Enabling Canada’s Bio Revolution in Natural Resources Management is Genome Canada’s latest mission-driven initiative designed to build the foundations for world-leading, data-driven natural resources systems and environmental resilience.
The National Resources Initiative aims to strengthen Canada’s ability to use genomics*, data science and artificial intelligence to support natural resources management, biodiversity protection and evidence-based decision-making. Through coordinated investments in research, data infrastructure and governance, the initiative will create a trusted, interoperable and responsibly governed natural resources genomics data ecosystem that supports environmental resilience, economic competitiveness and Indigenous data sovereignty.
This new opportunity seeks to:
- Improve natural resources monitoring, environmental resilience and regulatory decision-making.
- Build a coordinated, interoperable and responsibly governed natural resources genomics data ecosystem.
- Support the development and use of accessible genomic data resources, including a national genomics data hub.
- Advance the adoption of data standards, data sharing and interoperability to maximize the value and reuse of genomics data.
- Enable the development and application of AI-enabled tools to support analysis, forecasting and decision-making.
- Advance Indigenous data governance and sovereignty through Indigenous-led frameworks and partnerships.
- Strengthen Canada’s competitiveness, innovation capacity and leadership in natural resources genomics.
Background information on this initiative is available on the Genome Canada website.
The initiative is delivered through three integrated funding streams:
Stream 1: Driver Projects
Supports stand-alone, mission-driven, impact-focused research projects that generate high-quality genomics data and apply genomics to address challenges in natural resources sectors such as forestry, fisheries, mining and critical minerals, energy, freshwater systems and biodiversity.
Stream 2: National Genomics Data Hub
Supports the development of a national coordination and stewardship platform that enables data standardization, interoperability, discovery and AI-readiness across the initiative’s genomics datasets for long term impact.
Stream 3: Indigenous Data Governance Frameworks
Supports Indigenous-led development of distinctions-based governance frameworks, tools and resources that advance Indigenous data sovereignty and guide the responsible stewardship, access and use of genomics and environmental data.
*The term genomics is defined in this case as the comprehensive study of the genetic information of a cell or organism, including the function of specific genes, their interactions with each other and the activation and suppression of genes. For ease of reference, it includes related disciplines such as bioinformatics, epigenomics, metabolomics, metagenomics, proteomics and transcriptomics.
