July 30, 2024
Two SFU co-led genomics hubs will help the Canadian agriculture industry cut its carbon footprint and boost sustainable and resilient food systems, after receiving over $15.8 million in federal and partner funding.
Today, the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, the Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, announced $6.6 million in federal support for two new hubs—the Climate-Smart Data Collaboration Centre and the Agricultural Genomics in Action Centre—funded through Genome Canada. Provincial governments, businesses and research partners are also investing $9.2 million in co-funding to advance genomics-based agriculture and food system innovations.
Partnerships and investments play a key role in SFU’s success as a world leader in research, knowledge development and sustainability. SFU ranks among the top universities worldwide and first in Canada for its impact on climate action and sustainable cities and communities.
The hubs will enhance the impacts of nine interdisciplinary research projects within Genome Canada’s Climate-Smart Agriculture and Food Systems portfolio. These projects advance genomics solutions that help reduce the carbon footprint of Canadian agriculture and food production by supporting producers, resilient supply chains and a sustainable food system.
The Climate-Smart Data Collaboration Centre will bring together leading experts from across Canada to develop a decentralized data ecosystem, featuring frameworks for sharing data, open-source data processing toolkits, consensus-driven data governance structures that emphasize equitability and accessibility, and improved community data 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.
“Agriculture has always been a data-driven science,” says Hsiao. “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. This will foster innovation and collaboration for a more inclusive and food-secure future.”
The Agricultural Genomics in Action Centre aligns and coordinates knowledge mobilization strategies and activities to bridge the gap between knowledge generation and implementation. The hub will help make research findings relevant and accessible to end users to drive climate change impacts.
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,” says Battersby “Our team is excited to build a catalyzing and organizing platform to support transformative change.”
This article originally appeared on SFU.ca and is reposted with permission.
