Karine Morin, Director, National GE3LS Program, Genome Canada
Genome Canada has launched a Request for Applications for the 2014 Large-Scale Applied Research Project Competition: Genomics and Feeding the Future. The Competition will support research projects that will create new knowledge and inform public policy for Canada’s agri-food and fisheries & aquaculture sectors and contribute solutions that can help feed the world’s growing population.
The focus is on genomics and genomic-related technologies in the agri-food and fisheries & aquaculture sectors, which can play a strong role in boosting food production and international trade, raising nutritional value, reducing spoilage and ensuring food safety both in Canada and globally.
These scientific and technological advances can also bring about significant societal changes that require further investigation by social scientists and humanities scholars. Therefore, Genome Canada will continue to provide support to GE3LS Research , which can be conducted in two forms:
- Large-scale GE3LS research projects: These investigate in a comprehensive, innovative and interdisciplinary manner pressing national and/or international factors affecting genomics advances within the agri-food and fisheries/aquaculture sectors. Project outputs should be of a scope and depth to make a significant contribution to the potential uptake of genomic applications, while also making significant theoretical and/or methodological contributions to the study of genomics science, technology and innovation. It is expected that large-scale GE3LS research projects will demonstrate active engagement with the genomics scientific community and/or potential end-user communities in the planning of the research as well as its conduct, and that their findings hold a reasonable potential of contributing to, or affecting change in, practices or policies within these communities.
- Integrated GE3LS research: The overarching objective of integrated GE3LS research is to investigate the relevant factors affecting the advancement of the genomics research in a project and to support a collaboration between genomic scientists and GE3LS researchers. Integrated GE3LS research should be closely related to the overall project’s objectives, deliverables and potential social and/or economic benefits. The scope should be more targeted than in large-scale GE3LS research, but the depth of the investigation must be sufficient to provide findings that can be applied to the project, as well as the broader sector. Moreover, the nature of the research outputs should have the potential to assist in the likely successful uptake of the project’s deliverables.
For more information: Request for Applications