leading experts from across Canada to develop a decentralized ecosystem, featuring frameworks for sharing data, open-source processing toolkits, and improved community competency and literacy.
SFU Health Sciences professor William Hsiao will lead this hub alongside Michelle Edwards, director of Agri-food Data Strategy at the University of Guelph; Claude Robert, Agricultural and Food Sciences professor at Université Laval; and a trio of Canadian genome centres: Genome British Columbia, Ontario Genomics, and Génome Québec.”
“The Data Collaboration Centre will work closely with agriculture researchers and knowledge users to create a more equitable, interoperable and scalable data management and sharing ecosystem,” stated Hsiao.
The Agricultural Genomics in Action Centre, meanwhile, will aim to align and coordinate knowledge mobilization strategies and activities to bridge the gap between generation and implementation.
Lupin Battersby, director of SFU’s Knowledge Mobilization Hub, will lead this hub in partnership with Elizabeth Shantz, manager of knowledge mobilization; Jessica Bowes, assistant vice-president of Research (Innovation & Knowledge Mobilization), both from the University of Guelph; and Nancy Tout, chief scientific officer at the Global Institute for Food Security at the University of Saskatchewan.
“This is a unique and inspired approach to supporting knowledge to action,” stated Battersby.
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